Native Hawaiians are the most under-reported ethnic group in the United States, but the Census Bureau is laying the groundwork for what officials hope will be a more accurate count in 2010.

The under-reporting is probably due to the reluctance by some residents to fill out government forms and Native Hawaiians being absorbed into broader categories, such as "Asian" and "other Pacific Islanders."

To address those issues, the Census Bureau will, for the first time, place an office in Wai'anae, and will staff it as much as possible with residents from the Wai'anae Coast and West O'ahu.

Officials hope that will go a long way toward getting a better reading of Wai'anae Coast residents. The area — home of the largest population of people with more than 50 percent Hawaiian blood — has been one of the most difficult locations in the state to conduct the official population count done every decade.

Other hard-to-survey areas have been the Big Island and Moloka'i.

Statewide, just six of every 10 census questionnaires issued were returned in 2000. Only two states — Alaska and South Carolina — had lower return rates.

The census survey counts as Native Hawaiian every person who considers herself or himself to be of that ethnic heritage, regardless of their percentage of Hawaiian blood, said Momi Fernandez, director of the Hawai'i Census Information Center.

A decade ago, nearly 240,000 people in Hawai'i identified themselves as Native Hawaiian in the nation's official population count, but the Census Bureau believes the actual number could be far greater.

"That's because there are plenty of uninformed people that participated in the census survey in 2000 that missed their opportunity to mark off Native Hawaiian," said Fernandez. "Others, within the last 10 years, have found out that they have Native Hawaiian blood.

"That's any drop of Native Hawaiian blood. There's no application for quantum whatsoever. It's purely self-identification. And it doesn't matter how much. You're free to answer the race question any way you want."

An accurate count helps assure that Hawai'i gets its fair share of federal money, dictates government representation and more, said Wanda Liloa Hanson, a regional technician for the Census Bureau.

'BITTER TASTE'

Hanson, who is Native Hawaiian, understands why some residents on the Wai'anae Coast might be reluctant to answer a government survey.

"Hawaiians have a bitter taste in their mouth," she said. "They have an aversion to government because of the overthrow of the monarchy. And that wound has not healed for many people. It's a deep hurt."

After a pause she added, "Once we accepted statehood we accepted to be governed by the United States. Our Hawaiians need to stand up and be recognized. They need to be counted."

Hanson is on a mission to see to it that Hawaiians get a proper head count this time around. In May she was at the WorkForce job fair recruiting dozens of Wai'anae residents to apply for a half-dozen management jobs at the new facility. In July, the bureau signed a lease on office property near City Mill in the Wai'anae Mall.

Recently, crews began installing furniture at that office, which is expected to open in late September or early October. In the meantime the bureau will be hiring some 150 people to operate the facility, and up to 1,500 field workers to do follow-up survey work.

Their assignment will be enhanced by the fact that the 10-question census form is one of the shortest since the Census Bureau began in 1790.

In March, Census 2010 workers will mail questionnaires to individual households. April 1, 2010, is Census Day, meaning that survey responses should reflect the household as it exists on that day.

Bureau workers know that some residents are apprehensive about the forms, fearing that information provided could be seen by others or somehow used against them. Hanson reminds folks that the bureau goes to great lengths to secure and protect data. It is also a violation of federal law for the bureau to share an individual's questionnaire responses with any person, law enforcement office or other federal agency.

While the Honolulu Census Bureau office on Fort Street will cover Honolulu and East O'ahu, the West O'ahu office in Wai'anae will cover the western half of the island as well as the Neighbor Islands. Workers surveying Neighbor Islands will be selected from their various island communities.

WAI'ANAE CHOSEN

Hanson said initially there was resistance to putting the second census office in Wai'anae because it was thought that Kapolei — the Second City — seemed a more logical location, she said.

"But being visible in Wai'anae, we hope, will create an awareness," she said. "And, we also wanted to give people there, in this declining economy, an opportunity to come and work for the government."

Wai'anae resident and Hawaiian activist William Aila believes that having a majority of the census takers come from Nanakuli, Ma'ili, Wai'anae and Makaha will go a long way toward assuring that more residents will accept the census concept.

"The project will be effective if they have Native Hawaiians and residents of the community doing the work," he said. "They understand the culture. They know the people and how to find them."

Census data is used to determine the need in any given location for everything from a single streetlight to such things as hospitals, schools, senior centers or libraries. Each year some $300 billion is allocated to states and communities based in part on Census figures. The data is used to decide representation in Congress and state and local governments.

"Participation in Census 2010 is very important because political representation and funding mechanisms for health, education and welfare are all based on data," added Fernandez.

A study conducted by the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement two years ago identified about $70 million aimed at Native Hawaiian programs in the state that was based in part on census data.

Hanson believes that if Native Hawaiians continue to be under-counted, it could mean more than the loss of disaster service or health care funds for their communities. It could eventually lead to the ethnicity itself being lost in time — forgotten and absorbed by the mainstream.

Over time, Native Hawaiians could lose more of their ethnic rights as an indigenous group, she said.

"The outcome of Census 2010 will impact 10 more years of our lifetime," she said. "This is money that is due us just for living and residing in the state of Hawai'i. We need to do this to get our fair share."