Okay, I'll see your non sequitur and raise you an abundance of nonsense.
The reason shave ice couldn't be considered as "the national dessert" was Hawaii wasn't allowed to be a nation, by virtue of their subjugation as a territory and then as a subject state of the USA , rather than an independent nation.
Hawaii could be considered both an island chain and an archipelago.
The Higgins guy couldn't win something in 1959, if it hadn't occurred yet. Non sequitur.
Hawaii means place of the gods, probably due to Volcanic activity, and in much of the pronunciations of the various languages of the Pacific there was a break in the two i's at the end for instance Hawai'i. (Hawaiian) or Savai'i (Samoan) , Havai'i (Tahitian) etc. Politically changing the spelling or meanings of words is a feature of overreaching governments, but often subjects aren't the one who gets to decide the new meanings, the masters do that. For instance "tax" is a euphemism for theft, because it if were called theft, people might actually develop freedom ideas rather than complacently heralding government as a necessary construct.
Still winning.