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American Samoa

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Geography of Oceania
(Australasia)

                                                    CAPTION: Amerika Samoa
                                                            American Samoa


                                 Flag of American Samoa American Samoa COA
                                         ( Flag)              ( Seal)

           National motto: Samoa, Muamua Le Atua (Samoa, Let God Be First)
                                           Image:LocationAmericanSamoa.png
                                        Official languages English, Samoan
                                                          Capital Fagatogo
                                              Head of State George W. Bush
                                                 Governor Togiola Tulafono
                                                                      Area
                                                                   - Total
                                                    - % water Ranked 212th
                                                   199 km² (77.3  sq. mi)
                                                                        0%
                                                                Population

                                                            - Total (2005)
                                                                 - Density
                                                              Ranked 204th

                                                                    64,869
                                                     353/km² (914/sq. mi)
                                                              Currency USD
                                                Time zone UTC -11 (no DST)
                                             National anthem Amerika Samoa
                                                          Internet TLD .as
                                                       Calling Code +1 684

     Fatu Rock (right) and Futi Rock (left), islets on the reef of Tutuila
                  at the entrance to Pago Pago Harbour (seen behind Fatu).

   American Samoa ( Samoan: Amerika Samoa or Samoa Amelika) is an
   unincorporated U.S. territory located in the south Pacific Ocean
   southeast of the sovereign state of Samoa. The main (largest and most
   populous) island is Tutuila, with the Manu'a Islands, Rose Atoll, and
   Swains Island also included in the territory. American Samoa is part of
   the Samoan Islands chain, located west of the Cook Islands, north of
   Tonga, and some 300 miles (500 km) south of Tokelau. To the west are
   the islands of the Wallis and Futuna group. The 2000 census showed a
   total population of 57,291 . The total land area is 200.22 km² (77.305
   sq mi).

   Wikimedia Atlas of American Samoa .

History

   Originally inhabited as early as 1000 BC, Samoa was not reached by
   European explorers until the 18th century.

   The pre-Western history of Eastern Samoa (now American Samoa) is
   inextricably bound with the history of Western Samoa (now independent
   Samoa). The Manu'a Islands of American Samoa has one of the oldest
   histories of Polynesia, in connection with the Tui Manua title,
   connected with the histories of the archipelagos of Fiji, Tonga, the
   Cook Islands, Tokelau and elsewhere in the Pacific, where Manu'a once
   had influence. During the Tongan occupation of Samoa, Manu'a was the
   only island group that remained independent because of the familial
   relationship between the Tui Manu'a and the Tui Tonga, who was decended
   from a former Tui Manu'a. The islands of Tutuila and Aunu'u were
   politically connected to 'Upolu island in what is now independent
   Samoa. It can be said that all the Samoa islands are politically
   connected today through the faamatai chiefly system and through family
   connections that are as strong as ever. This system of the faamatai and
   the customs of faasamoa originated with two of the most famous early
   chiefs of Samoa, who were both women and related, Nafanua and
   Salamasina.

   Early Western contact included a battle in the 18th century between
   French explorers and islanders in Tutuila, for which the Samoans were
   blamed in the West, giving them a reputation for ferocity. Early 19th
   century Rarotongan missionaries to the Samoa islands were followed by a
   group of Western missionaries led by John Williams of the
   Congregationalist London Missionary Society in the 1830's, officially
   bringing Christianity to Samoa. Less than a hundred years later, the
   Samoan Congregationalist Church became the first independent indigenous
   church of the South Pacific.

   International rivalries in the latter half of the 19th century were
   settled by an 1899 Treaty of Berlin in which Germany and the U.S.
   divided the Samoan archipelago. The U.S. formally occupied its
   portion—a smaller group of eastern islands with the noted harbour of
   Pago Pago—the following year. The western islands are now the
   independent state of Samoa.

   After the U.S. took possession of American Samoa, the U.S. Navy built a
   coaling station on Pago Pago Bay for its Pacific Squadron and appointed
   a local Secretary. The navy secured a Deed of Cession of Tutuila in
   1900 and a Deed of Cession of Manuʻa in 1904. The last sovereign of
   Manuʻa, the Tui Manuʻa Elisala, was forced to sign a Deed of Cession of
   Manuʻa following a series of US Naval trials, known as the "Trial of
   the Ipu", in Pago Pago, Taʻu, and aboard a Pacific Squadron gunboat.

   After World War I, during the time of the Mau movement in Western Samoa
   (then a New Zealand protectorate), there was a corresponding American
   Samoa Mau movement, led by Samuel Sailele Ripley, who was from Leone
   village and was a WWI war veteran. After meetings in America, he was
   prevented from disembarking from the ship that brought him home to
   American Samoa and was not allowed to return. The American Samoa Mau
   movement having been suppressed by the US Navy, in 1930 the US Congress
   sent a committee to investigate the status of American Samoa, led by
   Americans who had had a part in the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom.

   During World War II, U.S. Marines in American Samoa outnumbered the
   local population, having a huge cultural influence. Young Samoan men
   from the age of 14 and above were combat trained by US military
   personnel. As in WWI, American Samoans served in WWII as combatants,
   medical personnel, code personnel, ship repairs, etc.

   After the war, Organic Act 4500, a U.S. Department of
   Interior-sponsored attempt to incorporate American Samoa, was defeated
   in Congress, primarily through the efforts of American Samoan chiefs,
   led by Tuiasosopo Mariota. These chiefs' efforts led to the creation of
   a local legislature, the American Samoa Fono which meets in the village
   of Fagatogo, the territory's de facto and de jure capital. (See the
   Capital City section below for more information on Fagatogo.)

   In time, the Navy-appointed governor was replaced by a locally elected
   one. Although technically considered "unorganized" in that the U.S.
   Congress has not passed an Organic Act for the territory, American
   Samoa is self-governing under a constitution that became effective on
   July 1, 1967. The U.S. Territory of American Samoa is on the United
   Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories, a listing which is
   disputed by territorial government officials.

   Employment on the island basically falls into three relatively
   equally-sized categories of approximately 5,000 workers each: the
   public sector, the two tuna canneries, and the rest of the private
   sector. There are only a few federal employees in American Samoa and no
   active military personnel (there is an Army Reserve unit, however); the
   overwhelming majority of public sector employees work for the American
   Samoa Government. The two tuna canneries ( StarKist and Samoa Packing)
   export several hundred million dollars worth of canned tuna to the
   United States.

Politics

   Politics of American Samoa takes place in a framework of a presidential
   representative democratic dependency, whereby the Governor is the head
   of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system. American Samoa is
   an unincorporated and unorganized territory of the United States,
   administered by the Office of Insular Affairs, U.S. Department of the
   Interior. Its constitution was ratified 1966 and came into effect 1967.
   Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is
   vested in the two chambers of the legislature. The American political
   parties (Republican and Democrats) exist in American Samoa, but few
   politicians are aligned with the parties. The Judiciary is independent
   of the executive and the legislature.

   There is also the traditional village politics of the Samoa Islands,
   the "fa'amatai" and the "fa'asamoa", which continues in American Samoa
   and in independent Samoa, and which interacts across these current
   boundaries. The Fa'asamoa is the language and customs, and the
   Fa'amatai the protocols of the "fono" (council) and the chiefly system.
   The Fa'amatai and the Fono take place at all levels of the Samoan body
   politic, from the family, to the village, to the region, to national
   matters. The "matai" (chiefs) are elected by consensus within the fono
   of the extended family and village(s) concerned. The matai and the fono
   (which is itself made of matai) decide on distribution of family
   exchanges and tenancy of communal lands. The majority of lands in
   American Samoa and independent Samoa are communal. A matai can
   represent a small family group or a great extended family that reaches
   across islands, and to both American Samoa and independent Samoa.

Capital city

   Although many respected reference sources list the neighboring village
   Pago Pago of as the capital, Fagatogo is the de facto and de jure
   (i.e., constitutionally designated; cf. Article 5, Section 9) seat of
   government. Additionally, the governor's office is located in the
   village of Utulei, located on the opposite side of Fagatogo from Pago
   Pago. The reason why many sources list Pago Pago is because the name
   Pago Pago, the most popular port of call in American Samoa, has become
   associated with the harbor itself; thus Pago Pago is now generally
   applied to the harbour area and the capital. However, both the port
   itself and the legislature of American Samoa—known as the Fono—are
   located in Fagatogo, a village that is adjacent to (and for all
   practical purposes indistinguishable from) Pago Pago. (Cf. Wikipedia
   entry for Pago Pago.)

Nationality

   Persons born in American Samoa are United States nationals, but not
   United States citizens. Such status is only conferred on persons born
   in the districts of American Samoa and Swains Island, but not to
   persons born in unorganized atolls.

Administrative divisions

   American Samoa is administratively divided into 3 districts and 2
   "unorganized" atolls.

   The districts and unorganized atolls are subdivided into 66 villages.

Geography

Economy

Demographics

Education

   Public schools in American Samoa are operated by the American Samoa
   Department of Education .

Culture

   The culture in American Samoa is basically the same as in Western
   Samoa(Upolu). There are no major differences in culture between the
   two, save for the people themselves. (see Samoa)

Sports

   About 30 ethnic Samoans, many from American Samoa, currently play in
   the National Football League. A 2002 article from ESPN estimated that a
   Samoan male (either an American Samoan, or a Samoan living in the 50
   United States) is 40 times more likely to play in the NFL than a
   non-Samoan American. A number have also ventured into professional
   wrestling (see especially Anoa'i wrestling family).

   The bloodsport of dog fighting is legal in American Samoa.

The Origin of Samoa

   The origin of Samoa, according to the stories told by the chiefs, is
   that Samoan people are actually from an unknown land call "Saviki"
   (which most people believe is Savaii.) According to the Samoan old
   belief that everyone in the Polynesian area are from savaiki, which is
   in Savaii. This is in accord with folk stories from other cultures in
   the Polynesian area: The Tongans believed that Tongan people are from
   Hauaiki, Māori people believe that they are from "Hawaiki". Hawaiians
   believed that they are from Hawaii. It was originally believed that all
   Polynesians migrated from Hawaii, but DNA analysis indicates that these
   cultures are closely related to Samoans. It is thought that following
   migrations from Samoa led northward(to Hawaii), southward (to Māori
   settlements), eastward (to Fiji) and westward (to Tonga).

Trivia

     * American Samoa is the location of Rose Atoll, the southernmost
       point in the territory of the United States; see extreme points of
       the United States.
     * In March of 1889, a German naval force shelled a village in Samoa,
       and by doing so destroyed some American property. Three American
       warships then entered the Samoan harbour and were prepared to fire
       on the three German warships found there. Before guns were fired, a
       typhoon sank both the American and German ships. A compulsory
       armistice was called because of the lack of warships.
     * In 1938, famous aviator Ed Musick and his crew died on the Pan
       American World Airways S-42 Samoan Clipper over Pago Pago, on a
       survey flight to Auckland, New Zealand. Sometime after take-off the
       aircraft experienced trouble and Musick turned it back toward Pago
       Pago. As the crew began dumping fuel in preparation for an
       emergency landing a spark in the fuel pump caused an explosion that
       tore the aircraft apart in mid-air.
     * Samoans are generally modest and tend to cover up much of the body,
       even while swimming.
     * The pronunciation of "Pago Pago" is pango pango.

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Samoa"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
