The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1943-04-08
Natives OF
Samoa Are
Most Generous
Continued from mage y

Continued from page u
the average age from as to so
years
THE young people are striking
| in appearance, continued the SER
geant They are stalwart, virile and
finely formed. The men will av-
/ erage about feet 10 or IL inches
in height and about 100 pounds in
i weight. Their hair is long, black
and wavv and the men Keep it cut
quite short. In color they resemble
| the Mexican, or rather | would say,
they are very light mahogany col
or. Though striking in appearance
while young. they age rapidly and
begin TO grow fat and unshapely in
what we would term early middle
age. This is true of most tropical
natives.
Talking Chief
The patriarch rules the family"
said Sergeant Metzger, land sim
ilarly there is wise old man at
the head of each village. In every
village there is also what is termed
talking chief. These men have a
position of honor They are taken
when very small boys and constant
~ drilled in the history and tradi-
tons of their people Thus there
is handed down from generation to
generation the history of this peo-
pie and they have quite history.
They claim they came originally
from the islands TO the west and
settled the Samoan group Then
one time two prominent brothers
had a misunderstanding, SO one
brother gathered his clan and set
out for new lands, finally settling on
and populating the Hawaiian group.
That is their story of the migra-
tons of their people. The talking
chief not only knows the history of
the race but he also knows every
family's history. such as who is re-
lated to whom, etc, ETC. American
Samoa is divided into two districts,
with high talking chief over each.
If any matter is to be carried up to
the naval authorities, he is the one
who does it.
Npt "a w AAhk(u gAdAIH
The natives are intensely loyal
to the United States and seem more
concerned about the outcome of the
war than we do They also have a
deep hatred for the japanese.
There has been very little if
any blood mixture in the natives of
American Samoa and they are the
nearest to pure Polynesian that
can be found today. But fear that
will no longer be true after this
war
Our detachment of marines went
onto American Samoa in 1910 to
begin the building of Notifications.
Today would say it is impregna-
BILE as far as any island can be
made lmpregnable. We worked
there until in March, 1912, when
we were ordered onto British Sa-
moa under an agreement with the
British government. Later we re-
turned to u. S. Samoa. It was there
that | was under fire for the first
ana only time, when a Jap ship
fired % shells at the island, but
''As'i0as eaclii6 aiiAAll AdiIldEE.
1T might be interesting to know
that on u. S. Samoa there are from
5000 to 1000 natives. But on Brit
lsh Samoa, which is much larger,
there are about $4,000 natives. with
q total Polynesian population in
that region Of about $4,000.
Agriculture on our island does
not amount to much because it is
very mountainous, but British Sa-
moa has quite a commerce. Some
of its products are kapok, mate
rial used to line pillows and for
stuffing life preservers, some rub
Der is produced, great deal of
cocoa and bananas and there is
some copra expectation.
Saw Rickenbacker When Rescued
Another interesting experience
that came to Sergeant Metzger was
when the rescuers brought Rick
to the island after his and
his companions terrible ordeal of
III days at sea in a rubber raft.
Metgzer also saw Secretary of the
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.