page_title: Samoans
section_title: Migration
hierarchical_section_title: Samoans / Migration
context_page_description: Samoans or Samoan people are the indigenous Polynesian people of the Samoan Islands, an archipelago in Polynesia, who speak the Samoan language. The group's home islands are politically and geographically divided between the Independent State of Samoa and American Samoa, an unincorporated territory of the United States of America. Though divided by national border, the culture and language are the same.
  The Samoan people and culture form a vital link and stepping stone in the formation and spread of Polynesian culture, language and religion throughout Eastern Polynesia.
  Polynesian trade, religion, war, and colonialism are important markers within Polynesian culture that are almost certainly rooted in the Samoan culture. Samoa's colonial history, with the kingdom of Tonga, Fiji and French Polynesia form the basis of modern Polynesian culture.
context_section_description: Although the Samoan natives (Tagata Māo‘i) have long claimed to be the indigenous people of their islands — holding firm to the belief that Samoans were birthed from a tear in the heavens (Lagi, Lani) special creation in Samoa — it has been theorized by many linguists and anthropologists, based on linguistic commonalities as well as archaeological findings, that migrants from Maritime Southeast Asia arrived in the Samoan Islands approximately 3500 years ago, settling in what has come to be known as Polynesia further to the east.
  It is possible, as the natives suggest, that the Samoan Islands were settled some time before 1000 BC and that the original settlement predates the arrival of those to whom the pottery was culturally relevant. It is also generally a wide spread cultural belief throughout Samoa that the islands were the central base point for the beginning of the great voyages, the Polynesian expansion to the East and South.
  These stories and legends are recorded in print by European historians, anthropologists, archaeologists and still spoken of in contemporary times by Samoan high chiefs in their great speeches and decrees during kava ceremonies and chiefly/ royal ceremonies.
  The voyages still spoken of in ancient Polynesian chieftain oratory poetics (lauga) are called 'taeao'; a recalling of past histories and contacts within the Polynesian archipelago by Samoan oral high chiefs. These 'taeaos' include oral and written accounts of familial tribal/clan contacts with the neighboring islands of:
  Tokelau (New Zealand)
  Tuamotu (French Polynesia)
  Huahine (French Polynesia)
  Tahiti (French Polynesia)
  Ha'apai (Tonga)
  Vava'u (Tonga)
  Rarotonga (Cook Islands)
  Pukapuka (Cook Islands)
  Tuvalu
  Havai'i (Hawaii)
  Futuna (France)
  Uvea (France)
  Rotuma (Fiji)
  Viti Levu (Fiji)
  Early contact with Europeans was established in the 18th century. Christianity was formally introduced with the arrival of L.M.S. Christian missionaries in August 1830.
  During the early 20th century the Samoan Islands were colonized by Germany, Great Britain and the USA. Tutuila and Aunu'u islands were settled by the USA and later joined by the Kingdom of Manu'a (1904) to become the current Territory of American Samoa. The western islands became German Samoa. In 1914, New Zealand forces captured the islands from Germany, renaming them Western Samoa. Western Samoa regained its independence on January 1, 1962. In 1997 it formally changed its name to Samoa.
caption: Portrait of a Samoan man by Antonion Zeno Shindler
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