American Samoa

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American Samoa is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of the independent state of Samoa. It is east of the International Date Line, while Samoa is west of the Line. The total land area is 199 square kilometers (76.8 sq mi), slightly more than Washington, D.C. American Samoa is the southernmost territory of the United States and one of two U.S. territories south of the Equator, along with the uninhabited Jarvis Island. Tuna products are the main exports, and the main trading partner is the rest of the United States.
**American Samoa** consists of five main islands and two coral atolls. The largest and most populous island is Tutuila, with the Manuʻa Islands, Rose Atoll and Swains Island also included in the territory. All islands except for Swains Island are part of the Samoan Islands, west of the Cook Islands, north of Tonga, and some 500 kilometres (310 mi) south of Tokelau. To the west are the islands of the Wallis and Futuna group. As of 2021, the population of American Samoa is approximately 46,366 people. Most American Samoans are bilingual and can speak English and Samoan fluently.
American Samoa has been a member of the Pacific Community since 1983. American Samoa is noted for having the highest rate of military enlistment of any U.S. state or territory. As of September 9, 2014, the local U.S. Army recruiting station in Pago Pago was ranked first in production out of the 885 Army recruiting stations and centers under the United States Army Recruiting Command.
American Samoa is the only major territory of the United States in which citizenship is not granted at birth, and people born there are considered "non-citizen nationals".

## Administrative Divisions

* Hide
* Districts
* Unorganized Atolls

* Western
* Eastern
* Manua

- Swains Island

- Rose Atoll

## History

Traditional oral literature of Samoa and Manuʻa talks of a widespread Polynesian network or confederacy (or "empire") that was prehistorically ruled by the successive Tui Manuʻa dynasties. Manuan genealogies and religious oral literature also suggest that the Tui Manuʻa had long been one of the most prestigious and powerful paramounts of Samoa. Oral history suggests that the Tui Manuʻa kings governed a confederacy of far-flung islands which included Fiji, Tonga as well as smaller western Pacific chiefdoms and Polynesian outliers such as Uvea, Futuna, Tokelau, and Tuvalu. Commerce and exchange routes between the western Polynesian societies is well documented and it is speculated that the Tui Manuʻa dynasty grew through its success in obtaining control over the oceanic trade of currency goods such as finely woven ceremonial mats, whale ivory "tabua", obsidian and basalt tools, chiefly red feathers, and seashells reserved for royalty (such as polished nautilus and the egg cowry).

### 18th Century

Contact with Europeans began in the early 18th century. Dutchman Jacob Roggeveen was the first known European to sight the Samoan Islands in 1722, calling them the "Baumann Islands" after one of his captains. The next explorer to visit the islands was Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, who named them the "Îles des Navigateurs" in 1768. British explorer James Cook recorded the island names in 1773, but never visited.
The 1789 visit by La Pérouse ended in an attack, on a Tutuila water collection expedition, resulting in the death of his second in command Capt. de Langle and several of his crew. La Pérouse named the island "Massacre Island", and the bay near Aasu is still called "Massacre Bay".

HMS Pandora, under the command Admiral Edward Edwards (Royal Navy officer), visited the island in 1791 during its search for the H.M.S. Bounty mutineers. Von Kotzebue visited in 1824.

### 19th Century

Mission work in the Samoas had begun in late 1830 when John Williams of the London Missionary Society arrived from the Cook Islands and Tahiti. By the late nineteenth century, French, British, German, and American vessels routinely stopped at Samoa, as they valued Pago Pago Harbor as a refueling station for coal-fired shipping and whaling.
The US Exploring Expedition visited the islands in 1839.

In March 1889, an Imperial German naval force entered a village on Samoa, and in doing so destroyed some American property. Three American warships then entered the Apia harbor and prepared to engage the three German warships found there. Before any shots were fired, a typhoon wrecked both the American and German ships. A compulsory armistice was then called because of the lack of any warships

### 20th Century

At the turn of the 20th century, international rivalries in the latter half of the century were settled by the 1899 Tripartite Convention in which Germany and the United States partitioned the Samoan Islands into two, the eastern island group became a territory of the United States (Tutuila in 1900 and officially Manuʻa in 1904) and is today known as **American Samoa** the western islands, by far the greater landmass, became known as German Samoa, after Britain gave up all claims to Samoa and in return accepted the termination of German rights in Tonga and certain areas in the Solomon Islands and West Africa. Forerunners to the Tripartite Convention of 1899 were the Washington Conference of 1887, the Treaty of Berlin of 1889 and the Anglo-German Agreement on Samoa of 1899.

### American Colonization

The following year, the US formally annexed its portion, a smaller group of eastern islands, one of which contains the noted harbor of Pago Pago. After the United States Navy took possession of eastern Samoa for the United States government, the existing coaling station at Pago Pago Bay was expanded into a full naval station, known as United States Naval Station Tutuila and commanded by a commandant. The Navy secured a Deed of Cession of Tutuila in 1900 and a Deed of Cession of Manuʻa in 1904 on behalf of the US government. The last sovereign of Manuʻa, the Tui Manuʻa Elisala, signed 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. The territory became known as the US Naval Station Tutuila.

On July 17, 1911, the US Naval Station Tutuila, which was composed of Tutuila, Aunuʻu and Manuʻa, was officially renamed American Samoa. People of Manuʻa had been unhappy since they were left out of the name "Naval Station Tutuila". In May 1911, Governor William Michael Crose authored a letter to the Secretary of the Navy conveying the sentiments of Manuʻa. The department responded that the people should choose a name for their new territory. The traditional leaders chose “American Samoa”, and, on July 7, 1911, the solicitor general of the Navy authorized the governor to proclaim it as the name for the new territory.

### World War I and 1918

In 1918, during the final stages of World War I, the flu pandemic had taken its toll, spreading rapidly from country to country. American Samoa became one of the only places in the world (the others being New Caledonia and Marajó island in Brazil) to have proactively prevented any deaths during the pandemic through the quick response from Governor John Martin Poyer after hearing news reports of the outbreak on the radio and requesting quarantine ships from the US mainland. The result of Poyer's quick actions earned him the Navy Cross from the U.S. Navy. With this distinction, American Samoans regarded Poyer as their hero for what he had done to prevent the deadly disease. The neighboring New Zealand territory at the time, Western Samoa, suffered the most of all Pacific islands, with 90% of the population infected; 30% of adult men, 22% of adult women and 10% of children died. Poyer offered assistance to help his New Zealand counterparts, but was refused by the administrator of Western Samoa, Robert Logan, who became outraged after witnessing the number of quarantine ships surrounding American Samoa. Angered by this, Logan cut off communications with his American counterparts.

### The Mau Movement

After World War I, during the time of the Mau movement in Western Samoa (then a League of Nations mandate governed by New Zealand), there was a corresponding American Samoa Mau movement led by Samuelu Ripley, a World War I veteran who was from Leone village, Tutuila. After meetings in the United States mainland, he was prevented from disembarking from the ship that brought him home to **American Samoa** and was not allowed to return because the American Samoa Mau movement was suppressed by the US Navy. In 1930 the U.S. Congress sent a committee to investigate the status of American Samoa, led by Americans who had a part in the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii.

### Swains Island Annexation

Swains Island, which had been included in the list of guano islands appertaining to the United States and bonded under the Guano Islands Act, was annexed in 1925 by Pub. Res. 68–75, following dissolution of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony by the United Kingdom.

### World War II

During World War II, US Marines stationed in Samoa outnumbered the local population and had a huge cultural influence. Young Samoan men from age 14 and above were combat trained by US military personnel. Samoans served in various capacities during World War II, including as combatants, medical personnel, code personnel, and ship repairmen.
In 1949, Organic Act 4500, a US Department of Interior–sponsored attempt to incorporate American Samoa, was introduced in Congress. It was ultimately defeated, primarily through the efforts of Samoan chiefs, led by Tuiasosopo Mariota. The efforts of these chiefs led to the creation of a territorial legislature, the American Samoa Fono, which meets in the village of Fagatogo. In 1950 the Department of the Interior began to administer the American Samoa.

### Until 1999

By 1956, the US Navy-appointed governor was replaced by Peter Tali Coleman, who was locally elected. Although technically considered "unorganized" since the US 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 US Territory of American Samoa is on the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories, a listing which is disputed by the territorial government officials, who do consider themselves to be self-governing.

American Samoa and Pago Pago International Airport had historic significance with the Apollo Program. The astronaut crews of Apollo 10, 12, 13, 14, and 17 were retrieved a few hundred miles from Pago Pago and transported by helicopter to the airport prior to being flown to Honolulu on C-141 Starlifter military aircraft.

While the two Samoas share language and ethnicity, their cultures have recently followed different paths, with American Samoans often emigrating to Hawaii and the US mainland, and adopting many US customs, such as the playing of American football and baseball. Samoans have tended to emigrate instead to New Zealand, whose influence has made the sports of rugby and cricket more popular in the western Samoan islands. Travel writer Paul Theroux noted that there were marked differences between the societies in Samoa and American Samoa.

### 21st Century

American Samoans have a high rate of service in the US Armed Forces. Because of economic hardship, military service has been seen as an opportunity in American Samoa and other U.S. Overseas territories. As of March 23, 2009, ten American Samoans had died in Iraq, and two had died in Afghanistan.

## Flag Information

### Coat of Arms

*Seal of American Samoa*

The flag of American Samoa is a flag consisting of a red-edged white triangle pointing towards the hoist charged with a bald eagle clutching a war club and fly-whisk, with dark blue upper and lower triangles. Adopted in April 1960 to replace the "Stars and Stripes" as the official flag of the territory, it has been the flag of the Territory of American Samoa since that year. The colors used epitomize the traditional colors of the United States and Samoa.
The bald eagle and the blue, white and red colors symbolize the country's ties to the United States. The eagle holds a staff and a war club, two traditional symbols of the Samoan chiefs.

## History

Before the first Europeans set foot on the islands in the 18th century, Samoa did not use any flags. They first utilized flags during the 1800s, although it is unclear which ones were flown due to partial documentation. The islands were contested by Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States at the turn of the century; the three countries resolved the dispute by dividing Samoa amongst themselves during the Tripartite Convention in 1899. As a result of an agreement with the high chiefs of the island of Tutuila, the United States took control over easternmost Samoa on April 17, 1900, and raised their flag that same day. It went on to be the only official flag of American Samoa until 1960.

In the mid-20th century, Samoans began to take a more active role in the local government. Consequently, deliberations began over a new territorial flag and the Samoans were invited to propose ideas. Local government leaders and the US Army Institute of Heraldry then designed the flag while incorporating these ideas into it. The flag was officially adopted April 17, 1960, sixty years to the day the U.S. first raised the American flag over Samoa.

The flag was raised for the first time on Flag Day, April 17, 1960. In the previous year, the flag's design had won the flag design competition at Samoana High School, designed by high school student Fareti Sotoa. A draft was sent to the US Army's Institute of Heraldry.

A copy of the flag, which was brought to the moon by astronauts on four Apollo missions from 1969 to 1971, is on display at the Jean P. Haydon Museum in Pago Pago.

## Design

The flag consists of a large white triangle, pointed towards the hoist, bordered in red and charged with an eagle, all on a blue field. The U.S. national bird holds a yellow uatogi (a war club) in its claws.

The colors and symbols of the flag carry cultural, political, and regional meanings. The red, white and blue represent the colors traditionally utilized by both the United States and Samoa. The bald eagle represents the US and features on the flag, although it does not live in American Samoa. It clutches two Samoan symbols, alluding to America's guardianship over American Samoa, as well as evoking the Great Seal of the United States. The symbols are a uatogi (a war club, epitomizing the government's power) and a fue (a fly-whisk, representing the wisdom of traditional Samoan leaders).

American Samoa holds a Flag Day celebration on April 17 each year.