American Samoa (America's Forgotten Colonies, Part 1/3)

love me for young fossil sucio time oh yeah i'll my my my my my my name is Richard Taylor I'm the producer of this film by La Mancha Media America's forgotten colonies and we have visited on this trip American Samoa Guam and Saipan and we've learned a lot about the Samoans on Samoa the CH Amoros on Guam and the CH Amoros and Carolinians here on Saipan it's really been a fascinating journey to learn about at what we call America's forgotten colonies American Samoa is a series of small islands in the South Pacific Ocean an unincorporated territory of the United States its residents are not US citizens but US Nationals Samoans have inhabited the islands for 3,000 years Europeans discovered the islands in the 18th century but stayed away as the indigenous were known for being savage and more like by the late 19th century European and American vessels routinely stopped in the islands for provisions leading up to 1900 when you had all the superpowers trying to state their claim in the Pacific you have the Germans you have the Britain Great Britain the British yea the Americans and then you had the French so everybody was here trying to you know claim the islands for themselves and in 1900 the US was granted American Samoa as a colony today this term is associated with imperialism therefore the softer term territory is used during this time it was fashionable for European countries to increase their reach worldwide by acquiring colonies the US followed this fashion mostly for geopolitical reasons yeah on April 17th and 1900 so that is a hundred and seventeen years ago the first American flag was raised and we officially ceded the territory or at least to - wila over to the US it immediately began building a naval station which in hindsight was critical as a refueling base in world war ii in its fight against japan this is what my Uncle Sam wanted these islands as opposed to independent tsommo islands because of the harbor right here the US military's massive presence influenced the local Samoans the two cultures both being warlike began growing symbiotically when the Marines came to town and around the war they they basically built out yeah along the World War Two Heritage Trail which starts here the back of the tramway site and ends at blunts point there are several World War two artifacts today American Samoa yields the highest rate of military enlistment of any US state or territory but then there's also this you know belief of a lot of people that you know our warrior culture it's still you know within us and if you meet some of these guys you know they're they're some of the toughest soldiers you'll ever meet and I think part of our culture develops that mentality that that is I guess well-suited for military service that's how I got off the island after graduation I joined the Navy and that was my outfit that's where I was stationed you know for four years down a 32nd Street yeah and then I got out went to college and did the career thing and made my way back by it's status has an unincorporated and unorganized territory it's a sort of social experiment for the u.s. we're not all constitutional provisions apply therefore it is allowed to hold on to some of its ancient traditions like the mitai system where unelected nonpartisan Chiefs of its villages hold cultural and legal sway more over private land ownership laws do not apply here which prevent outside corporations from buying property and putting up big brand hotels and restaurants my opinion the mitai system is part of why the Samoans have held on to our culture for as long as we have I remember the Samoan Islands were initially settled 3,000 years ago and so are our history is is long and deep and when you compare us to other cultures you know wherever you're looking at throughout the world you know you can see huge portions of cultures falling away you know the Samoan culture still really held on too tightly a lot of people will will point to for example what happened in Hawaii with losing your land rights and losing the culture and losing the language and all of that I you know I think a lot of the somme one people from generations before ours who saw that happening and are fearful of that occurring to us and so yeah that's star kiss so they aside from the government they're the second largest employer on island and that plant starkest plant is their largest production plant in the world they produced the most tuna from what I understand in one facility they go out and they search for schools of tuna and then they deploy the net and they scoop the tuna yeah the nets are key to being able to get the quantity of the raw material necessary to can all that tuna you see at Walmart and you know all the other stores where Starkist is at it's an ongoing struggle for us to make sure that starkest stays here because if they leave and you know they may end up leaving depending on you know how how things play out over the next five years like minimum wage and that sort of thing so what's the problem with the minimum wage is it lower here than the federal it is which is part of the reason why they can operate profitably here when it especially when you compare them to operations yeah in Southeast Asia you know in those areas but the fair Minimum Wage Act that was passed by Congress you know applies here as well and we've been able to lobby to postpone the increases but at the end of the day we've we have to comply unless something changes and raise our minimum wage so that it matches the federal level we just experienced a 40 cent hike last year the one part of that resulted in the direct closure of the second cannery you know to over 2,000 people were unemployed displaced as a result of that unemployment and other factors have led to an obesity and diabetes epidemic on american samoa michael owns a fitness and rowing club on the island my wife and I own South Pacific water sports and fitness here in American Samoa the goal of our business is to offer our community a resource to really fight back against obesity and some of the diseases attached to it and we offer a variety of exercise programs training programs including out warrior canoe paddling you know we've forgotten you know that we are from the ocean we're from a navigating people and so this is a huge connection to who we are and our past this is follow my my other half the brains behind the business for you Richard and David so first and foremost the opportunity to share water sports you know that that was the first goal and so with that in mind you know we had this also this space and we thought you know what we really want to do more than just that you know there's you know you have so many people families relatives friends who have diabetes or so obese I mean even my own relatives and and that's really scary a lot of people who people who are bigger who are uncomfortable with going to the gym don't know what to do and so I wanted an opportunity to share with them and teach them so that they could learn how to do exercises learn how to take better care of their their bodies to be more fit it's it's a little bit both helping people who already have diabetes and those that are on the borderline as well and those people who just really just want to learn and lose weight you know learn how to be more fit reduce weight so that's for me that's it and I'm really happy that we've definitely helped a lot of people put people and people who need more guidance and I'm proud of what we do well this uh this practice is fungi to a high school fungi too high school is one of the powerhouses here on island and they're always competing for the championship year in and year out they've produced a lot of great athletes a lot of good football players have made it into the college ranks and even to the NFL I saw it in Sports Illustrated your chances of making it to the NFL if you're Samoan are from South American Samoa are five or six times greater than anywhere else something like that and it's just a per capita sort of stack you know I know jr. was born in California but his parents were from here the sail family is still here and you know being sama and myself and having spent twenty years in San Diego and unfortunately being a big charger fan you know junior was huge in when he when he passed that was a big loss for the community of San Diego and yeah the football community and NFL community as well but also for the Samoan community in general he was V when he spoke of Psalm one football it was junior you know he was he was the the face of a man number 55 I met him because he had a restaurant in San Diego saya right right right right there in Mission Valley a non-profit event I never forget I don't know somehow I got introduced and he asked me what I did well it's a long time ago said well I just moved out to California a year ago I was in the air-conditioning business yeah he looks and he goes Richard tell me about the air conditioning for thousands of years Samoans were isolated from the rest of the world one of their earliest and most traumatic encounters with the outside world came in 1787 when an expedition led by the French explorer Leppa roofs came ashore near the village of a Sioux which was located at the end of a v-shaped Bay today the village of a Sioux no longer exists it's remnants only reachable by boat our guide was a Tonio yone a direct descendant of ruling Chiefs of the ancient village of Asuna as we neared all Sioux he pointed out that his ancestors used to hide and waiting for foreign invaders who they would then trap inside the bay at low tide and ambush when Leppa ruse arrived here he noticed the river flowing into the sea and decided to stop to obtain fresh water so when they came they came in a calling to my family they came in two boats this is the actual river that they saw and the they got their water the Samoan Chiefs came out to engage the French on the beach yet this first encounter was peaceful and the French were allowed to provision this peaceful encounter lowered the guard of the Samoans during a second visit by the French at the second engagement the Samoans decided in a spirit of friendship to allow their women and elders to meet the French on the beach according to the Samoans the French sailors desiring the women attempted to take them to their ship in the harbor at this the Samoans attacked the French killing 11 and wounding 20 leper ruse barely escaped naming at massacre Bay which title still holds today Otoniel then walked us to a memorial erected by the French for nearly 100 years following the massacre there was very little contact among the Samoans in the Europeans but by the late 19th century many Samoans had become Christian by way of missionary activity and in 1883 the French government was granted permission to erect a memorial for its downed explorers who the Samoans had respectfully buried here following the battle so during that period after the attack in 1787 the the Samoans not trust the Europeans any mess especially from here yeah it was it was very hard to do trust so it took another hundred years before yeah today the village of us who no longer exists as the jungle has taken it back however atonia was attempting to rehome stead the area for his family of our Sioux descendants this building I just start building this building just so we can have something to come back and dry because we was using tents I was born here in you know so this is uh this is why I grew up until I was 14 years old and I left for Hawaii finished my school and then I joined the military stay in the military for 33 years then retired the the area now and where I'm building houses actually old foundations from previous from my grandfather my father grandfather and their ancestors said coming back here was was was a decision made by my my siblings and the families they voted me in as to return and not only to care for the land but also for all our our graves and everything of the property how long you staying here us sometimes it I stay for up to a month you bring in all your food and yes and plus we already grow some are some some bananas pumpkins and some of that stuff is already on ground on our way back to civilization a school of dolphins met us a Tonio told us that the souls of his ancestors inhabit the dolphins and they show their approval and love by swimming alongside him protecting them before the missionaries arrived we do have that belief and it's you know to me as a historian I can call it see it's the traditional belief that we have that supernatural call which his name was sting alone basically some more back in the days there were so many cards it's a multi you know I can say each family almost each big families have their own cards even different districts so take for example example the district that I'm from we believe that the octopus is our God and whatever time we go out war with another district we always pray to the octopus to help us but we do believe that the supernatural card after someone's and is named Austin Allah and we do we do believe he stays somewhere in Manoa in the village of Vegeta and from there is though we call him in somewhat an Aloha to pollute that means he's the greater Tom alofa to poo I is the creator of our villages turn aloha fun to put another is the creator of a human man or a human being so we still have that belief even in nowadays we always believe that tomorrow was the supernatural God and I think that's the reason why it's easy for us someone to accept their coming of Christianity's because we already access to the word Topanga to the word religion to the word denomination because of the word thought with a small G and that that's the belief you know from the days until now a very young us anthropologist Margaret Mead came to American Samoa in the early 1900's to study young girls her book coming of age in Samoa explained that Island girls were free to engage in sexual activity without moral restriction much like Paul googans paintings in the Pacific during the same period her book was used by a generation to refute the idea of an intrinsic morality or modesty in nature however her book has been discredited by subsequent researchers now Margaret Mead you know I hear stories from my mom that what we're told to her by her mom about Margaret Meads visit to Manoa and my grandmother she's from to the island of to Oh in Manoa and the village of - and according to her she recalls seeing Margaret Mead there how long a lady of course as she described it to my mom and there's some controversy of course with whether or not Margaret Meads accounts of what took place in the village were true or not and according to my grandmother a lot of what had happened was the locals for a lack of a better description pulling her leg and so these stories that were told about you know the young women being free or promiscuous those were tall tales being told to her as opposed to her witnessing it firsthand and so you know the village jokesters who were whoever was in charge of you know the interpretation and giving her the tour apparently had a sense of humor that's the story according to my grandmother Margaret Mead was also one of the first to describe the village of Viton GAE the site of the most famous Samoan legend called the turtle in the Sharpe or Lou my mama lay the whole area over here we call it the children in the Sharpe area are now main means miss sanoviv are Bartley is the current caretaker her family has controlled the lands of the turtle in the shark for generations the legend according to miss Bartley is as follows there was once an old blind woman named fauna whale who had only her granddaughter to take care of her during a time of Great Famine fauna was very hungry one day some local village boys were cooking food and instead of giving fun away as some gave her a cooked rat as a jest fauna Waya was angered by this disrespect are you don't eat it because it's better when we're told her grandeur for my hand and we're gonna go all the way down to wait Tommy our village if I Tommy is the name our old village let's go all the way down to the ocean they own the world the granddaughter hold from with hand and then they put something in the water even from where when she was telling earlier we want a chubby she'd ever use the words in sight and then what they turn when we're turning to H a turtle and a young girl journey into a shock ever since tiny that's it yes get there there are several lessons of this story one being that Samoans should never disrespect the elderly and another that whoever is sick or blind needs to be cared for usually by the girls in the family even to such extremes as self-sacrifice someone cut culture whoever is sick oh I know what you know whatever there's always somebody to look after that person usually the younger to this day when the villagers of Viton gay sing the song of fauna Waya from the cliffs a turtle and shark come to the surface of the sea Wow made by a young fossil so CEO Tom oh yeah I live way funny boy why my tea no tea or laalili love a loved one in love me I buy love make up for a funny love me are fine hello lovely so far both ie or you an a or father to me then everybody should go like camera did not capture it one of our parties saw the turtle despite the severe serve are you serious you probably right yeah I know when it's rough like this she should always on the topicals like that like that Robert please he was looking for some later whatever as we were about to leave American Samoa on our way to Guam we were informed that Kim jong-un North Korea had threatened to attack Guam with a nuclear weapon

Channel: La Mancha Media

Views: 399,782

Rating: 4.7615986 out of 5

Keywords: american samoa

Id: 9vit2Myiwro

Length: 23min 11sec (1391 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 24 2017