The Pacific Insular Case of American S moa

This book is a researched study of land issues in American Smoa that analyzes the impact of U.S. colonialism and empire building in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Carefully tracing changes in land laws up to the present, this volume also draws on a careful examination of legal traditions, administrative decisions, court cases and rising tensions between indigenous customary land tenure practices in American Smoa and Western notions of individual private ownership. It also highlights how unusual the status of American Smoa is in its relationship with the U.S., namely as the only unincorporated and unorganized overseas territory, and aims to expand the U.S. empire-building scholarship to include and recognize American Smoa into the vernacular of Americanization projects.

Situates American Samoa's historical and political importance within the U.S. empire building of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries Expands the U.S. empire building scholarship to include and recognize American Samoa into the vernacular of Americanization projects Evidences Americanization patterns, inequitable power relations between Native Samoans and the military, intercultural incompetency by the military court system, and the impacts these issues have had to the cornerstones of the Native Samoan culture: communal lands and fa'amatai

Autorentext

Line-Noue Memea Kruse is Assistant Professor of Pacific History at University of Hawai'i at Hilo, US.

Inhalt

1. Introduction.- 2. Smoa and Traditional Land Tenure.- 3. American International Expansion.- 4. US Naval Administration of American Smoa.- 5. Ex Proprio Vigore and the Insular Cases.- 6. American Smoan Legal History: 1900-1941.- 7. Individually Owned Lands and Communal Land Tenure.- 8. Retention of Communal Lands.- 9. Legal and Political Futures for American Smoa.- 10. Conclusion.