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American Samoa - History

The Samoan islands were settled by Polynesians (probably from Tonga) about 1000 BC. About 1500 BC, people (probably from Southeast Asia) arrived in the Samoan Islands, after having navigated the Pacific Ocean in rafts. This astonishing achievement occurred at approximately the time of the Trojan War or the Exodus in Western history. Little is known about these people who were or were to become the Polynesians and who would populate the islands of the Central and Eastern Pacific from Hawaii to New Zealand and Samoa to Easter Island. It was not until 1973 that Samoan prehistory was dated back this far. In that year some pieces of clay pottery were discovered during a dredging project near Mulifanua in Western Samoa. These pottery shards were made from clay found in the same area. Radiocarbon dating revealed that the pottery was made in about 1200 BC.

This Lapita form of pottery is found throughout the Western Pacific, from New Guinea to Samoa. It is named after an area in New Caledonia where the pottery was first discovered. Some scientists believe that one group of people who made this type of pottery moved into the Pacific area about 4,000 years ago. Where they originated is not known, except that the pottery is similar to that found in Southeast Asia. By A.D. 400 the Lapita culture had evolved into a more recognizable Polynesian culture (Bellwood, 1978). However, the greatest feats of navigation ever undertaken by early man were yet to come. The Polynesians would now undertake expeditions to Eastern Polynesian (Tahiti, Hawaii, the Marquesas, Easter Island, and others).

Many scholars believe that by about 500AD Samoa had become the point of origin for voyagers who settled much of eastern Polynesia.

Early settlements in Eastern Polynesia begin to appear between AD 300 and 700. They were probably settled initially from Samoa or Tonga. This migration to Hawaii, Tahiti and other eastern islands was probably completed by AD 1100, after which isolation gave rise to different Polynesian cultures as they are known today.

The Dutch navigator Jacob Roggeveen sighted Samoa in 1722, and other European explorers, beachcombers, and traders followed in 1768 and 1787. However, it was not until 1831 that Westerners took up residence in the Samoan Islands, the beginning of modern or recorded history in Samoa.

The London Missionary Society sent its first representatives to the islands in the 1830s. More missionaries traveled to the islands as missionary influence spread to Tutuila and later the Manua Islands. In 1878 the United States signed a treaty for the establishment of a naval station in Pago Pago Harbor.

The Treaty of Berlin, in 1899, partitioned the Samoa Islands into two separate entities. Germany desired, and was granted, control over the islands on the western end of the archipelago. They had established coffee and coconut plantations and were shipping those products throughout Europe. The U.S. achieved the rights to Tutuila and Pago Pago Harbor, along with the eastern islands and atolls. Formal cession by the local chiefs came later.

In 1900 the U.S. Navy began to formally occupy Tutuila and Aunu’u on behalf of the United States. A full naval station was established. In April of that year a Deed of Cession was signed, and the American flag was officially raised over Tutuila on April 17, 1900. By 1904 the eastern islands had all been ceded to the United States, although the U.S. Congress did not formally accept the deeds of cession until Feb. 20, 1929 On July 17, 1911, the U.S. Naval Station, Tutuila, was officially renamed American Samoa.

Under the administration of the U.S. Navy (1900–51), American Samoa became a strategic naval base, but the Samoan leaders had little administrative power. During World War II, roads, medical facilities, administrative buildings and housing for the troops were built to accommodate the influx of military personnel and to move equipment around the island. Those roads and many of the structures are still in use today.

On July 1, 1951, administration of American Samoa was formally transferred to the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), and in 1956 DOI appointed American Samoa-born Peter Tali Coleman as the territory’s first Samoa governor of Samoan descent. The governor had full powers to administer the territory. The governor appointed political advisers and senior civil servants from the United States to help him. Coleman served in that capacity until 1961. He was followed by a series of governors appointed by DOI. In 1977, 17 years after leaving office as an appointed governor, Coleman became the first locally-elected governor in the territory. He was re-elected twice more, serving a total of 11 years as the popularly-elected chief executive.

The Samoans agitated for control of their country’s affairs, and in 1977 Peter Coleman, a Samoan, became the territory’s first elected governor. Since then all members of the territory’s Fono have been elected by the citizens. In 1981 American Samoans for the first time elected a nonvoting delegate to serve a two-year term in the U.S. House of Representatives.