Tutuila
Tutuila is the largest and most populous island of American Samoa and is part of the archipelago of the Samoan Islands. It is the third largest island in the Samoan Islands chain of the Central Pacific. It is located roughly northeast of Brisbane, Australia and lies over to the northeast of Fiji. It contains a large, natural harbor, Pago Pago Harbor, where Pago Pago, the capital of American Samoa, is situated. Pago Pago International Airport is also located on Tutuila. The island's land expanse is about 68% of the total land area of American Samoa. With 56,000 inhabitants, it is also home to 95% of the population of American Samoa. The island has six terrestrial and three marine ecosystems.
Tutuila has mountainous regions, the highest point of which is. The island is attractive to tourists because of its beaches, coral reefs, and World War II relics, as well as its suitability for sporting activities such as scuba diving, snorkeling, and hiking.
Etymology
It is said that the name Tutuila may have been given to the island by a woman named Salaia. She named the island after a combination of the names of her parents: Tutu and Ila. Another name for the island is based on the name of Salaia herself: 'o le motu o Salaia or motu sā.In June 1722, the Samoan Islands were first encountered by a European explorer, Jacob Roggeveen, who gave Tutuila the name Thienhoven Island. Louis Antoine de Bougainville named the island Manua or Maouna.
History
The Polynesians first reached Samoa around 1000 BC. By 600 BC, they had established a settlement on Tutuila at Tula. Over the centuries, the Samoans on Tutuila kept in contact with the inhabitants of the neighboring islands of Western Polynesia, Tonga, and Fiji.Tutuila served as a place of exile for warriors and chiefs who had been defeated in the wars that ravaged much of Upolu for centuries. It was also used as a place to which Upolu rulers banished political opponents.
Tongan rule
Around 1200 A.D., during the reign of Momo, the tenth Tuʻi Tonga, the Tongans invaded and occupied Tutuila and other Samoan Islands. Their rule lasted for nearly two centuries under five successive kings. Taʻū Island, however, claims to have been spared - an assertion not entirely implausible, as Manuka and its king held a place of honor in Tongan legend. Like most occupying powers, the Tongans soon became unpopular, and the Samoans came to believe that their divinely sanctioned leaders were destined to drive the invaders out. From this struggle emerged a new class of heroes, warriors whose successes in battle marked them as natural leaders for Samoa's eventual liberation.During the Tongan occupation, defeated warriors and political rivals were exiled to Pago Pago, whose surrounding settlements came to serve as a kind of penal colony. In time, resentment of foreign rule grew, and under the leadership of the paramount chief Malietoa, the Samoans rose in revolt against their Tongan rulers. Fau’au of Pago Pago emerged as leader of the local resistance and succeeded in expelling the Tongans from Tutuila.
European contact
In 1722, Jacob Roggeveen became the first European to visit the Manu'a islands, located on the eastern end of the Samoan island chain. In 1768, the explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville visited the islands of Samoa and dubbed them the "Navigator Islands," after the islanders' practice of navigating the nearby waters in canoes to catch tuna. European whalers and Protestant missionaries began to arrive in the Samoan Islands in the early 19th century, particularly in the 1830s. Two notable arrivals among them were John Williams of the London Missionary Society, and the French explorer Louis de Freycinet, who arrived in October 1819 and named Tutuila "Rose Island" in honor of his wife Rose de Freycinet. European traders and Samoan islanders chose to develop the Upolu Island village of Apia, rather than the Tutuila Island village of Pago Pago, as their trading station.However, in 1872, the US Navy recognized that Tutuila's Pago Pago Harbor would be the ideal place for a refueling station for the new San Francisco-to-Sydney steamship service, and negotiated a treaty with the inhabitants that would allow the harbor to be used for this purpose. Six years later, in 1878, the US Congress finally ratified this treaty, enabling it to be implemented. However, the US was not the only foreign government with an interest in Tutuila and other Samoan islands. Great Britain and Germany had been showing their interest since the 1860s. In 1879, with the Samoans having declared that they were open to dealing with all three countries, the United States, Great Britain, and Germany together formed a tripartite government over the islands.
In 1889, the three foreign governments held a conference in Berlin to discuss the political future of the islands and try to resolve their differences on that topic. The Americans expressed dissatisfaction with not having complete control of the islands. The countries' ongoing differences led to a proposal, in 1899, to apportion their control among different parts of the Samoan islands, with the eastern islands, including Tutuila and Aunu'u, forming American Samoa, and the western islands forming Western Samoa under European control. The Samoans signed off on this proposal in 1900, and the US flag was raised on Tutuila on April 17 of that year. However, the name "American Samoa" was not formally bestowed on the eastern islands until 1911, and the apportionment agreement was not formally ratified until 1929.
In February 1920, the Mau movement emerged to challenge the U.S. Naval Administration, and by the time Samuel Sailele Ripley returned home to Leone in July of that year, tensions had intensified, prompting him to align with the cause. The movement was suppressed by the U.S. government and Ripley was deported and barred from the island.
During World War II, Tutuila was a strategically important island for the US Marines. Led by Colonel Lester A. Dessez, they established a military base there and erected concrete bunkers along the island's coast. Despite the island's strategic importance, it escaped almost unscathed from the war, the only exception being an attack launched from a Japanese submarine on January 11, 1942. Since 1951, administration of Tutuila and the other islands of American Samoa has been the responsibility of the US Department of the Interior.
In 1956, Peter Tali Coleman became the first Samoan-born governor of American Samoa. In 1960, during his tenure, protections for the islanders were approved, including protection from confiscation of their lands and from loss of their cultural practices. After 1960, the Flag of American Samoa was made the country's official flag. In 1961, the US president, John F. Kennedy, appointed H. Rex Lee governor, and approved US expenditure of massive funds to develop Tutuila, which throughout the 1960s was used to finance the building of an international airport, seaport facilities, roads, schools, houses, a hospital, a tuna cannery, a modern hotel, and the installation of electricity throughout the country. in 1962, Western Samoa became independent of New Zealand, leading to uncertainty about whether the US would continue to have control of American Samoa. The massive US development efforts during the 1960s served to effectively solidify support for the continuation of Tutuila and the rest of American Samoa as a dependency of the United States.
In July 1997, Western Samoa changed that country's legal name to "Samoa." This name change was opposed by many Americans, including the inhabitants of American Samoa, who believed that using the unmodified word "Samoa" as the name for the country that comprised only the westernmost Samoan Islands would be confusing, and would undermine recognition of American Samoa as a distinct country with its own identity. Many American Samoans and other Americans who interact with the Samoan Islands still refer to Samoa informally as "Western Samoa," and to its inhabitants as "Western Samoans."
Today American Samoa is an unincorporated and unorganized territory of the US, under the administration of the US Interior Department's Office of Insular Affairs. American Samoa is primarily divided into two political districts: the Eastern District and the Western District.
Legends
A popular island legend holds that, when called to in a particular way, a shark and a turtle will appear near the shore. According to the legend, a long time ago, an old blind woman and her granddaughter, both suffering the pangs of starvation, jumped off a cliff in the village of Vaitogi and into the roiling ocean below. But instead of drowning, the old woman was transformed into a shark, and her granddaughter was transformed into a turtle. When the villagers utter a particular chant, the shark and the turtle promptly appear.Another Samoan legend concerns a species of bat, known as the flying fox, which is found in a forested area of Tutuila that is part of the National Park of American Samoa. This legend holds that the flying fox is the protector and guardian of the forest and its human inhabitants.
Geography
Tutuila lies in the Pacific Ocean, roughly northeast of Brisbane, Australia. The village of Fagatogo is situated northeast of Suva, Fiji. The island lies roughly north of Niue and roughly south of Tokelau and roughly southeast of the Samoan island of Upolu.Tutuila is a fairly small and narrow island, measuring roughly across and little more than from north to south at its widest point. The area of this volcanic island of early Pliocene age is with a shore line of. The hill range which runs from west to east is rugged and winding with the northern coast line having steep cliffs and unusual coast line. However, the southern part of the island has flatter terrain. Good beaches are located at many places along the coast. It has a wet tropical climate. The highest point in the Tutuila island is the Matafao Peak which is at an elevation of, which is highest peak in the island. There is trail opposite to the Mount ʻAlava peak which dominates the northern part of the island. This trail is approached by a metal stairway from the southern end which goes right up to the peak. Trekking along the ridge through the rain forests without any additional support system, the scenic beauty of the South Pacific Ocean provides a delightful sight.
File:Pola_Islands_Tutuila_NPS.jpg|thumb|Pola Island near Vatia
In the early 19th century, navigators passed through the Tutuila, the westward island among the Samoan group of Islands, when it was also known by the names of Bougainville, Manuo or Maouna. Midway between this islet and the rock the navigators sighted the Pago Pago harbor, which was marked by "a conical hill on its western side and a flat elliptical topped hill to the eastward." Leone village, large and prosperous, was sighted to the west of the island. To the south-east of the island is the Aunu'u islet.
The coastal road runs for a length of from Fagamalo in the northwest to Onenoao in the far northeast. Important towns and villages now developed in the island are as follows: the Tafuna Urban area, the largest urban area in the territory, encompasses a string of villages from 'Ili'ili to Tafuna proper; Fagatago, the largest town with government offices functioning from Utulei ; Pago Pago, the harbor town opposite to Fagatago; the Vatia village on the northern coast known for its famous beach and scenic setting, which is also a coral fringed bay; and Leone, a safe anchorage station in the past where the Europeans and Samoans first started their interaction in the early years of the island's history. The southwesternmost settlement is Taputimu, the westernmost settlements are Poloa and Amanave, the northernmost settlement is Vatia and the easternmost settlement is Tula.