Here's Where It Gets Interesting - American Samoa: The Southernmost U.S. Territory with Ashley Spivey

Episode Date: March 23, 2022

In this episode, Sharon talks with social activist Ashley Spivey about how American Samoa became a U.S. territory. While we all grew up learning facts about states in our history and government classes, U.S. territories are often left out of the conversation. Sharon talks about how American Samoa became of interest to the U.S., and how the South Pacific Ocean archipelago is represented in government. Of course, no Sharon Says So episode would be complete without a few fun facts, and Sharon has plenty to share about this tropical territory! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Dairy Farmers of Ontario, from our families to your table, everybody milk. Visit milk.org to learn more. Hello, hello, hello. Thank you for joining me today. Listen, people have questions about how did we end up with all these territories and protectorates? Are they U.S. citizens? Do they have representation in Congress? Like how did American Samoa even get to be American Samoa? So today I'm chatting with my friend Ashley Spivey and I'm going to tell you exactly how it came to be. So let's dive in. I'm Sharon McMahon and welcome to the Sharon Says So podcast. I'm so excited to have my friend Ashley here today. Thank you so much for doing this. I know we have been talking for a long time and people have been bugging me to have you on,

bugging you to come on. So yay, we're doing it. No, I was, I was honestly so honored whenever I got the email because people had been sending me messages asking if I was going to come on and I was like, tell people, just give people a little overview of what you do. Oh, wow. Okay. So this is kind of hard to explain, but I'm a nanny. I've been a nanny for, wow, over 15 years at this point.

I feel like I have a presence on social media because I was on a reality show called The Bachelor, but we can just forget about all that. I am barely memorable on the show. I have tried to use my platform to get people to read, to donate blood, to sign up for Be The Match. I also encourage people to do things like vote in local elections, sign up for be the match. I also encourage people to do things like vote in local elections, sign up to be an election worker. Yes. Just small actions that make a big difference. Just like donating blood one time can save three people's lives. It's a very, very easy, quick, tangible way to truly make a difference in somebody's life. Yeah. I mean, if saving a life,

is it making a difference in the world? Then what is truly right? Yes. And I also love that you have signed up to be an election worker. I think that is so fantastic. More people need to sign up to work in elections. Our pool of election workers tends to skew quite elderly at this point. And we need to be able to replace the people who are no longer able to do it. Our system depends on election workers that live in the community that they're serving. And I love that you do that. Yeah. I would also say, I encourage people, if you have any doubts about our election system or if all the rhetoric around like rigged elections is getting to you please sign up to be an election worker because I think it will actually restore your faith in our election system you'll see that it's actually very hard to rig an election

and it's also just really beautiful to watch people come in and vote for the first time and you get to see like their parents are so proud of them. Or, I mean, I've seen people who can barely walk and they make sure that they're there voting every single election. And I don't know, it's just, it'll restore your faith in our democracy. I love that so much. I love that. I think that's such a fantastic way to serve your community in a very meaningful and tangible way. I love that so much. And also it, I always think about the people that have gone before us, the men and women who have gone before us to secure our right to vote. The women who worked for truly decades so that I can literally waltz in to my polling place and be like, hello, Sharon McMahon. And they hand me a ballot and I

walk over to the booth and I fill it out and I leave. Right. And there's no, I don't even give a second thought to it of like, will they let me vote just to be able to walk in without a second thought and be able to cast my ballot. I think working at a local election is such a fantastic way to honor the legacy of the people that went before us to secure those rights for us. I completely agree. I love that you do that. for us to secure those rights for us. I completely agree. I love that you do that. Voting is so important. And I love that you encourage people to do, to be a part of their community in that way. So thank you for your service. Oh, in many ways. Today, I have a fun story for you. And I've spent 50 episodes talking about all of the states of America. We've done an episode on Washington, D.C. And now I want to talk about one of the territories of the United States, American Samoa. I'm very excited for this one. I feel very honored that it's me. very excited for this one. Like, I feel very honored that it's me.

Well, people I think are like, why do we have that? Why is that a territory? Why isn't it a state? How did we get to have that as a territory? I don't know anything about it. I know there's some NFL players who are from American Samoa, you know, maybe that's all that people know. So I want to give you a little bit of background about the history of American Samoa before it became American Samoa and then how it actually got to be what it is. First of all, American Samoa is extraordinarily remote. Okay. Very remote. Have you been to Hawaii? I have. Yes. Okay. So Hawaii is like a five hour flight from California. So you have to fly from like New York to California and then California to Hawaii. You think that's a long way. American Samoa is thousands of miles from Hawaii. So it would be even another four or five hour

flight from Hawaii to get to American Samoa. So that's how remote it is. So remote that very, very few U.S. presidents have ever even visited. That's how remote it is. That's so crazy to me. In fact, let me tell you, Lyndon Johnson is the tiny handful. He is the president that has visited. Do they feel kind of insulted that our presidents really never go there? I mean, I know I would feel a little pissed. Maybe. Yes. There have been two first ladies that have visited, Eleanor Roosevelt and Lady Bird Johnson. I assume Lady Bird went with Lyndon. I assume they went together. That's an assumption. And then there've been a number of vice presidents that have visited Dan Quayle, Joe Biden, and Mike Pence, but it's a very, very long way to go. And

it is, there's only about 50,000 people that live there. So it's not commonly visited. It also has one of the least visited national parks in the entire United States system in part because it is so incredibly remote. You know, the American Samoans enlist in the United States military at much higher rates than any other place in the United States. And there are currently 30 NFL players from American Samoa. NFL players from American Samoa. That's really crazy. I actually, I had a stat that if you're a male there, you are 40 to 56 times more likely to play in the NFL. Yes. Yes. There are over 200 American Samoans who play NCAA football, college football. Wow. Yes. That's funny. I love that you looked up a statistic of like, you are 40 times more likely to be in the NFL than you are in Wyoming. I thought it would be a cool stat to tell my husband. Yeah. Yes. So that is certainly not, however, what American Samoa is known for. It's just a fun

fact, like, wow, so remote, not particularly inhabited. It's a very small place. The main island, first of all, American Samoa is an archipelago of islands. There are also a couple of atoll islands that are actually just coral reefs that have grown to the surface of the ocean. And then those atolls usually form like a crescent shape or sometimes a circle around a lagoon in the center. But there's a small amount of land that you can walk on. Those islands are not inhabited, but the vast majority of American Samoans live on one island that is approximately the size of Washington, D.C. The city of Washington, D.C. has 750,000 people living in it. So you can imagine how much less crowded that is.

And this is a very, very lush tropical location. It is one of the only places that belongs to the United States that is south of the equator. So it certainly has that tropical vibe that you are envisioning when you think about South Pacific Island. You're actually making it sound really wonderful. And so it's important to note that American Samoa is different and separate from the country of Samoa. There is an independent nation called Samoa. And actually during the 1960s, the United Nations actually asked American Samoa, do you want to join Samoa and not be American Samoa? Like, what is your, you should have the right of self-determination.

What would you like to do? And the American Samoans voted to remain a protectorate, a territory of the United States when they were given the chance to join Samoa. join Samoa. Wow. So like most Polynesian islands, there is a many, many thousand year old oral history tradition about the origin of the islands, the spiritual beliefs about how the islands came to be formed. And those traditions are passed down through generations. And so you sort of have these two different histories to draw from. One, you have the history that is told by the indigenous population, European settlers. So when we're talking about the history of American Samoa, please know that there is that many, many thousand year old history that belongs to the indigenous people who have lived there for such a long time. But it's not a written history. It's told to pass down through the generations. So when we're talking about the written history, that really begins

back in the 16 and 1700s when European explorers began to sail around and be like, well, what's down here? What is down over here? So there was one explorer in particular from the netherlands who arrived in this region in 1721 when he was 62 years old he's a 62 year old man sailing from the netherlands to what is now american samoa and he had set off with a fleet of three ships and 225 men there's a lot of people to be responsible to feed, by the way, 225 men. And the idea was we're going to find valuable things for the companies that have hired us. In particular, they were looking for things like Davis land, things that didn't actually exist, but what they did end up, I use the phrase discovering in air quotes, they were new to the

explorers. How's that? It's new to me. I didn't actually discover it, but it's new to me. They ended up discovering Easter Island, Bora Bora, portions of Samoa, a number of other Polynesian islands. And then they returned back to the Netherlands, got into a bunch of trouble of like, well, you weren't supposed to be there. We didn't tell you you were supposed to be there. You're going to jail. This captain, by the way, kept a journal of his entire expedition, which ended up, all of the copies of it ended up being lost, but one was rediscovered more than 100 years later in 1836. One of the ship's scribes, it was actually their job to make copies of the captain's logs, captain's journals. One of the ship's scribes had hidden away a copy of his journal, and one of the scribe's descendants had found it, uncovered it in 1836.

One of the scribes descendants had found it, uncovered it in 1836, and it gave historians a lot of primary source data to work with in terms of the, again, quote unquote, discovery of this region of the world. Wow. Beginning in the 1830s, the United States decided we should start exploring. the United States decided we should start exploring. John Quincy Adams actually was somebody who was very interested in exploration. He was interested in science. With many of the nation's observatories, because John Quincy Adams, after he left the presidency, advocated so strongly for these ideas of exploration, and we should explore the heavens, we should explore the world. He was very instrumental in beginning the Smithsonian institution. So John Quincy Adams had really wanted to send fleets of ships out to explore, but it didn't happen until after he left office. And one of my least favorite,

most favorite presidents, Andrew Jackson, I bring him up almost every episode. I will find some way to tie something to Andrew Jackson. Andrew Jackson was like, yeah, we should do that. And so we, they formed the United States exploring expedition. I think the name exploring expedition is really funny. It almost sounds redundant. Yeah. Like, you know what I mean? Yeah. Like an expedition is kind of exploring. I don't know. I just think it's cute. I think it's funny. You guys, it's exploring expedition, which then was supposed to go to explore the Pacific and that landed in Samoa for a period of time as well. So oceanographers are really starting to try to learn more about natural world and what is actually out there. Like maybe it's not just a flat thing that you fall off the edge of.

Maybe it's not just full of sea serpents. And like, you know, how old maps used to be just like unknown areas were just like they would just draw a dragon. You know what I mean? Like that was the symbol for we don't know what's down there right even though some people still think they're in this lot so that's it that is that's also a thing sadly hey torontonians recycling is more than a routine it's a vital responsibility. By recycling properly, you help conserve resources, reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, and protect the environment. Toronto's Blue Bin Recycling Program ensures the majority of the right items are recovered and transformed into new products. Recycling right is important and impactful. Let's work together and make a

difference, because small actions lead to big change. For more tips on recycling, visit toronto.ca slash recycle right. I'm Jenna Fisher and I'm Angela Kinsey. We are best friends and together we have the podcast Office Ladies, where we rewatched every single episode of The Office with insane behind the scenes stories, hilarious guests, and lots of laughs. Every Wednesday, we'll be sharing even more exclusive stories from the office and our friendship with brand new guests. And we'll be digging into our mailbag to answer your questions and comments. So join us for brand new Office Lady 6.0 episodes every Wednesday. Plus, on Mondays, we are taking a second drink. You can revisit all the Office Ladies rewatch

episodes every Monday with new bonus tidbits before every episode. Well, we can't wait to see you there. Follow and listen to Office Ladies on the free Odyssey app and wherever you get your podcasts. So this exploring expedition lasted for four years. This is the U.S. Exploring Expedition, lasted for four years from 1838 to 1842. They sent 350 men on seven ships to sail around the Pacific Ocean. And there were all different kinds of scientists, botanists, geologists, mineralogists, scientific illustrators, whose job it was to draw careful pictures of the plants and animals that they

would find. And many of these scientists that went on this expedition later went on to become sort of prominent in the field of science in the United States. They joined places like the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. Unfortunately, during the expedition, there was a lot of armed conflict with the Pacific Islanders. And a lot of people were killed. A lot of Pacific Islanders were killed. Some Americans were killed. And so that was kind of this, of course, if literally 350 strangers show up on your island and they're like, we're here to study. You can understand,

like, we're here to draw pictures, take your rocks, figure out what's going on over here you can understand how that might not be met with them with open arms you don't understand the confusion yeah uh-huh like what's happening here so during the 1800s moving into like the 1880s 1890s the in there was an increased amount of colonization of the Samoan islands. And there was an increasing amount of conflict. And it was not just the United States that was colonizing the Samoan islands. It was Germany. It was Great Britain. And all of these nations wanted to protect their own interests. They wanted access to the natural resources. They wanted them as stopping points for naval navigation. They wanted to control the islands because if you

control the islands, you can control who's going past, et cetera. And so this provoked a number of armed conflicts between all these varying countries and the Pacific Islanders. Decades, all these varying countries and the Pacific Islanders, decades actually of conflict that provoked a Samoan civil war. Warships came back from Germany and Britain brought warships. Like we became, colonizers became very involved in the conflict in this region.

So the idea- So horrible. Yes. The total of Samoans that were killed was over 40,000. So this is not, we're not talking about just a peaceful transition into colonization. So that's one thing to keep in mind. I won't go over every ship and every, you know, every single conflict that happened, but that's just a general overview of this period of colonization was not just a quick and easy transition.

So eventually these three sort of Western powers, Germany, Great Britain, and the United States formed an alliance and basically gave themselves the right to supersede the Samoan authorities. Because again, Samoans were also fighting amongst each other and they were like, we are going to, we're going to sort this out. We're going to fix this conflict. And so they decided to sign a treaty that had been negotiated by America and two European countries without Samoan input and decided how, how to divvy up what was happening. You know what

I mean? Like this is, you're going to, this is going to happen over here. This is going to happen over here. Great Britain decided that, you know, like fine, we'll pull out of over here, but we are going to take this Germany, you know, like they negotiated it for themselves amongst themselves. They negotiated it for themselves amongst themselves. In 1900, President William McKinley signed an executive order. longitude 171 degrees, and is hereby placed under the control of the Department of the Navy for a naval station. The Secretary of the Navy shall take such steps as are necessary to establish the authority of the United States and to give to the islands the necessary protection. So it was William McKinley in 1900 who, by executive order, declared that this portion of Samoa, this portion of the Polynesian Islands, would now belong to the U.S. Navy, and in exchange the Navy would protect the islands. And initially the term American Samoa was not used. That's not how it was referred to. They were called by their

indigenous names, or they were just referred to as a portion of the Samoan Islands. And for a while, it was just called the U.S. Naval Station that was there. But in 1911, some of the people that lived there conveyed their unhappiness with the idea that their island would be called the U.S. Naval Station. Understandable. That was not the name that they wanted. The name should not be the U.S. Naval Station. We should have something better. And so they banded together and wrote a letter to the Secretary of the Navy.

something better. And so they banded together and wrote a letter to the secretary of the Navy. And the secretary of the Navy wrote back and was like, well, why don't you just go ahead and choose a new name then? Let us know what you would like to be called. And so the leaders on Samoa in 1911 decided together that the name of their island would be American Samoa. So that was the name they chose. Better than the former. Better than the U.S. Naval Station. That's our name. So one other interesting thing to note, a little fun fact about American Samoa is it is one of only three places in the entire world who did not have any deaths from the 1918 flu pandemic. Wow. One of the only three places in the world that flu pandemic that killed tens of millions of people worldwide. And one of the ways that they made sure the only three places, first of all, were islands and they closed themselves down really harshly of like,

absolutely nobody is coming or going. We don't want to have any pandemic deaths. And that was still noteworthy in history that the incredible 1918 pandemic had such far-reaching effects that there were only three islands, inhabited islands in the entire world who had no pandemic deaths. So then, of course, following the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1942, the naval station on American Samoa became very, very integral and very important to the U.S. Pacific Fleet's response to the Japanese attack. And there were some skirmishes around and near American Samoa for a period of time. During that time period, there were far more Marines, far more naval officers living on the American Samoa than there were indigenous people. But after the war ended, the U.S. Department of the Interior, so this is 1949 now, attempted to incorporate American Samoa through a separate

act called the Organic Act, Organic Act 4500. And they introduced it to Congress and Congress was like, we're not going to pass this because the chiefs of American Samoa do not want to become an incorporated territory. They just want to be like a protectorate. So they didn't want it. So then Congress didn't move forward with it. So it took a period of time. with it. So it took a period of time. It took time for the local government of American Samoa to change and adapt and form its own legislature. And in the 1950s, President Eisenhower formally appointed a governor of American Samoa. He was the first governor of American Samoan descent. His name was Peter Coleman. He was a captain in World War II. So Eisenhower appointed Peter

Coleman in the 1950s, and he ended up being the governor until the 1990s. So he kept getting reappointed. And then once American Samoa had formed its own government and began having its own elections, he kept getting reelected, reelected, reelected over and over again. People, yeah, they obviously felt he was doing a good job representing them. So in the 1960s, I told you this before, the UN was like, are you sure you don't want to be part of Samoa and be your own thing? And people voted no, no we don't. Samoans began electing their own governor. Until that point, American presidents, once it became a U.S. protectorate, American presidents had appointed governors. But in the 1970s, they began electing their own governor, and they elected Peter Coleman over and over and over again. And it was noteworthy because it was really a chance for American Samoans to have the right of self-determination, of determining who our leaders will be. American Samoa does not have anybody representing them in the Senate.

But they do have one delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives. And a delegate, it works in an advisory capacity. They work within the committee system they can vote within the committee system but they cannot vote on whether or not bills will pass so they're there to advise the rest of the members of the house about what the needs of american samoa american samoans are but they can't actually vote on anything and the reason that is because the constitution says that only states can have representatives in U S Congress. So the representative from American Samoa to the house of representatives is the daughter of Peter Coleman.

She came from a huge family. I want to say that they had like 13 kids and she actually was elected in 2015. She's the first woman to represent American Samoa. And I thought that was fun that she's the daughter of the governor who was in office for like 40 plus years. So when is your next vacation to American Samoa? Well, now I'm thinking maybe I should go there and get the people riled up. You guys need to be donating blood, get out here, be election workers, read some books. Yeah. Oh, I love it. What a unique and interesting place. I mean, the world, the amount of history

that we can even cover in an episode like this, we're not even scratching the surface, right? But what a unique place in the world to be so isolated from the rest of the world and to have such a strong indigenous culture. I also think Polynesian navigators, where they literally are going thousands of miles between islands in canoes that they have built. That is also fascinating. I actually looked up an animal that I thought you would be interested in. Okay. Please share. Please share. Because that's always my favorite part yes absolutely yes have you checked out the Samoa flying fox no I was like very excited to see what this would be but it's actually just a fruit bat it's a fruit bat called a giant fox it has a three foot wingspan so it's not just like any

fruit bat but yeah that is crazy I do know that American Samoa has like an incredibly diverse amount of marine life yes incredibly diverse amount of marine life yeah i want to say there's over 200 species of marine animals surrounding american samoa yes that is a lot i mean i kind of honestly want to go there now ashley tell people where to find you if they want to follow you follow along with your book club all that good stuff where can people do that? So you can find everything on my Instagram account at Ashley Spivey. In my bio, I have links to everything. That's just the easiest way to say it. But one thing I did want to mention that I didn't mention in the beginning is I actually am working on people petitioning their HRs to include bereavement leave for pregnancy loss. I have a whole Instagram

highlight where I have a prompt that you can send to your HR department if it's not included in your handbook at work. So if everyone could just check their handbooks to see if bereavement leave is included for miscarriage and stillbirth. I would really appreciate it. I'm more than happy to answer any DMs to help you petition your HR. Just let me know. I'm pretty responsive on DMs. I love that. I think that's such a needed change for many American employers to recognize that the loss of a pregnancy, the loss of a child is something that deserves time and space to heal and grieve. Yeah. I mean, I know that they're trying to get it done in Congress, but as far as I'm concerned, if Congress can't make it happen, I feel like we can all do our

part to make it happen where we work and hopefully it'll happen someday. But until that point, I'm happy to make the small change. How all those small things add up to really big, important changes. So this is really fun. I hope you will come back. No, I honestly, like the way that ended, I feel like talking about American small was actually perfect. Like this small little area. Yes.

Yes. It's just tying it all in. So thank you so much for everything you do. I was so honored to be here today and you know, let's just keep up the good fight. Yes. Yes. Thank you, Ashley. We will talk soon. Okay. Bye. Thank you so much for listening to the Sharon says so podcast. I am truly grateful for you. And I'm wondering if you could do me a quick favor. Would you be willing to follow or subscribe to this podcast or maybe leave me a rating or a review? Or if you're feeling extra generous, would you share this episode on your Instagram stories

or with a friend? All of those things help podcasters out so much. This podcast was written and researched by Sharon McMahon and Heather Jackson. It was produced by Heather Jackson, edited and mixed by our audio producer, Jenny Snyder, and hosted by me, Sharon McMahon. I'll see you next time.