Chapter 53: U.S. Territories

This chapter discusses the financial and bureaucratic considerations of five US Territories; American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, the US Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. This is new with the current edition of the textbook and will continue to be included in future editions.

The history of the United States’ involvement in American Samoa can be traced back to 1878, when then U.S. Navy Commander Richard Meade negotiated a treaty to build a coal station on the eastern island of Tutulia in Pago Pago.¹ This led to the United States Navy eventually converting the coal station to a naval base, which was recognized by the Berlin Treaty in 1899.² World War I and the continued conflicts pre-World War II led to the construction of a United States Naval Air Base in 1940, which remained until 1951.³ When the Deed of Cession was signed in 1929, American Samoa officially became an unincorporated United States Territory, and United States nationalization rights were granted thereafter in the 1930s.⁴ In the 1960s, American Samoa established their own constitution under the approval of United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower⁵ which included 16 specific Bills of Rights.⁶ Section 3 promises that the protection of persons of Samoan ancestry by the Government of American Samoa, “against alienations of their lands and the destruction of the Samoan way of life and language, contrary to their best interests. Such legislation as may be necessary may be enacted to protect the lands, customs, culture, and traditional Samoan family organization of persons of Samoan ancestry, and to encourage business enterprises by such persons.”⁷ Currently there are three districts (Eastern, Western, and Manu’a) and two unincorporated tolls (Swains Island and Rose Atoll, which is uninhabited), which are divided into 15 counties.⁸ The education system in American Samoa is run by one American Samoa Department of Education, which oversees 22 public elementary schools, 6 public high schools, and the American Samoa Community College (ASCC), in the village of Magusa, which is the only tertiary education institution in American Samoa.⁹¹¹ The most recent report on teacher units in American Samoa is from the American Samoa 5 Year Plan, which reported 1,063 teacher units in SY 15-16.¹²