The Mariana Islands: Colonial History and Present Situation

using a technique that required making incisions in the roots to grow new shoots. ” Current organizations continue to spread this knowledge on how to grow, eat, and enjoy breadfruit’s health benefits. Breadfruit was also a key material for the peoples’ powerful canoes. Designs like the CHamoru sakman inspired admiration from European settlers (as described in a guide by the CMNI non-profit 500 Sails). Micronesian people are also known for their extraordinary navigation skills, journeying between islands through detailed knowledge of star charts, ocean currents, and other landmarks. This enabled exploration as well as more local travel, such as the transfer of water between islands as needed. Although such travel was outlawed by the Spanish settlers who colonized the Marianas, the navigation and canoe-building skills have been sustained and spread by efforts like 500 Sails, this Penn Museum compilation, a collaboration with the Dakota through University of Minnesota Professor Vicente Diaz, and many more.

TheMarianaIslands:ColonialHistoryandPresentSituation

The interruption of canoe-building was just one result of a complex colonial history. After occupying the Marianas for 300 years, Spain ceded the NMI to Germany and Guåhan to the U.S. after the Spanish-American war. Japan took control of the NMI after World War I, and invaded Guåhan after bombing of Pearl Harbor. World War II was a brutal and violent time on the islands, killing more than 75,000 people (including many CHamoru). After the war, the U.S. reclaimed the islands as territories – and continues to have a major military presence. This presence is especially important to note given the positionality of MIT, which receives more than a sixth of its research funding from the Department of Defense. Nearly a third of Guåhan’s land is controlled by the U.S. military, including many fertile areas that were taken without native consent. Such occupation has caused ecological devastation, including the introduction of the invasive brown tree snake (which decimated the native bird populations as well as their seed dispersal benefits). This disruption has also reduced native limestone forests to 10% of their past land coverage, reducing the availability of the forests’ native lizards and medicinal plant species. Military structures have also harmed health by fostering a reliance on less natural food imports. From before World War II to the present, the balance of food in Guåhan shifted from largely local to 90% imported. Seafood is a notable example; while half of global tuna supplies are caught in the West Pacific, little is left for local communities. Groups like Guam Green Growth and the Micronesia Conservation Trust are seeking to uplift local solutions, such as the Palau Aquatics group that empowers women to farm mangrove crabs and supply local restaurants. Other groups have produced glossaries and time-of-year guides for Guåhan’s local fruit and vegetables, hoping to minimize dependence on imports that must first travel to the United States (even if they come from closer parts of Asia) due to the Jones Act. In addition, the U.S. military is building a live firing training range on one of Guåhan’s most sacred spaces Litekyan and the ancient village of Maguak). The range’s estimated 16 million bullets per year could contaminate the aquifer that supplies 90% of the island’s water. Military land use has also harmed