The Pacific Insular Case of American Sāmoa: Land Rights and Law in Unincorporated US Territories

Description

This book is a researched study of land issues in American Sāmoa that analyzes the impact of U.S. colonialism and empire building in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Carefully tracing changes in land laws up to the present, this volume also draws on a careful examination of legal traditions, administrative decisions, court cases and rising tensions between indigenous customary land tenure practices in American Sāmoa and Western notions of individual private ownership. It also highlights how unusual the status of American Sāmoa is in its relationship with the U.S., namely as the only “unincorporated” and “unorganized” overseas territory, and aims to expand the U.S. empire-building scholarship to include and recognize American Sāmoa into the vernacular of Americanization projects. Front Matter ....Pages i-xvii Introduction (Line-Noue Memea Kruse)....Pages 1-3 Sāmoa and Traditional Land Tenure (Line-Noue Memea Kruse)....Pages 5-22 American International Expansion (Line-Noue Memea Kruse)....Pages 23-47 US Naval Administration of American Sāmoa (Line-Noue Memea Kruse)....Pages 49-63 Ex Proprio Vigore and the Insular Cases (Line-Noue Memea Kruse)....Pages 65-104 American Sāmoan Legal History: 1900–1941 (Line-Noue Memea Kruse)....Pages 105-133 Individually Owned Lands and Communal Land Tenure (Line-Noue Memea Kruse)....Pages 135-158 Retention of Communal Lands (Line-Noue Memea Kruse)....Pages 159-172 Legal and Political Futures for American Sāmoa (Line-Noue Memea Kruse)....Pages 173-191 Conclusion (Line-Noue Memea Kruse)....Pages 193-197 Back Matter ....Pages 199-211