Mariana Archipelago

The Mariana Archipelago is located on the other side of the dateline from the rest of the United States and in that part of Oceania known as Micronesia. It is comprised of the US Territory of Guam and the US Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), which are more closely related in heritage and tradition to other Micronesian archipelagos than to the United States. Guam and CNMI shared a common geography, political status, history, culture and economy until 1898, when the archipelago was politically divided.

The archipelago’s indigenous Chamorro and Refaluwasch communities have a history of fishing that spans over three millennia. Waves of colonization by Westerners beginning in the 1600s had a devastating impact on traditional fishing practices. Today, the expansion and development of fisheries are still constrained, and most of the fishermen in the archipelago participating in the bottomfish fishery, crustacean fishery and coral reef ecosystem fishery do so primarily for subsistence, barter and cultural sharing purposes, such as for fiestas and food exchanges with family and friends. For information on the pelagic fisheries, click here.

In Guam, waters 0 to 3 miles from shore are managed by the Territory and waters 3-200 miles are federally managed. However, the US government considers all waters from 0 to 200 miles around CNMI as federal. The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council is working to incorporate locally developed regulations for CNMI near-shore fisheries into federal management measures in the Mariana Archipelago Fishery Ecosystem Plan (FEP). This FEP includes a management structure that emphasizes community participation and enhanced consideration of the habitat and ecosystem, protected species and other elements not typically incorporated in fishery management decision-making. Enforcement of federal fishery regulations is handled through a joint federal-territorial partnership. Annual reports on the fisheries are produced by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, with data collection responsibilities shared by various territorial and federal agencies.

(click here for a brochure of the Mariana Archipelago Fishery Ecosystem Plan)

Geography [top]

CNMI is comprised of 10 islands with a total land area of 179 sq. miles spread over 264,000 sq. miles of ocean. The highest elevation is 3,166 feet (965 m). The primary natural resource is fish. The southern islands are limestone with fringing coral reefs; the northern islands are volcanic, with active volcanoes on Anatahan, Pagan and Agrihan. Ninety percent of the 80,362 residents (2005 estimate) live on the island of Saipan and almost all the rest on Tinian and Rota. After government removal of residents following volcanic activity, only a half dozen people remain in the northern islands.

Guam is the southernmost island of the Mariana Archipelago. It is 30 miles (48 km) long and 4 mi (6 km) to 12 mi (19 km) wide and is the largest island in Micronesia with an area of 209 sq. miles (541 km²). The highest point on the island is 1,332 feet (406 m). The Mariana Trench near Guam includes the deepest surveyed point in the oceans, at 35,797 feet (10,911 m) deep. The island experiences occasional earthquakes with recent magnitudes ranging from 5.0 to 8.7. Guam’s estimated population reached an estimated 171,019 in 2006, more than doubling the 1970 total of 85,000. The population is expected to continue to increase significantly with the relocation of the US military from Okinawa to Guam by 2014, including an estimated 8,000 marines, 9,000 family members and 12,000 to 15,000 contract workers.

Political Status [top]

CNMI is a commonwealth of the United States. Under the 1978 agreement with the United States, the CNMI has control of its own immigration, labor, tax and wage laws, but recent Congressional action has stripped CNMI of much of this control. A recent US court ruling also has given the US full control of the waters around the CNMI from 0 to 200 miles offshore. The people of CNMI are US citizens, but they can not vote in US presidential election. In 2008, Congress established a non-voting delegate’s seat in the US House of Representatives for CNMI, and the first CNMI delegate took office in January 2009.

Guam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the US having organized under the Guam Organic Act of 1950. The people of Guam are US citizens. They are allowed to vote in the presidential election; however, since Guam doesn’t have an elector in the US Electoral College, their voting is merely a straw poll. Guam has a non-voting delegate in the US House of Representatives.

History [top]

People have lived in the Mariana Archipelago for at least 3,500 years or about 3,000 years before European contact.  The Prehistoric or Pre-Contact Period lasted from the arrival of the first people by at least 1500 BC until the arrival of Magellan in AD 1521.  Alexander Spoehr divided the long Prehistoric Period into the Pre-Latte Phase and Latte Phase.

Pre-Latte Phase cultural deposits are found below the surface usually along the coasts.  Artifacts that characterize the Pre-Latte Phase include pottery sherds with red-slipped exterior surfaces, some of which are decorated with lime-filled designs, stone and shell tools, and beads and bracelets made from cone shells.

The Latte Phase began by AD 800 to 1000 and is characterized by the megalithic features called latte sets.  A latte set consists of two parallel rows of upright stone shafts (haligi in Chamorro) associated with capstones (tasa).  The number of shafts in a set varies, but sets with eight, ten, or twelve shafts are common.  The largest latte stones erected are at the House of Taga on Tinian, but larger ones can be seen still in the ground at the As Nieves Latte Stone Quarry on Rota.

Based on the cultural materials and features associated with latte sets, archaeologists believe they functioned as foundations for residential structures.  Latte Phase sites are widely distributed along the coastline as well as in the interior of the Mariana Islands.  They are found not only on the major islands of the southern arc, but on the smaller islands of the northern arc as well.  Characteristic artifacts of the Latte Phase include plain pottery sherds, stone mortars, stone and shell tools, and beads made from Spondylus shells.

Magellan arrived at Guam in 1521, and Legazpi claimed the Mariana Islands for Spain in 1565.  More than 100 years later, in 1668, Spain colonized Guam and established the first permanent mission.  After an initial period of apparent success in converting the islanders to Roman Catholicism, the mission met with hostility.  The Spanish-Chamorro Wars lasted from 1670 until 1695, and the hostilities, as well as introduced diseases, drastically reduced the indigenous Chamorro population.

At the end of the Spanish-Chamorro Wars, the Spanish required the people of the Northern Mariana Islands (NMI) to move to Guam.  By the end of the 17^th century, only Saipan and Rota in the NMI were still inhabited.  Rota was never completely depopulated, but all of the islands north of Rota were uninhabited by about 1740.

After settling the Chamorros into parishes on Guam, the Spanish forcibly put an end to their inter-island travel and offshore fishing, and the Chamorros were prevented from seafaring.   For approximately 200 years, from at least 1750 to about 1950, the Chamorros did not engage in offshore fishing.  Another seafaring people, the Refaluwasch from the Caroline Islands to the south, took over inter-island travel.  Refaluwasch sailing canoes traveled from Guam to Rota for purposes of the government and church, and they traveled to Tinian to obtain meat and produce.

Except for Rota, the NMI were largely uninhabited for at least 75 years from about 1740 to 1815.  Beginning in 1815, the Refaluwasch began to migrate to the Northern Marianas, establishing the village now known as Garapan in Saipan.  Starting in 1865, Chamorros from Guam began to migrate to Saipan, and people from the Carolines were brought as laborers to various islands in the NMI, including Pagan, Saipan, and Tinian.  The Refaluwasch from Tinian later established the village of Tanapag in Saipan.

Before the end of the 19^th century, Spain lost control of the Marianas, and the histories of Guam and the NMI diverged.  As a result of the Spanish-American War, Guam was ceded to the U.S. in 1898, and in 1899 the NMI were sold to Germany.

The NMI remained in German hands until 1914 when the Japanese took control of the islands for 30 years.  Germany’s interest in the NMI was copra production.  What copra was to the Germans, sugarcane was to the Japanese.  Japan also fished in the NMI waters.  Beginning in the 1920s and ending in 1944, the Japanese operated a pole-and-line fishery for skipjack tuna out of Saipan, which was the first large scale commercial fishery in the Marianas.

In 1898 President McKinley placed Guam under the control of the Department of Navy, and for more than 40 years, Guam’s governors were U.S. Navy officers.  On December 8, 1941, just a few hours after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, Japanese planes from Saipan bombed Guam.  Governor McMillan surrendered Guam to the Japanese on December 10, 1941, and all of the Marianas remained under Japanese control until 1944.

In 1944 U.S. forces fought their way across the Pacific toward Japan, taking Saipan and Tinian and retaking Guam in July and August.  Before the end of the war, Saipan, Tinian, and Guam all became important American military bases.

From 1944 to 1947, the U.S. Naval Military government administered the NMI.  From 1947 to 1976, the NMI were part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.  In 1975 the voters of the NMI chose to join the U.S. as a commonwealth, and in 1976 the U.S. Congress and President approved the Marianas Commonwealth Covenant.  Officials of the new Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas (CNMI) government were installed on January 9, 1978, but it was not until November 3, 1986 that the people of the CNMI became U.S. citizens.   

After the war, the U.S. Navy resumed governing Guam until 1949 when President Truman transferred the administration of Guam from the Secretary of the Navy to the Secretary of the Interior.  The Organic Act signed by Truman in 1950 made Guam an unincorporated territory of the U.S. and granted U.S. citizenship to the people of Guam.  From 1950 through 1970, Guam had civilian governors appointed by the U.S. president.  Since 1971, Guam has had popularly elected governors.

Culture [top]

The language of the indigenous Chamorro is from the Austronesian language group, the same proto-language from which Malaysian, Indonesian and Palauan languages are derived. The archipelago’s present social and demographic structure is largely the result of colonial experiences of the last 300 years. Due to centuries of acculturation, beginning with the Spanish conquest in the late 17th century, many elements of traditional Chamorro and Refaluwasch culture in Guam and the CNMI were lost. But certain traditional values and attitudes were retained and have been melded with elements of Western culture that are now a part of local life and custom.

CNMI’s ethnic mix today is diverse, with 56.3% Asian, 36.3% Pacific Islander (including 21.3% Chamorro and 3.8% Refaluwasch or Carolinian), 1.8% Caucasian, 0.8% other and 4.8% mixed (2000 census). Through marriage and proximity, Carolinian and Chamorro have melded into a new social, cultural and linguistic order on Saipan that has been dubbed “Chamolinian.” Tinian and Rota remain strongly Chamorro. The official languages are English, Chamorro and Refaluwasch.

In the decades following the end of World War II, the ethnic composition of Guam’s population changed markedly with influx of labor from the Philippines and other areas to work on the US military projects and the transiting of Vietnamese refugees. By 1980, less than half of the inhabitants were Chamorros. Based on the 2000 census, Guam’s current population is approximately 37.1% Chamorro, 26.3% Filipino, 11.3% other Pacific Islander, 6.9% Caucasian, 6.3% other Asian, 2.3% other ethnic origin or race, and 9.8% mixed.

Economy [top]

CNMI’s economy benefits substantially from US financial support. Tourism has been a key industry, employing about 50% of the work force and accounting for roughly one-fourth of CNMI’s gross domestic product. Japanese tourists have predominated. Garment production has been the most important industry with employment of mostly Chinese workers and sizable shipments to the US under duty and quota exemptions. However, these exemptions were not renewed by Congress and the garment industry is collapsing and Asian tourism is in precipitous decline.

The military installation on Guam is one of the most strategically important US bases in the Pacific. Guam is dependent on military spending, tourism and exports of fish and handicrafts. Under the provisions of a special law of Congress, the Guam Treasury, rather than the US Treasury, receives federal income taxes paid by military and civilian Federal employees stationed in Guam. Japanese tourists make up 90% of their tourist market of over 1 million visitors annually.