Jack Ritzenberg
The Chamoru people are the indigenous people of the Mariana Islands, which are divided between the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in Micronesia and the unincorporated US territory of Guam. The United States’ involvement in Guam first began in 1898, when the US Navy acquired Guam, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico during the Spanish-American War. In 1901, the US Supreme Court gave legal credence to the Navy’s authority over Guam in decisions known as the Insular Cases. The court ruled that the US Constitution wasn’t fully applicable on “unincorporated territories”, which allowed naval governors to implement a brutal colonial regime. Among many human rights abuses, naval administrations allowed racial segregation, imposed heavy taxes that often resulted in the military taking control of family lands, and forced CHamorus to speak English. More specifically, they banned the native language, Chamorro, outside of interpretation purposes and burned Chamoru-English dictionaries. It wasn’t until the 1970s that a ban on speaking CHamoru in schools was lifted. For the US military, language became an important tool to gain control of place in their effort to colonize Guam.
In the Guam of today, despite US patriotism and high rates of military service, there is considerable resistance to military buildup on the island. This resistance started most prominently in the 1990s, with Nasion CHamoru— the CHamoru Nation— staging protests throughout the decade. During this time, the island has also seen a major resurgence in pride in CHamoru history and identity, and a renewed interest in the CHamorro language after years of bans throughout US occupation. This interest has been seen particularly strongly amongst young adults and children, and the interest has been fostered through new immersion CHamorro schools on the island. This new crop of CHamorro speakers is particularly historically important, as due to the actions of the US, the language is under threat to disappear in the next 30 years. As of a census a decade ago, of the 165,000 on the island, only 25,827 were speakers and just 2,394 of this small number were under the age of 18.
Though this renewed interest in CHamorro has not been directly connected to resistance acts, the fight to preserve and continue CHamorro seems to be part of a larger struggle against US colonialism. Because language was such an important tool for the US to gain control of Guam, re-learning the once banned language is an important act of resistance, and serves as a reclamation of place for the oppressed indigenous populations of Guam.
Sources:
https://thediplomat.com/2016/08/guam-where-the-us-military-is-revered-and-reviled/
https://www.thenation.com/article/world/guam-resistance-empire/
https://prismreports.org/2021/06/04/guam-wont-give-up-more-land-to-the-u-s-military-without-a-fight/
This is a really interesting issue that connects to a lot of the topics we have addressed in the course. The fact the Mariana Islands are divided between U.S. control and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands reminds me of our discussions on the implications of borders, and I wonder what the implications of the fact they are islands rather than a land border are for the interactions between the two jurisdictions. I am also curious what current U.S. education policy is on the island and what agency teachers/the local community have on curriculum. This is a tragic situation, and I am surprised I have never heard anything about it. Hopefully the CHamarro Nation will be able to increase awareness for their cause and mitigate the loss of their culture and language.