[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 7957]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    COMMEMORATING THE SAMOAN EXILES

  (Mr. SABLAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SABLAN. Mr. Speaker, this month, 72 Samoans who were exiled to my 
home, the Northern Mariana Islands, will receive the ceremonial 
farewell they were never given--100 years late.
  In 1909, the 72 Samoans were exiled to the Mariana Islands by the 
Governor of German Samoa, Wilhelm Solf. Their crime: the chiefs had 
tried to reinstate traditional Samoan practices outlawed by the German 
colonial regime. The Samoans remained in the Marianas until 1915, when 
they were repatriated by another colonial power--Japan.
  Their story was almost lost in time. But thanks to the work of the 
Northern Marianas Humanities Council, the history of these exiles has 
now been documented.

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