Tutuila

thumb|250px|Map of Tutuila island

Tutuila is the largest and most populous island of American Samoa and is part of the archipelago of the Samoan Islands. It is the third largest island in the Samoan Islands chain of the Central Pacific. It is located roughly northeast of Brisbane, Australia and lies over to the northeast of Fiji. It contains a large, natural harbor, Pago Pago Harbor, where Pago Pago, the capital of American Samoa, is situated. Pago Pago International Airport is also located on Tutuila. The island's land expanse is about 68% of the total land area of American Samoa. With 56,000 inhabitants, it is also home to 95% of the population of American Samoa. The island has six terrestrial and three marine ecosystems.

Tutuila has mountainous regions, the highest point of which is . The island is attractive to tourists because of its beaches, coral reefs, and World War II relics, as well as its suitability for sporting activities such as scuba diving, snorkeling, and hiking.

In June 1722, the Samoan Islands were first encountered by a European explorer, Jacob Roggeveen, who gave Tutuila the name Thienhoven Island. Louis Antoine de Bougainville named the island Manua or Maouna.

History

The Polynesians first reached Samoa around 1000 BC. By 600 BC, they had established a settlement on Tutuila at Tula. Over the centuries, the Samoans on Tutuila kept in contact with the inhabitants of the neighboring islands of Western Polynesia, Tonga, and Fiji.

Tutuila served as a place of exile for warriors and chiefs who had been defeated in the wars that ravaged much of Upolu for centuries. It was also used as a place to which Upolu rulers banished political opponents.

Tongan rule

Around 1200 A.D., during the reign of Momo, the tenth Tuʻi Tonga, the Tongans invaded and occupied Tutuila and other Samoan Islands. Their rule lasted for nearly two centuries under five successive kings. Taʻū Island, however, claims to have been spared - an assertion not entirely implausible, as Manuka and its king held a place of honor in Tongan legend. Like most occupying powers, the Tongans soon became unpopular, and the Samoans came to believe that their divinely sanctioned leaders were destined to drive the invaders out. From this struggle emerged a new class of heroes, warriors whose successes in battle marked them as natural leaders for Samoa's eventual liberation.

During the Tongan occupation, defeated warriors and political rivals were exiled to Pago Pago, whose surrounding settlements came to serve as a kind of penal colony. In time, resentment of foreign rule grew, and under the leadership of the paramount chief Malietoa, the Samoans rose in revolt against their Tongan rulers. Fau’au of Pago Pago (Chief Fua’autoa of Pago Pago) emerged as leader of the local resistance and succeeded in expelling the Tongans from Tutuila.

European contact

In 1722, Jacob Roggeveen became the first European to visit the Manu'a islands, located on the eastern end of the Samoan island chain. In 1768, the explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville visited the islands of Samoa and dubbed them the "Navigator Islands," after the islanders' practice of navigating the nearby waters in canoes to catch tuna. European whalers and Protestant missionaries began to arrive in the Samoan Islands in the early 19th century, particularly in the 1830s. Two notable arrivals among them were John Williams of the London Missionary Society, and the French explorer Louis de Freycinet, who arrived in October 1819 and named Tutuila "Rose Island" in honor of his wife (and fellow explorer) Rose de Freycinet. The movement was suppressed by the U.S. government and Ripley was deported and barred from the island.

During World War II, Tutuila was a strategically important island for the US Marines. Led by Colonel Lester A. Dessez, they established a military base there and erected concrete bunkers along the island's coast. Despite the island's strategic importance, it escaped almost unscathed from the war, the only exception being an attack launched from a Japanese submarine on January 11, 1942.

Legends

A popular island legend holds that, when called to in a particular way, a shark and a turtle will appear near the shore. According to the legend, a long time ago, an old blind woman and her granddaughter, both suffering the pangs of starvation, jumped off a cliff in the village of Vaitogi and into the roiling ocean below. But instead of drowning, the old woman was transformed into a shark, and her granddaughter was transformed into a turtle. When the villagers utter a particular chant, the shark and the turtle promptly appear.

Another Samoan legend concerns a species of bat, known as the flying fox, which is found in a forested area of Tutuila that is part of the National Park of American Samoa. This legend holds that the flying fox is the protector and guardian of the forest and its human inhabitants.

Geography

thumb|upright=1.4|[[Fatu Rock (or Flower Pot Rock) in the reef of Tutuila at the entrance to Pago Pago Harbor in American Samoa]]

Tutuila lies in the Pacific Ocean, roughly northeast of Brisbane, Australia. The village of Fagatogo is situated northeast of Suva, Fiji. The area of this volcanic island of early Pliocene age is with a shore line of . The hill range which runs from west to east is rugged and winding with the northern coast line having steep cliffs and unusual coast line. However, the southern part of the island has flatter terrain. Good beaches are located at many places along the coast. It has a wet tropical climate. The highest point in the Tutuila island is the Matafao Peak which is at an elevation of , which is highest peak in the island. There is trail opposite to the Mount ʻAlava peak () which dominates the northern part of the island.]]

thumb|[[Pola Island near Vatia]]

In the early 19th century, navigators passed through the Tutuila, the westward island among the Samoan group of Islands (one of the four islands called as navigators islands), when it was also known by the names of Bougainville, Manuo or Maouna. Midway between this islet and the rock the navigators sighted the Pago Pago harbor, which was marked by "a conical hill on its western side and a flat elliptical topped hill to the eastward." Leone village, large and prosperous, was sighted to the west of the island. To the south-east of the island is the Aunu'u islet.

The coastal road runs for a length of from Fagamalo in the northwest to Onenoao in the far northeast.

Demographics

The island has population of 55,876 (2000 census) (These figures include Aunu'u Island, off the southeast coast of Tutuila, which has a land area of and a population of 476).

Economic activity

thumb|250px|A statue of [[StarKist Tuna mascot "Charlie the Tuna" at the company cannery in Atu'u]]

The economy of American Samoa is dominated by grants from the U.S. Department of Interior. The tuna canning and fishing industries provide the majority of the GDP, although tourism is a promising developing sector. Economic activity is strongly linked to the US with which American Samoa conducts most of its commerce, although American Samoa does not treat the US as an external trade partner. Funding from the US government adds substantially to American Samoa's economic well-being. Attempts by the government to develop a larger and broader economy are restrained by Samoa's remote location, its limited transportation, and its devastating hurricanes. Hurricanes are relatively infrequent and although they sometimes cause substantial damage, the total number of deaths from hurricanes in the past 50 years is estimated to be fewer than five. Therefore, hurricanes are simply an inconvenience and certainly not the economic development curtailing events portrayed in many writings.

More than 90% of the land is communally owned. Tuna fishing and tuna processing plants are the backbone of the private sector, with canned tuna the primary export.

Flora

Flora in the island is dominated by lowland and montane rain forests. The lowland rain forest at elevation less than is dominated by Diospyros, Dysoxylum, Pometia and Syzygium species. The montane forest in the elevation range of consists of Dysoxylum, montane scrub, streams, bushes, mangroves, mangrove lagoons, reefs and submerged coral banks.

The two species of flying foxes (bats) protected in the park are: Pteropus samoensis (known locally as pe'a voa) meaning "fruit bat of the forests" and Pteropus tonganus locally called pe'afaunua, which means "fruit bat of settled lands"; The roosting place of Pteropus samoensis (with prominent light colored face with brown body) is the canopy of ridge top trees, which roost alone or in small groups and are active during day time with two feeding peaks, the Pteropus tonganus (with black colored face with seal brown body) species roost in large groups (100 or more in numbers in each group) in thick forest habitat, also sometimes seen close to villages. Both species have a wing span of at adulthood, and weigh about 500 grams. The Hurricane Val in comparison to past hurricanes, was very severe and the storm force had a wind velocity of over 100 knots or /hour. It was reported as the worst in 100 years in its intensity of wind force and the severity of the damage caused in the island. According to the history of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) American Samoa observatory, "Hurricane Val" struck the Tutuila Island from December 7 – 10th. The hurricane's eye passed over the southern end of the island with winds as high as recorded at the observatory. In the Fagatele Bay of the Tutuila Island where the Hurricane Val made a direct pass over Tutuila the coral reef was completely destroyed, a large strip of the coast was also eroded.

In response to this disaster, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) dispatched an assessment team to survey the damage to the reefs. Apart from the cable way which was severely damaged and went permanently out of commission, the TV tower at Utulei, one of the three TV channels, was completely damaged by Val, resulting in its cannibalization to maintain the two remaining channels. The Fagalele Boys School, which was one of the oldest European style buildings built in the middle of the 19th century on the west coast of the island in Leone village, was also destroyed by Hurricane Val.

Places of historical interest

thumb|[[Blunts Point Battery overlooking Pago Pago]]

At Utulei, at Blunts Point there are two guns of World War II vintage dated to 1941, which are seen in the form of two metal tubes projecting from a wall. The guns are seen at two levels, the lower gun is above a green water tank. The second gun is located above the first gun above the ridge. Both guns are accessible through a staircase made of concrete. In addition, two more guns of identical dimensions are also seen fixed at the harbor mouth at a strategic location to create a cross fire. Concrete bunkers used during WWII are also seen at Pago Pago.

At the defunct cable car terminal on the Solo Hill in Utulei there is a monument built in honor of the six US Navy personnel who died in the plane crash which occurred as a result of hitting the cableway and crashed into the Rainmaker Hotel; two tourists staying in the hotel also died in the crash.