Samoans in the United States

SAMOANS IN THE UNITED STATES Module 6: Social Issues in the Diaspora and Youth Activism Have Samoans benefitted from their “enduring friendship” with the United States? “…In the fourth grade is when I really started messing up in school,” a young Samoan woman in Carson, California admitted to a group of peers in the 1970s….

SAMOANS IN THE UNITED STATES Module 5: The Samoan Dynasty: Samoans in Sports Have Samoans benefitted from their “enduring friendship” with the United States? Fanene Leifi Pita Maivia, later known as Peter Maivia, was born in American Sāmoa in 1937. At twenty years old, he moved to New Zealand to begin his career in competitive…

SAMOANS IN THE UNITED STATES Module 4: Culture and Cheehoos: Samoan Diasporic Identities Have Samoans benefitted from their “enduring friendship” with the United States? Have you ever been at a celebration or gathering and heard that otherworldly “cheeeeeeehooo”—and wondered what it was? This iconic showering of love, is a faʻaumu and a Samoan expression of…

SAMOANS IN THE UNITED STATES Module 3: Toloa or Eagle: Flights of Migration Have Samoans benefitted from their “enduring friendship” with the United States? Before Captain Jordan Scanlan enlisted in the military in 2010, he had many family and friends across different military bases. As a young man in American Sāmoa, he knew he wanted…

SAMOANS IN THE UNITED STATES Module 2: Friends or Foes: Making American Sāmoa Have Samoans benefitted from their “enduring friendship” with the United States? Captain SooSoo Taulelei, an officer in the Pennsylvania Air National Guard, expresses great pride in his profession: I don my uniform with pride and grit and know that I’m not just…

SAMOANS IN THE UNITED STATES Module 1: Overview: Samoans in the United States Have Samoans benefitted from their “enduring friendship” with the United States? Sāmoa, an archipelago in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, has many creation origin stories. One involves Tagaloalagi, creator of the universe, looking down from his place in the sky. Tuli,…