Although Westerners had first arrived in Samoa in 1722, the largest change in traditional Samoan social structure did not occur until 1830. That year, the London Missionary Society expedition came to the Samoan islands and eventually “produced a revolution, but a revolution led almost entirely by Samoans and structured in Samoan cultural terms.” In about 30 years, Samoans became devout Christians, although they shaped the religion according to their own cultural tastes and needs .
The event that had the greatest impact on the Samoan migration to the United States and elsewhere was World War II. The islands of Tutuila as well as the Manu’a group became a part of the American colonialist sphere in 1900 and 1904, but the islands had not experienced the full force of Western influence until the U.S. entered the war in 1941.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Pago Pago harbor on Tutuila became a major naval station for the United States military. Many Samoans began to get jobs with the U.S. military, and the economy was transformed from a subsistence one to one that was increasingly cash based. Thousands of Samoans supported themselves and their families with jobs created by the influx of the U.S. military.
When the naval station in Pago Pago closed in 1951 and was incorporated into the Hawaii base, the first major wave of Samoans began to leave their homeland. They had gotten a taste of Western, American society and the Samoan way of life would never be the same. To support their families in the new cash based economy, Samoans were forced to go elsewhere for jobs. Returning to a subsistence economy was unappealing to a lot of Samoans, especially the younger generation. Many joined the military if they had not already and settled in Hawaii, California, Washington, and other places where there are now large populations of not only Samoans, but other Pacific Islanders as well.
For example, many native Hawaiians have also settled on the U.S. mainland, although the situation in Hawaii is very different than in Samoa. From Captain Cook’s arrival in Hawaii in 1778 to the present day, combination of factors led to many Hawaiians being displaced from their land, culture, and resources, some of the most significant being foreign greed and colonialism. Currently, native Hawaiians are a minority in their own homeland, and constitute approximately one fifth of the overall population in the Hawaiian Islands. This process continues today where the competitive, tourism based economy in Hawaii, which features a high cost of living, scarce jobs, native dispossession, cultural exploitation, and overcrowding, has forced many Hawaiians to leave their homeland and search for jobs and a means to support themselves and their families elsewhere. Many Hawaiian families now reside in Los Angeles, the Bay Area, Nevada, and Texas, among others.
Resources/Bibliography
Janes, Craig R. Migration, Social Change, and Health: A Samoan Community in Urban California. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1990.
Trask, Haunani-Kay. From A Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawai’i. Monroe: Common Courage Press, 1993.