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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 4,000 kilometers (2,500 mi) northeast of Brisbane, Australia and lies over 1,200 kilometers (750 mi) 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 653 meters (2,142 feet)). 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. Etymology It is said that the name Tutuila may have been given to the island by a woman named Salaia. She named the island after a combination of the names of her parents: Tutu and Ila. Another name for the island is based on the name of Salaia herself: 'o le motu o Salaia ("the island of Salaia") or motu sā (literally, "the sacred island"). Legend 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. 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. 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. European traders and Samoan islanders chose to develop the Upolu Island village of Apia, rather than the Tutuila Island village of Pago Pago, as their trading station. However, in 1872, the US Navy recognized that Tutuila's Pago Pago Harbor would be the ideal place for a refueling station for the new San Francisco-to-Sydney steamship service, and negotiated a treaty with the inhabitants that would allow the harbor to be used for this purpose. Six years later, in 1878, the US Congress finally ratified this treaty, enabling it to be implemented. However, the US was not the only foreign government with an interest in Tutuila and other Samoan islands. Great Britain and Germany had been showing their interest since the 1860s. In 1879, with the Samoans having declared that they were open to dealing with all three countries, the United States, Great Britain, and Germany together formed a tripartite government over the islands. In 1889, the three foreign governments held a conference in Berlin to discuss the political future of the islands and try to resolve their differences on that topic. The Americans expressed dissatisfaction with not having complete control of the islands. The countries' ongoing differences led to a proposal, in 1899, to apportion their control among different parts of the Samoan islands, with the eastern islands, including Tutuila and Aunu'u, forming American Samoa, and the western islands forming Western Samoa under European control. The Samoans signed off on this proposal in 1900, and the US flag was raised on Tutuila on April 17 of that year. However, the name "American Samoa" was not formally bestowed on the eastern islands until 1911, and the apportionment agreement was not formally ratified until 1929. 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. Since 1951, administration of Tutuila and the other islands of American Samoa has been the responsibility of the US Department of the Interior. In 1956, Peter Tali Coleman became the first Samoan-born governor of American Samoa. In 1960, during his tenure, protections for the islanders were approved, including protection from confiscation of their lands and from loss of their cultural practices. After 1960, the Flag of American Samoa was made the country's official flag. In 1961, the US president, John F. Kennedy, appointed H. Rex Lee governor, and approved US expenditure of massive funds to develop Tutuila, which throughout the 1960s was used to finance the building of an international airport, seaport facilities, roads, schools, houses, a hospital, a tuna cannery, a modern hotel, and the installation of electricity throughout the country. in 1962, Western Samoa became independent of New Zealand, leading to uncertainty about whether the US would continue to have control of American Samoa. The massive US development efforts during the 1960s served to effectively solidify support for the continuation of Tutuila and the rest of American Samoa as a dependency of the United States. In July 1997, Western Samoa changed that country's legal name to "Samoa." This name change was opposed by many Americans, including the inhabitants of American Samoa, who believed that using the unmodified wo.... Discover the Alexis Lipsitz Flippin popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Alexis Lipsitz Flippin books.