The Habele Outer Island Education Fund has released initial accounting numbers for fiscal year 2007. According to Habele Treasurer Tom Lutte, more than 90 cents of each dollar spent went directly to K-12 scholarships and library development in the Outer Islands of Micronesia.

One of the keys to Habele’s efficiency is the fact that we have no paid employees explained Lutte. The Fund spent roughly $6,300 in FY 2007. The breakdown by category was:

58% - Scholarships
33% - Library Development
5% - Domestic Postage & Printing
4% - Fees and Dues

The Fund was able to use this money to finance two complete scholarships (tuition, room, and board) to the prestigious Bethania High School in Palau for low-income students on Ulithi. Habele also made ten shipments of books and school supplies to public school libraries in the islands.

It is frustrating that we had to pay money to the state in fees and that we have unavoidable fixed costs like website hosting and our PO Box, noted Neil Mellen, President, but we are lucky that so many donors give time and talent - the content of our beautiful website, habele.org, is a great example of such a donation.

A more detailed analysis of these figures will be included in the 2007 Annual Report, which will be released by the Habele Board of Directors in early January 2008.

Habele is an all-volunteer nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of educational opportunities and accomplishment in the remote Outer Islands of Micronesia. Visit habele.org to learn more.

December 8th 2007 | Covina California

A group of students at Covina High School in California are mailing off an early Christmas Gift to fellow pupils in the Central Pacific nation of Micronesia. The gift, a collection of lightly-used text books, has been assembled as a donation for a public school on the remote Atoll of Ulithi, located 360 miles southwest of the American territory of Guam.

”The service club Interact worked with our campus library to compile the donation from books that we no longer had any use for” explained Mr. Sean Fox, the Covina High teacher who helped to coordinate the donation.

“I was familiar with the islands, once part of the United States' Trust Territory, as the result of stories I heard from one of my own former teachers, Jim Boykin.”

The more than one dozen boxes full of books are now enroute to the remote Outer Islands High School (OIHS) which is attended by students from the islands of Falalop, Mogmog, Federai, Asor and Fais in the state of Yap. This donation, and other similar projects, is part of the effort of the Habele Outer Island Education Fund to promote educational opportunity and advancement in Micronesia.

“I came across Habele on the Internet when researching stories about my former mentor Jim Boykin,” Fox explains, “I was really impressed that a group of former Peace Corps volunteers had set up a charity to serve these tiny and often-overlooked islands. I thought about how I might be able to pitch in and remembered that our school always seemed to have stacks of old textbooks lying around.”

Habele, a nonprofit incorporated in the State of South Carolina, awards performance-based scholarships to high school students in Micronesia in addition to marshalling donations of books and school supplies.

“This is a great chance for students in the US to connect with and help out their under-resourced peers in the Federated States of Micronesia” said Tom Lutte, Habele’s Treasurer and a former Peace Corps Volunteer who served in Micronesia. “The OIHS teachers and students make do with very limited materials, often with a single book for three or four students to share. These full classroom sets of texts will make a big impact.

Anyone interested in helping to pay for the cost of shipping the books to Micronesia is encouraged to visit www.habele.org and make a donation.

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A recent email to Habele explains:

I just saw your website and wanted to say thank you for all you are doing for the kids on the outer islands. I am from Eauripik and now reside in Washington state and it is good to know that people are doing good things for the kids on the islands. I enjoyed looking at the pictures you have on the website.

I will make a donation to your organization in the future.

Thanks again,
David H.

Habele wants to extend its to thanks to David for his kinds words, as well as to all the other generous Micronesians living in the United States who are eager to to extend the opportunities of education to their fellow islanders. Sa chigchig!

Habele volunteers from a public high school in Upland California continue to gather books for students at the Outer Island High School in Yap State, Micronesia. The most recent shipment included text books for Chemistry 1, Economics, U.S. Government, AP Biology, and Human Biology, as well as basic classroom materials such as pens, pencils, and notebooks.

The United States Postal Service has announced the resumption of domestic postal rates for addresses in the Northern Pacific.

Pacific Magazine reports that the United States Congress has passed Amendments to the Compact of Free Association. The House Bill, HR 2705, can be viewed here. Among the highlights:

The U.S. Agency for International Development (US AID) will take the role formerly held by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in providing post disaster relief to Micronesia and other freely associated states.

The Amendment also clarify the eligibility of citizens of Freely Associated States (FAS) residing in states or territories to receive the legal assistance provided by the Legal Services Corporation.

Pohnpei is now home to an office of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission intended to monitor and conserve critically-low levels of highly migratory fish stocks in the high seas of the Pacific.

Palauan politician and Governor Benigno R. Fitial publicly lamented the split of former trust territory islands.


The 8th Annual Western Micronesia Chief Executive Summit is being held in Saipan. Discussions are focused on privatization, alternative energy, and conservation.

The Habele Outer Island Education Fund is a US-based non-profit organization dedicated to the expansion of educational opportunity and accomplishment in the remote outer islands of Micronesia, a former US Trust Territory in the Central Pacific.

The Kaselehlie Press reports on the tensions of federalism embodied in an ongoing dispute over government oil contracts between state and national law makers in the FSM

Yokwe.net has a detailed article explaining the push among some US House Members to reinstate certain Federal benefits to citizens of the Freely Associated States (FAS). As the article explains, these states, including the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of the Marshalls, enjoy a specially relationship with the following characteristics:

• The Compact of Free Association established these nations as sovereign States responsible for their own foreign policies. However, the FAS remain dependent upon the United States for military protection and economic assistance.

• Under the Compact, the United States has the right to reject the strategic use of, or military access to, the FAS by other countries. This right is often referred to as the ``right of strategic denial.'' In addition, the U.S. may block FAS Government policies that it deems inconsistent with its duty to defend the FAS, which is referred to as the ``defense veto.'' The Compact also states that the United States has exclusive military base rights in the FAS.

• In exchange for these prerogatives, the U.S. is required to support the FAS economically, with the goal of producing self-sufficiency, and FAS citizens are allowed free entry into the United States as non-immigrants for the purposes of education, medical treatment, and employment. Because of this ability to travel within the United States as a non-immigrant, many FAS citizens have since migrated to the State of Hawaii.

Father Francis Hezel of the Micronesian Seminar editorializes about reform in Chuuk State

In Habele organization news, donors from Southern California continue to provide Head Start and Primary Schools on Falalop Ulithi with education toys and games. Another box is being mailed sometime this week.



Also, donors and volunteers are encourage to contact board members with comments and feedback they would like to be considered at the upcoming Habele Board of Directors meeting, set to convene in Columbia, South Carolina in mid-November.

Habele is a an all-volunteer not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting educational opportunities and accomplishment in the remote islands and atolls of the Central Caroline Islands, commonly known as Micronesia

Habele is sending a collection of basic hand tools to the vocational education teachers working at the Neighboring Island High School on the Atoll of Woleai.

"Woleai is a remote island and basic supplies are hard to come by" explained Mr. Alex Sidles, Secretary of the Habele Board of Directors. "This is particularly true of tools required for the vocational programs. Frustratingly, we have found that the most remote schools tend to be the most under-resourced.

The high school on the island of Falalop, Woleai serves students from all the islands in that Atoll, as well as functioning as a boarding school for pupils from the neighboring Atolls of Eauripik, Ifaluk, Lamotrek, Faraulep, as well as the island of Satawal.

Composite photo of the Atoll of Woleai. Falalop is the island on the right with the unimproved airstrip. Photo Copyright Coral Reef Research Foundation. (Click here for a detailed map of Yap State).

Habele is a nonprofit organization consisting of former Peace Corps Volunteers, school teachers, private donors, and other volunteers working to promote educational opportunities and accomplishment in the remote Outer Islands of Micronesia. Visit www.habele.org to learn more.

Habele recently received a kind email from Mr. John Taibemal. John is a native of the Atoll of Eauripik who is now serving as an Airman in the United States Air Force. Because of the conditions of the Contact of Free Association Micronesian citizens may enlist in the US Military.

In regards to the donations to Eauripik Habele has sent he explained:

I am so very impressed of your dedication to help out the Outer Islands students. I am even more grateful for your volunteerism and very thankful for your committed endeavor in supporting the school system especially on your gifts of school supplies for Eauripik.

John E. Taibemal AM2 HSC-25
Anderson Airforce Base, Guam

Habele would like to thank John for his dedication to the United States as well as for his encouragement for Habele. We look forward to coordinating with John and other Micronesians in the United States as we expand our library support program. In fact, Habele volunteers are beginning to compile textbooks and reference books for a series of shipments later this year to the Atolls of Ulithi and Eauripik.

Mr. Sean Fox and his high school students in California have worked with their local Rotary and Interact Clubs to gather dozens of Biology, Physical Science, Chemistry, Economics, and History books already. Other Habele volunteers are marshaling donations in Washington DC, Columbia, South Carolina, and in Portland, Oregon.


If you are interested in learning how you can help gather supplies or make a financial donation to offset the cost of delivering the books visit Habele.org and look for contact information on the right hand tool bar. Habele is an IRS recognized nonprofit dedicated to educational opportunity and accomplishment in Micronesia's remote Outer Islands

This is the third in a series of blog entries chronicling the modern history of the Ulithi Atoll. For background information see Part I (1529 to 1730), Part II (1731 to 1899), and Part III (1900-1943).

The Americans came to Ulithi in September of 1944. Their presence would lead to far greater changes than the previous three occupying powers combined. The U.S. sought to make the lagoon a naval base, to serve as a point of consolidation for its eastward drive towards the Japanese Mainland, and most immediately the attack on Okinawa. The Japanese had left Asor, and the US landing forces encountered no resistance when the Americans landed. In order to make the maximum possible use of the limited land space the islands of the Atoll provided, they consolidated all Ulithians onto Federai. By displacing the other islands’ inhabitants they were able to create an airfield on Falalop, a logistics center on Sokoli, and an area for fleet rest and relaxation on Mogmog.


USS Enterprise CV-6 crewmen at the beach on the island of Mog Mog, Copyright US Library of Congress

With all the Atoll’s native inhabitants squeezed on the thin island of Federai (a few are said to have remained on nearby Ladoua) there was no hope of any sort of agricultural subsistence. Furthermore the lagoon’s water were said to be dirty from oil (from US and Japanese ships) as well a harboring naval mines. The navy simply brought huge rations of canned goods, rice, sides of meat, and other foods for the Ulithians, who received such an abundance of these, that they were said to have often feed them to their pigs once they had themselves become full. The Navy also sent a handful of medical doctors to deal with an outbreak of Yaws . In accordance with practice in the Pacific, the Navy itself served as the ruler and administrator of the Atoll .

After the War the Navy withdrew, though a contingent of US Coast Guard remained to man the small station that had been created. Although the Navy made some token efforts at cleaning up the islands where people had formerly lived (Falalop, Asor, Mogmog, and Sokoli) were for the most part quite barren, the soil replaced with crushed coral (to support the weight of trucks and machines) and the shores and reefs littered with trash and rusting machinery. The Navy sought to wean the Ulithians of their dependency on imported food over the course of a decade as the local foods began to be grown again in significant numbers. The Americans allowed US Jesuits to come and preach on the Atoll, with Father William Walter arriving in Mogmog in 1949.


An American teacher employed by the TTPI on the Ulithi of Atoll, Photo Copyright US Government

The United Nations allowed the United States to rule the islands of the Pacific in a “Strategic Trust Territory.” The “Strategic” qualification meant that the US reported to Security Council rather than the General Assembly of the UN, and that the US had total control of all political and military concerns. This included a prevention of all non-US foreign nationals from entering the territory. The Navy officially passed control to the US Department of Interior in 1951. Although there were efforts made in the direction of basic infrastructure / medical / educational improvement, the reality was that the TTPI was initially not unlike the League of Nations Mandate that the Japanese had exercised in terms of the foreign power’s perception of primary responsibility towards the locals.

The “Strategic” qualification is key to many critics’ understanding of the intent and interest of the Americans through this period, and even through to the present. David Nevin argued in the late 1970s that “Americans have had a disastrous impact in Micronesia. They have been motivated by their interest in the strategic value of the islands and have been guided by a naïve altruism and an arrogant assumption that has allowed no self-questioning.”

A significant tenant of US rule was the insistence that no foreigners could own land within the trust territory, and this included the American Government itself. On Ulithi the Coast Guard acquired land through long-term leases, and this was the case for some sixty acres , primarily the area to the North of the airstrip on Falalop, known as Hapillpill, or “the government side.” It was this land, already secured as “public” in the form of leases that would host the Atoll-wide high school.

The 1960s saw a revision in American perceptions and attitudes. Although planners in the Pentagon were in no hurry to cede islands that had been “given away” in the 1890s only to be earned back through great loss of American blood in the 1940s, military technologies as well as centralization made certain locales very significant (Kwajallein, Guam, Okinawa) while the vast majority of Pacific Islands were admittedly of little strategic value. The whole was considered much greater than the sum of its parts . The Kennedy Administration brought new thinking, and eager optimism, along with much greater funds for the TTPI. Third country nationals, as well as their economic efforts were allowed in, and the Peace Corps arrived in mass to further basic educational and sanitary programs. The overall budget for the TTPI was vastly expanded as well.

A major factor contributing to the change in policy overseen by the Kennedy administration was a 1961 report by the United Nations which painted a rather grim and blaming portrait of the “considerable dissatisfaction and discontent” among the Islands throughout the TTPI . This was particularly damaging, as the US had recently, and quite publicly, announced it support for the anti-colonial stance taken by Angola against its former masters in Portugal.

The days of the Trust Territory Pacific Islands (TTPI), and particularly from the late1960s through the early 1980s represent the peak of foreign involvement and development on Ulithi. Schools were created on each island at the elementary level, as well as an atoll-wide high school on Falalop. During this period the Ulithians continued to recieve a great deal of aid and assistance from the military. Following a disastrous typhoon in the 1960s companies of US Navy Sea-Bees (Construction Battalion) arrived to fabricate new homes for all the Atoll’s families. Water catchments, men’s houses, and other concrete structures were also created with a combination of US leadership / supervision and Ulithian labor. It was during this period Outer Island High School (OIHS) earned a reputation as “The Best In The Western Pacific” when it was headed by an American Contract teacher / principal named James D. Boykin, and staffed by a small army of Peace Corps Volunteers.

Changes in funding did not address the TTPI mechanisms. The control over the “American Pacific” remained with the Department of the Interior. Frustration was voiced by some at the “supreme illogic of giving (the Department of the) Interior dominion over an immense exterior region more than 6,000 miles from Washington .” The exceptions were few, namely direct Department of Defense control of military facilities at Kwajallein, Eniwetok, and Bikini, as well an unclear amount of CIA control over Saipan, home to the intelligence organization’s Asian training facility.


Elementary School Student, Falalop, Ulithi. Copyright Habele

As the Trust Territory came to an end, the various island groups in the Central Pacific could not come to a unanimous decision as to their desired national status, and each negotiated separately. The Marshalls (1986) and Palau (1984) became republics, and the Northern Marianas a US Commonwealth (1978). The Islands of Pohnpei, Chuuk, Yap, and Kosrae established themselves a loose federal structure, termed the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), and aligned themselves with the United States in a “Compact of Free Association” that while maintaining formal sovereignty for the FSM, provides for a significant portion of direct US aid, and eligibility of FSM citizens for US domestic assistance programs. The Compact was intended to be a one-time treaty to be concluded after twenty years, and culminating in a state of final financial self-sufficiency for the FSM. Having failed to reach these goals, a second compact of free association was agreed upon in the late 1990s.
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The Habele Outer Island Education Fund is a US-based non profit organization dedicated to promoting educational opportunities and accomplishments in Micronesia's remote Outer Islands.

This is the third in a series of blog entries chronicling the modern history of the Ulithi Atoll. For background information see Part I, which covers 1529 to 1730, and Part II, which covers from 1731 to 1899.

At the conclusion of the Spanish America War the United States sought to strip Spain of any of lingering colonies or possessions that might interfere with America’s manifest destiny to reign as the primary power in the Western Hemisphere. This extended to Philippines, which provided so lucrative to its former owners, but not to the smaller and more scattered Islands of Micronesia. America also seemed eager for Spain to have available the liquid cash assets necessary for war reparations. With the consent of the United States, Germany purchased both the Carolines and the Marianas from Spain in 1899. Guam was the sole exception, being retained by the U.S., and it seems to have served the same purpose of naval and economic port of security and transit that the Spanish employed it as.

A German cruiser in Microneisa, circa 1876 Copyright Kingdom of Yap.org

The Germans, like the Spanish before them, were much more interested in Yap Proper, than the smaller islands around it. While busy redistricting and attempting to commercialize Yap, they sent only a few vessels to the outer islands in order to buy Copra (dried coconut meat). This gave the Ulithians and other outer islanders a small amount of money for the purchase of basic goods. The Germans did decree some laws, such as a restriction of the tapping of coconut sap, but these were mostly ignored. The primary impact of the Germans seems to be their decree that extended canoe voyages between islands cease. This was enforced much more thoroughly than their other legislative efforts. Both the laws restricting intoxication and travel seemed to been intended to make the locals more orderly, or at least easier to rule. Following the Great War, Japan assumed control of the islands, as it had joined the cause of the Allies late in the war with the hope of gaining additional lands to increase its regional power.

THE JAPANESE
At the conclusion of the First World War the Allied Supreme Council created a mandate system that stripped the defeated nations of their colonies, and placed them as “temporary wards of the ‘advanced’ nations until they were able, in the words of what became Article 22 of the Covenant, ‘to stand by themselves under the strenuous conditions of the modern world .’” The un-advanced, were passed from the advanced losers to the advanced winners. The Mandate was termed a class “C” which designated those nations on the “’lowest’ stage of development; for them independence was not seen as an optional at all .”

A Japanese observation tower on Asor, photo copyright PacificWorlds.com taken by Drury C. Lee

The Japanese set up a very small presence on Ulithi during their League of Nations Mandate and later Military occupation of Yap (and Micronesia). The location of this small group of rotating men, never more than a dozen at a time, on Asor served to up-heave the traditional power system on Mogmog in small ways. Although active prostylization did not occur on Ulithi itself the Japanese were pleased to tolerate Catholicism on Ulithi, as it seemed to promote order and subservience in the locals throughout the mandate . The Japanese relocated some Ulithians, mostly young males, in order to attend school in Yap Proper. A handful were later sent to trade schools as far way as Palau or the Marianas. Those who were in Yap at the onset of the War were to remain there until the conclusion of Pacific Theatre hostilities, and were often employed in military construction projects such as runway repair. In the years immediately leading up to the War, there was also relocation of some Ulithian men to work at the phosphate mines on Fais. Others went to Angur in Palau to work as unskilled manual labor in pursuance of the goals of the Greater East Asian Co-prosperity Sphere. Not as much interested with (or concerned by) the fact that Japan was able to create conditions for net exportation of goods such as rice and sugar in the region as a whole most contemporary Ulithians note only that it was a period characterized by strict order and development.

As well as locals, some American observers have painted a very glossy version of events during the period. A reporter for the Saturday Evening Post noted in early 1964 that “by the mid-1930s energetic Japanese had colonized extensively, building sugar mills and pearl centers, mines, fisheries, and a thriving copra trade. The major islands, bustling centers for commerce became progressive modern in their way of life.” Indeed there were a few sites hosting great leaps in development, but on the whole this is a rather simplified take on a mercantilist / colonial system, that was for a time directly controlled through a military apparatus, and included a limited use of coerced labor as the War came to an end and the Japanese were under greater attack .

We might do well to question the degree of direct impact the Japanese had on Ulithi itself. In his Pacific Islands Douglas L. Oliver illustrates a juxtaposition of the larger islands (contemporary state capitals) where “native life was transformed, sometimes beyond recognition” and those “out-islands” including Ulithi Atoll where the foreign influence was less direct and significant . He argues that with “no immediate Japanese need for their lands or persons they were left for the next batch of foreign masters to transform.” These next “masters” were the Americans who brought with them many shifts in life and thought.


Part IV will cover from 1944 through to the 1960s.

The Habele Outer Island Education Fund is a US-based non profit organization dedicated to promoting educational opportunities and accomplishments in Micronesia's remote Outer Islands.

This is the second in a series of blog entries chronicling the modern history of the Ulithi Atoll. For background information see Part I which covers 1529 to 1730.

Fathers Contova and Walter, as well as a small contingent of Spanish soldiers, sailors, and alter boys arrived in on Ulithi in 1731. They remained on Mogmog a short while, but chose to set up shop on Falalop due to the greater space and more ready availability of fresh water. They had brought within them a young man from Ulithi, who had arrived on Guam when his canoe veered far off course. He had taught the Fathers his tongue, and was assumed to be an essential component of their conversion efforts. In fact he spoke to the Ulithians fearfully of the things he had seen in Guam, of the manner in which the Chamorro were oppressed by their captors. When the bulk of the Spanish had left to secure additional supplies from Guam, those remaining behind, including Father Cantova, were killed by the Ulithians.

Father Cantova's Map of the Outer Islands. Reproduced in History of Micronesia: A Collection of Source Documents, Volume 13, complied and edited by Rodrique Lévesque, Lévesque Publications, 1992.

Father Spilimbemgo, who authored a contemporary biography of Walter explained how after stabbing and then accusing the Jesuit of destroying their customs, the “barbarians attacked him with two more spears, to finish him off: one pierced him in the chest and the other one went through his left side again.” Spilimbemgo, who likely heard a third hand tale, goes on to point out the symbolic value of three (recalling the trinity) sheddings of blood demonstrating his “charity” , and then explains that all this occurred on the shore of Mogmog, with the rest of the Spanish contingent on Falalop being killed later in the same day.

Although the Spanish may have reached Yap Proper as early as 1527 (Alvardo di Saaverdra Ceron), and most certainly did by 1542 (Ruy Lopez de Villalobos), they did not come to remain in a formal capacity or create a permanent presence until 1885. During this period the Germans were increasingly active in the region, primarily interested in the Copra trade, and they attempted to make a claim on Yap as well. Pope Leo XII settled the dispute by assigning the Marianas and Carolines to Spain, while allowing the Germans control of the Marshall Islands to the east . Although they created a station in Yap Proper, the Spanish did not construct any significant or permanent presence in the outer islands.

Chiefs and leaders on the Island of Mogmog. Photographer unknown. Reproduced in Lessa, Willam A. Ulithi: A Micronesian Design for Living, Holt, Rhinehart and Winston Inc. New York, 1966.

Dave Bird, in his Yap Regains Its Sovereignty explains how Yap State (meaning Yap Proper itself as well as all the outlying atolls and islands which collectively make up the contemporary political state – see map section) as a whole, and Yap Proper in particular, saw “relatively few changes” during the period of Spanish rule. The Spaniards introduced Catholicism (this time it held foot) as well as literacy to a limited degree by teaching Spanish as well as creating a Yapese Orthography. Changes on the Outer Islands were even less significant, and Bird outlines his account of the “outer island link in the old ‘Yap Empire’” which the Spanish did not alter .

Part III will cover the period from 1899 (when the Germans took possession of the Caroline Islands) through to the Japanese acquisition (after WW 1) and then loss (in WW2) of the islands.

The Habele Outer Island Education Fund is a US-based non profit organization dedicated to promoting educational opportunities and accomplishments in Micronesia's remote Outer Islands.