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Mr. Theodore (™ Mitchell

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October 29, 1974

associated withthe origina] moves) are still under stress, What this
means, however, is hard to access at a distance since my theory
applics primariiy to tle inonths end yours irpmed.ctely preceding ane
following forcec removal, All I can say is that the mental and physicel
health uf the people should be carefully assessed before their shift
home and before they are invelved in majcr new vertures -- ventutes
which would require radical changes in their activities and life, stvle,
I say this since the theory predicts that populati.as undergoing forced
removal behave as if a social system was a closed system; that is
they change no more than they have to in order to continue doing what

they did in the past and the changes which occur are incremental ratner
than. sudden. The insistence of the people through out all these years
that they be allowed to return "home" is consistent with the theory
here. But once the people get home and the euphoria of having '"won'"'
fades, what then? What can be expected when they begin to settle
down with three times the number of people on an idealized homeland
which can be only partially utilized. With these questions in mind, I
would like now to consider three points.
(1) It is very important to recall that approximately 80% of the population is under 30 years of age according to the population figures.
In other werts, the 'arce majority of the peopie will cither have no
memory at all or only a vague memory of life on Enewetak. It is this
age bracket which strikes me as a major unknown. To what extent
do the Council of 12 really speak for them? To what extent do they
wish to return to the life style of their parents and grandparents? I
can not answer this question at a distance, in large part because the
Enewetak population within the three volume Impact Statement is
treated as if it was homogeneous. But I doubt very much that such
is the case, a doubt that is reinforced by the odd statement in the
reports -- for example,e"'A number of people have been exposed to
. education away from Dnewetak and have ceveloped strong tastes for
imported foods and other lux&ries'' and the peopie have “achieved a
good understanding of the behavior and values of Americans, and
several have distinguished themselves in government and mission
schools.'' In assessing the impacts of the return on the people I
suspect we need at least differentiate from the very beginning between

:

the older 20% and the remainder.

(2) Compulsory resettlement projects always run the risk of the
relocatces developing a dependency relationship with the relocating
' authorities. I would suspect that a strong sense of dependency
characterizes the older people from Enewetak and that this will continue
during the next decade. Even if the dependency does not already
exist, most of the people are going to be dependent on outsiders for
years to come sirnply because it will take at least seven years to
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