In 1947 the United States accepted a United Nations trustreeship for what
came to be termed the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.
former
Japanese
mandated
islands,
including
the
This comprised all
Marshalls,
which
had
been
reconquered by American forces during World War II.
In 1980 representatives of the United States and the Marshall Islands agreed
to a Compact of Free Association.
Under this arrangement the Marshallese wil]
enjoy full internal self-government and control over foreign affairs, with the
United States guaranteeing security and defense.
This relationship will continue
for fifteen years with the United States providing generous economic assistance.
United Nations
approval
for the ending of the trust
arrangement
seems
assured.
There is reason to expect that 1981 will see the birth of the sovereign
nation of the Marshall
Islands.
She already has
organized a government, and created a flag.
developed a constitution,
In their independent status the
Marshall Islands will need to continue developing an efficient bureaucracy, a
viable economy, a functional educational
system, and an adequate health care
program,
(For
an
excellent
detailed
historical
summary of Western
influence
in
Micronesia, see the paper entitled American Rule in Micronesia: Where Have Al]
_the Dollars Gone
by Drs. Hamnett and Kiste of the East-West Center and the
University of Hawaii, 1980.)
D.
The Marshallese Social System
There are three classes in the Marshall Islands in the social stratification
system. ‘At the top there is the iroij system or class, which is the class of the
chiefs.
Iroij laplap is the term for high chief and there are few of those. The
chief 'owns' all of the land on a certain island or atoll] or group of atolls, and
he is the supreme authority.
The next class is the alab class, which is the lineage heads.
They are
really secondary land owners because the iroij is still the chief land owner.
The alabs, then, are heads of families or clans and they are responsible to
distribute the land for its various uses.
belongs to individuals.
tribe under the iroij.
Land is rarely ever in the hands or
It is only a trust that belongs to the whole family or
The atolls are very narrow, often a city block in width,
and the alab slices the island like a loaf of bread, giving each strip, known as
wato, which extends from lagoon to ocean, to a household or to a family to operate
it and live on it.