13
The
Political
Situation
Decisions on the local level are made by the council of
family heads and other males.
Magistrate Juda,
The council 4s headed by
who is also the senior male of the Bikini
group according to the traditional system,
‘the local chiefs (iroij), of Bikini.
He is the heir of
The Bikini people were
also traditionally subjects of a paramount chief (iroij lablab),
whose ancestor had conquered Bikini over a
paramount
chiefs
of Bikini had
century ago.
never lived
The
on the atoll but
only visited it from time to time to collect tribute from their
subjects.
tion was
A percentage of the cash proceeds from copra produccollected during the Japanese period,
The Bikini people,
in effect,
declared their independence
from the paramount chief shortly after their move from Bikini.
They rejected him completely and declared
that
the U.S.
Government was their paramount chief, and not the absentee
title holder,
heip them,
whom they complained had
but only exploited them.
for the past twenty years.
I found that
never done anything to
This hae been the theme
On my last trip to the Marshalls
this attitude has not
changed.
They want
nothing
“to do with Troij LejoléH Kabua who holds the paramount chief's
rights to Bikini according to the traditional Marshallese
custom.
The attitude of rejection and refusal to accept him as
their leader and
more
spokesman has hardened,
than twenty years of independence.
Le jol a
continues to maintain nis
mmo
if anything,
As I
after
understand
claim to nis nereditary
it,
rights