tenure system at fnewetak was in ideal and in practice a bilateral one.
In most cases, a married couple divided the land they had each inherited
among their children, and a child usually received some land from both

his father and mother. As younger islanders matured, they worked the land
with their parents. As the parental generation died and as members of the
next generation married and produced children, the process was repeated with
parents allocating Jand among their offspring.

The islanders resided upon their landholdings on Enjebi and

Enewetak Islands.

In most cases, households were headed by males and

were situated unon land held by them. Ideally, residence was patrilocal,
j.e., upon marriage, fenales moved to their husband's households, although
exceptions to the rule did occur.

Every individual possessed rights to some land on islands away from
the settlements on Enewetak and Enjebi. All land in the atoll was held by
someone with the exception of one parce] on Enewetak Island which was
donated to the mission.

RELOCATION OF [HEENEWETAK PEOPLE
After the capture af Enewetak Atoll in 1944, the U.S. Forces
removed the Enewetak people from their homes on Enjebi and Enewetak Islands

and placed them on Aomon.
Later the Enjebi community moved (at their own
request) to Bijire Isiand because the latter was under the authority of the

Chief of the Enjebi conmunity. In 1946, when nuclear testing was first
considered for Enewetak, the Enewetak people were moved to Meik Island
in Kwajalein Atoli. Their stay there was short, and they were again moved
back to Aomon where they remained almost a year. Late in 1947, they were
again moved, this time to Ujelang Atoll.

COMPARESON OFUJTLANGANDENEWETAK
Ujelang Ties 124 miles southwest of Enewetak.

In preEuropean

times, Ujelang was inhabited by a Marshallese population. In the late
1800s a typhoon decimated the atol? and killed all but a handful of people
who moved to the southern Marshalls. The atoll was then developed as
a commercial copra plantation during the German and Japanese colonial
eras. During the nianLation period, a small group of islanders from the
Eastern Carolinas served as wage laborers on the atoll. It was abandoned,
however, during Worid War Ul and was thus uninhabited until relocation
of the Enewetak people.

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