Above: When ex-Bikinians came to Kili in 1948 they built a new village under supervision, mainly using materials supplied by the Administration.
This dweiling is one of thirty on Kili re-built from salvaged lumber and thatched with local pandanus. Street in foreground is sanded, rest of living
area is covered with coral pebbles. Right: The Protestant church on Kili is supported by the entire island population, whose ancestors on Bikini
Atoll in 1908 were the last Marshallese to be converted by American mission workers from New England.
main undecided is the basis for recog-
nizing new members of a bamle, whether
these should be own children or sisters’
children or some combination of these
and still other relatives—another point
of potential conflict of interest within
the community.
Compensation For Rights in Bikini
In 1956 the Trust Territory Adminis-
tration reached an agreement with the
Kili Council whereby those persons with
land rights in Bikini would be compen-
sated for indefinite use of that atoll by
United States agencies.
In November
1956 an initial payment of $25,000 in
cash was distributed by the Kili Council
among some 330 men, women, and
children who were regarded as legitimate
participants in the settlement.
The councillors, with assistance from
younger men who possessed more experience in arithmetical calculation, quickly
arrived at a classification of individuals
for the purpose of computing the amount
to be paid to each kin group. It was
decided that every person on Kili in
November was to receive $79; each
member of the Kili community who was
temporarily absent was allotted $75. and
each individual who was matrilineally
related to a Bikinian lineage but who had
made permanent residence elsewhere in
the Marshalls was limited to $50, as was
also his or her spouse and each of their
children.
All payments were made to headmen
or their representatives, further
distribution among members of the landholding kin groups on Kili being left to
the headmen. No alab is known to have
tried to withhold funds from his group,
although shares of children underfifteen
years or thereabouts were retained by
their parents.
An
additional
$300,000 was
estab-
lished by the Trust Territory Adminis-
tration as a trust fund with semi-annual
interest payments. The first of these,
nearly $5,000, was made at Kili on July 4
1957, when the Council again accepted
responsibility for distribution. Past ex-
perience,
however,
had
suggested
to
councillors that another basis of classification might be more desirable. The
distinguishing categories were reduced
from three to two—(i) each person
present on that date on the island was to
get $16.75, and (ii), any of the 330
November recipients who was absent
from Kili on July 4 would be given
$10.25.
It should be noted that in November,
and again in July, the Council first computed payments in terms of the individual, but then handed the money over
to the headmanof the kin group to which
the individual belonged. This was the
same approach adopted by the Council
in its
1954
allocation
of Kili land.
Recent comments on Kili about alternative ways to classify individuals and
what amount each should receive suggest
that further modification of Council procedures may be expected when the next
interest payment is received on Kili. In
other words, although every landholding
kin group on the island is not directly
represented on the Council (kinship ties
resulting from considerable inbreeding
tend to provide some indirect representation), the local governing body is not
entirely deaf to criticism levelled at it
by dissenting groups and individuals in
the community.
Council Store
At the project manager’s suggestion a
Council-sponsored store was inaugurated
on Kili in 1954 to meet the need for a
central receiving and distributing facility.
With no capital but a small building,
Council and manager embarked on a
programme to
produce coconut syrup,
sennit, and handcrafts from Kili’s sur-
plus coconut materials. A ready market
for their sale was found among other
Marshallese and at the naval air base on
Kwajalein.
All profits stayed with the store after
each producer had been compensated.
Later, all island copra was handled by
the store as broker, with sales to various
buyers who visited Kili from time to
time. Before long the store could buy
trade goods for re-sale at a reasonable
mark-up to island consumers.
Within less than two years the project
manager reported the store’s worth at
approximately $5,000. More recently the
store has entered the wholesale field, and
supplies goods to eight or nine modest
retail outlets on Kili.
Kilians assert that the store belongs to
the Council, by which they mean the
community. Although in this sense the
people are all shareholders, no dividends
have ever been paid—all profits continue
to remain with the store. One man did
present to the Council a strong demand
for payment of his “share”, but met with
a firm refusal.
Some years back the Kili Council had
been keenly embarrassed in a_ like
situation: islanders who had at that time
contributed cash to establish a Kili cooperative
under
Council
management
later asked for return of their money and