"IT appreciate bringing in the Human Relations
Team as well as the scientific team of Loma Linda
University.
This
is
very
important
to
us
particularly.
The Western world does not always
understand us and our culture. They may mean well,
but they are often unsuccessful because, as I told
the Trust Trust Territories of the Pacific Islands
Commissioner, ‘The problem of the T.T.P.I. in the
past has been planning for people instead of planning
with people.'"
There are 33 senators in the Marshallese Parliament (The Nitifela), usually
one
from each
atoll
except
where there
is
a
concentration
population.
Kwajalein, for instance, elects three senators: Arno 2; and so forth.
10 ministries in the government, and there should be obviously 10
the
President
is
responsible for
Affairs, so that leaves 9.
There are
flinisters, but
the portfolio of the Ministér of Foreign
There is also an important council] of chiefs, a
council of iroij, which has 12 chiefs who come from the major digtricts of the
Marshall Islands.
The House of Iroij receives the bilis from the
Jegislature in
order to look at them and then examine them carefully to see if thefe is anything
that conflicts with the Marshallese customs and traditions and the things that
affect land and land tenure.
change;
it
is
It it is Something serious, they
is nothing serious, they will
will recommend
return it to the I@gislature for
final approval.
In other words,
when
the Marshal]
Islands modernized
th@ir
system of
government, they agreed that some official body of leaders would have to be
chosen
to
safeguard
the
country's
traditions,
customs,
d
culture.
Consequently, they created the House of Iroij.
E.
Religion and Values
In 1852 the Boston Mission Society sent four missionaries
fo Micronesia.
These, however, did not establish themselves in the Marshall Islands. In 1857 a
reverend Doane together with his wife settled on the atoll] off Ebon.
It is
reported that by 1865 he had converted 125 of the 750 inhabitants
pf the island.
From this beginning missionary activities slowly progressed ovar
the various
atolls and islands so that by the turn of the centruy the popdlation of the
islands were mostly Congregationai Christians.
In talking with the Marshallese about their old traditional r@ligion, no one
could be found with authentic accounts of old religious beliefg.
however, clear evidence of what the Marshallese themselves now calf
There was,
superstition