We are the stewards of our race

The indigenous language of the people of the Northern Mariana Islands (Chamorro and Carolinian) is empty of the word “racist” and “racism.” Race is included in the vocabulary in that the word “rasa” appears to be the equivalent notion. As a matter of fact “ism” does not exist in the discourse of our people. This is important to note as many bloggers and outsiders who are not culturally connected to these islands are introducing concepts or meaning that do not resonate well with the thinking or mind of the ordinary indigenous people of the NMI. The ancestral domain of these islands followed its own historical and cultural development over the course of centuries of human existence as a people before the arrival of this modern day non-indigenous settlers.

The struggle of an “indigenous people” is not unique to the Northern Mariana Islands. Places like Sri Lanka, people of the southern Philippines in Mindanao, the Maoris in New Zealand, the Native American Indians in the U.S., the Hawaiian people, the minority people of Fiji and Papua New Guinea, countries in South America, destitute people in countries in Asia and others the world over are bringing their economic and social anomalies to the forefront within the global community. The indigenous people of the NMI should start paying attention because what is transforming these islands will be irreversible and a price we will pay when our existence as an indigenous people is no more important than the endangered species dying because of mere neglect by the plasticity of consequential ignorance of our elected leaders at every level of governance.

The inhabited islands of the NMI could not possibly fit a population greater than what these islands could economically and socially sustain. Over 320 million citizens of the U.S. have free access to these islands. Neighboring nations such as Japan, Korea, Philippine, China, and dozens of countries in Asia can score more than four billion people and could drop in to settle on these islands if the incentives are good to lure their mobility to these islands. A fraction of the people from these areas spilling over to the NMI is trouble waiting to manifest itself. Only a few thousand indigenous people of Chamorro and Carolinian race exist in this world and it would be like diluting a squeeze of lemon juice in a tank of water. In the U.S. all its borders are protected in order to control the influx of people to this country and the policy exists for good reasons. Is it wrong that the indigenous people of the NMI control its own borders as well in order to keep these islands settled by the few of us that are found only on these islands? The pride and love of our islands should dominate the mind and thinking of every indigenous people of the NMI, and there is nothing wrong with that. We have a very small population, we are living in a region with limited natural and economic resources, and our situation is more acute with the defined land mass that can only take care of a few thousand people today, and reserving some space for the future descendants of the Chamorro and Carolinian races is a critical and important preservation desires of a people.

Issues about the land, economic and natural resources, and governance should serve as the backbone of deliberative discussions. In a democracy the concept “control” is a significant norm of a people. For us in the NMI, the sovereignty rests in and with the indigenous people who is the government and governance of these islands. This is not because of the solidarity of a people, but more so the opportunity to take actions by mutual consensus in public policies of desirable and needed future actions. We need to make clear the premise of what our disagreements and arguments should draw from, and fit by mutual consensus of what the indigenous people have in protecting their interests to remain on these islands as their ancestral domain, perpetually carried on placing them as a people to be known as Chamorro and Carolinian for as long as it takes. There is nothing wrong to announce and acknowledge to the world over as to who you are as a Chamorro or Carolinian. Stand tall and declare your true race and be proud of it regardless of detractors that belittle your race as Chamorro or Carolinian. Be it resolved that these islands are by nature the islands of the indigenous Chamorro and Carolinian who have attested their ancestral domain as stewards of the existence of the Northern Mariana Islands as it exist today.

Francisco R. Agulto
Kannat Tabla, Saipan