From: ahk@chinet.com   
      
   Nobody  wrote:   
   >"Adam H. Kerman"  wrote:   
   >>Stephen Sprunk  wrote:   
      
   >>>If American Samoa wanted to get real representation in Congress, all   
   >>>they'd have to do is hold a referendum on statehood.  Puerto Rico does   
   >>>so every few years--and it is soundly defeated each time.   
      
   >>Turns out it's more complicated. They wrote their own constitution, but   
   >>Congress never wrote an organic law for them, so it's unorganized territory.   
   >>I'm sure this could all be negotiated if American Samoa wants to change   
   >>their status, but I agree with you; I've never heard that they do.   
      
   >>As long as I was looking it up, I learned why American Samoa was never   
   >>a Trust Territory despite being a former German colony, a different   
   >>status than Trust Territory of the Pacific.   
      
   >What is now American Samoa was never part of the German protectorate.   
      
   The German protectorate came later, yes, Western Samoa. The colony wasn't   
   formally governed by the Germans; just saying there were some traders   
   and merchants and they did want to exploit it although they hadn't gotten   
   very far.   
      
   >>United States and Germany had negotiated a treaty with regard to Samoa in   
   >>1899, long before WWI. The Trust Territories were generally successors   
   >>to Mandates on territory seized from Germany (and other losing nations)   
   >>in WWI.   
      
   >American Samoa has existed since ratification of the tripartite treaty   
   >in 1900.   
      
   As a what? It has a weird legal status. If you were reading, you saw   
   that it was being administered by the Navy way back when. My comment   
   as to why American Samoa had an entirely different status than area   
   under Mandate/Trusteeship was simply to note that it was WWI spoils but   
   separately negotiated years earlier.   
      
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