US DEPARTMENT OF INTERIOR PUSHES FEDERAL RECOGNITION ON SAMOA, GUAM & VIRGIN ISLANDS
Esther Kia`aina Heads Effort To Create Tribes
On Tuesday, February 23, Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Insular Areas Esther Kia`aina will host a panel discussion in Washington, D.C. on Self Determination in the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and Guam.
The scope of the panel discussion is to focus on those U.S. territories – U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and Guam – that are still listed on the United Nations List of Non-Self-Governing Territories.
Since the last self-determination conference for the US territories was held in 1993 in Washington, DC, Assistant Secretary Kia`aina stated, “I believe it is important to provide an updated context for federal policy-makers and a new generation to learn about the status of self-determination in the respective territories as well as to understand what their rights are to self-determination under federal and international law.”
