Lukunor
Lukunor is an atoll in the Central Caroline Islands.
Alternative spellings and historic names include: Cheyne, Lemarafat, Lougoullos, Lugunoz, Lutke, Mortlock, Namoin, Namonefeng, Rukunoru, Young William, and Youngwilliam.
Lukunor is one of tbe three coral atolls of tbe Namoi or Mortlock Islands, which also include Ettal and Satowan. It is situated at 5° 29' N, 153° 58' E, about six miles northeast of Satowan and eight miles east of Ettal. The atoll is roughly triangular in shape, seven miles in length, and four miles in breadth. It includes 18 low coral islets strung along tbe southern side and eastern end. Tbe largest of these, Lukunor Island at tbe extreme east, and is about two miles long and over 500 yards wide. A good passage on the south side admits sailing vessels and steamers to the lagoon, where excellent anchorage is found at Cbamisso Harbor inside Lukunor Island.
Lukunor was discovered by the Captain James Mortlock in 1795 and visited by Russian Friedrich Benjamin Graf von Lütke in 1828.
Lukunor is a part of the Nomoi Islands in Outer Islands of Chuuk, a portion of Chuuk State and located in the Federated States of Micronesia.
Subunits
Islands within the atoll include: Lukunor Island and Oneop Island.
Population, Language and Religion
The 2010 FSM Census reported a population of 927. Mortlockese is the spoken language and religious affiliation is primarily Roman Catholic, with a minority of Protestants. A 1935 census completed by the Japanese identified 901 persons on Lukunor. The islands of Lukunor and Oneap being home to 480 and 408 natives respectively. There were a further three Japanese nationals and ten foreigners as well.
Governance
Spain laid claim to the Carolines from the time of initial discovery in the early 1500's but made no attempt to occupy or administer them. In 1885 a Governor for the Carolines was appointed by the Governor General of the Philippines and presence established in Pohnpei and Yap. In this Spanish Period (1521-1899), Lukunor fell within the Western District of the Spanish East Indies.
After the Spanish-American War, Spain sold the Palau, Caroline, and Marianas Islands to Germany in 1899. In this German Period (1899-1914), the Caroline, Palau and Mariana Islands (excluding Guam), along with the Marshalls, annexed in 1885, were titled Imperial German Pacific Protectorates. The Carolines become an administrative district of German New Guinea under direction of a vice-governor and Lukunorfell within the Eastern Caroline District.
The Carolines were seized from the Germans by the Japanese early in World War I. Despite protests from the United States, including the Yap Crisis, the Islands were in 1920 mandated to Japan by the League of Nations. In this Japanese Period (1914-1941), Lukunor fell within the Truk District of the “Nan'yō Cho” or South Seas Government.
Following liberation of the islands in the War in the Pacific, the islands were administered by the US Navy. The Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI) was formalized by United Nations Security Council Resolution 21 in 1947. The Navy passed governing duties to the Department of the Interior in 1951. During the USN Period (1945-1947) and the TTPI Period (1947-1979) Lukunor fell within the Central Carolines Administrative Unit and then the Truk District.
The Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) was established with the end of the Trust Territory. The FSM is one of three “Freely Associated States,” or “FAS” nations that entered into a Compact of Free Association or “COFA” with the US. The treaty and agreements provide economic assistance to the countries, secured US defense rights and set defense responsibilities, and allow FAS citizens to migrate to the United States.
Traditional Culture
Pre-Contact
Property rights were characterized by: a land tenure system based on matrilineal ownership and extended matrilineal usage. Children of male members use or inherit partially their father’s lineage land (Sudo, Type 1). The landowning unit is rigidly arranged by descent principle and the residential unit is a large matri-extended family based on matri- local residence. Married-out male lineage members have obligations to pass on some lands or use-right to their children. This custom of land-gifts func- tions to keep a balance between group population and food resources.; a system of sea tenure in which the entire reef-lagoon system is owned by lineages or clans (Sudo Type 3).
Present Day
Traditional chiefly authority is exercised by the Island or sub-island level chiefs (Clan).
In Chuuk, traditional leaders play a negligible, informal role in public sector governance. As John Haglelgam, former President of the FSM observed in his "Traditional Leaders and Governance in Micronesia" (1998), ”in Chuuk, the traditional chiefs have little influence on the governance and politics of the state. Traditionally, the basic political power in Chuuk was, and still is, the head of the lineage.....A candidate who garners enough support from the lineage heads usually wins. This reduces the influence of the traditional chiefs on voting in Chuuk. It has also polarized and fragmented politics in Chuuk and prevented the emergence of consensus among state leaders. These problems make governance difficult and utterly chaotic.”
Spanish Period
The Deutsche Handels- und Plantagengesellschaft of Hamburg, which in the early 1880s handled approximately half of the German Pacific trade, entered the Carolines in 1883 and had stations on Losap, Lukunor, Nukuoro, and Pohnpei. German firms dominated the copra trade in the Carolines from the beginning, and in 1885 were taking three fourths of the production of the area. In 1887, Deutsche Handels and other competing German firms were amalgamated to form the Jaluit Company, which maintained a station on Lukunor.
American Protestant missionary enterprise spread from Pohnpei to the smaller islands of the Central and Eastern Carolines. In 1873, native evangelists and teachers were sent to Satowan, and by 1878 there were seven mission stations in the Nomoi Islands (Ettal, Lukunor, and Satowan).
German Period
On Pohnpei, in 1909, the Catholics maintained four mission stations (in Sokehs, Nett, and U), two branch stations, two boarding schools, and eight schools, manned by five fathers, seven brothers, three sisters, and 24 native assistants. In 1911 a priest was sent to Lukunor to take charge of missionary efforts in Ettal, Lukunor, Namoluk, and Satowan. Within a few years about one third of the natives in these atolls had been converted to Catholicism.
Japanese Period
In March, 1922, the Japanese Provisional Naval Garrison was abolished, and its place was taken by the South Seas Government, a civilian administrative organization which governed the mandated islands thereafter. Lukunor marked the eastern edge of those islands falling within the Truk (now "Chuuk") Branch Government, with Polowat being the furthest portion of the Truk Branch to the west. Beyond Lukunor, the Ponape (now "Pohnpei") Branch Bureau administered the islands from Kapingamarangi in the west to Kosrae in the east.
The Nanyo Boeki Kaisha operated two voyages a year between Chuuk and Rabaul, touching Losap, Namoluk, Lukunor, and Kavieng en route, covering a distance of 1,740 nautical miles in 22 days. The Japanese also built a small boat pier on the western side of Lukunor, while Nanyo Boeki Kaisha maintained a trading station on the atoll.
As late as 1941, there were reports of a female German Lutheran missionary, of the Liebenzeller mission, in the Nomoi Group, most probably on Lukunor.
Electoral Divisions
The legislative branch of the Federated States of Micronesia is unicameral. Two types of Senators are elected: at-large senators, one for each of the four states, who serve four-year terms, and population-based senators, representing specific constituencies, who serve two-year terms. The President of Micronesia is elected by the Congress from amongst the four at-large senators, after which a special election is held to (re)fill that seat.Lukunor is represented in the FSM Congress by the Chuuk, At-Large Seat Senator, and the Chuuk, District 1 Senator.
Education
The Local Education Agency, or “school district” for Lukunor is the Chuuk State Department of Education and Lukunor falls within the Mortlocks Region.
