Ulithi
Ulithi is an atoll in the Western Caroline Islands.
Alternative spellings and historic names include: Ouluthy, Uluthi, Uluti, Urushi, Urushi-tó, Ugeu, Ulevy, Ulewi; Egeu, Egoy, Elivi, Chickpea Islands, Garbanzos, Lamoy, Los Reyes, and Mackenzie
Ulithi is situated at 10° 05' 30" N, 139° 43’ 15” E (based on Mogmog ), 85 miles east-northeast of Yap and about 45 miles west of Fais. It consists of four elements: the main atoll of Ulithi in the west, the separate island of Falalop off the notheast point of the island, a small detached reef with several islets lying east of the main atoll, and Zohhoii oru Bank, an incomplete atoll, in the extreme east.
The atoll of Ulithi proper is 19 miles long (N-S) and about 10 miles in maximum breadth. Its reef supports 30 islets, all small, low, and wooded, and has many breaks and entrances. The principal islet, Mogmog in the north, is about half a mile long and has a swampy depression in the interior. Other islands include Asor, Federai. The isolated island of Falalop, with its own fringing reef, lies across a mile of open water from Asor Island in the northeast of the main atoll. It is about half a mile in length and has a swampy depression in the interior. Five miles southeast of Falalop and directly east of the central section of Ulithi atoll lies a detached reef with three islets, Bulubul, Losiep, and Yo (Pau). East and southeast of this reef, and separated from it by a clear channel three miles wide, lies Zohhoiiyoru Bank, an imperfectly formed and largely submerged atoll 12 miles in length (N-S) and four miles wide. At its northern end is an exposed reef three miles long, supporting the islets of Ear (lar, Tar) and Gielap (Hilap, Khielap, Kilap).
Ulithi was discovered by the Portuguese explorer Diogo da Rocha in 1526, sighted by Álvaro de Saavedra in 1528, Ruy López de Villalobo in 1543, and Bernardo de Egui in 1712. It was the scene of an ill-fated Spanish effort at colonization and missionization in 1731-33, and then visited by Russian Friedrich Benjamin Graf von Lütke in 1828.
Ulithi is a part of the Outer Islands of Yap in Yap State, within the Federated States of Micronesia.
Subunits
Populated islands within the atoll include: Falalop (Falalap; Hurarappu), Asor (Esor, Yasol), Mogmog (Mogamog, Moguemogue), Federai (Fassarai, Fossarai); Formerly inhabited include Feitabul, Lossau, Ilange Jang, and Pigelelel.
Population, Language and Religion
The 2010 FSM Census reported a population of 847. Ulithian is the spoken language and religious affiliation is predominantly Roman Catholic.
A 1935 count of the population by the Japanese identified 408 residents on Ulithi and one Japanese national (on Falalop). The total included 39 residents on Lossau, which is no longer inhabited. After the war, in summer of 1946, the US Naval Military Government counted 418 natives on Ulithi.
In 1732 two Jesuit fathers sailed from Guam to Falalop in Ulithi, established a colony there, and set about converting the natives. One of the fathers, returning to the Marianas for supplies, was shipwrecked, and did not get back to Falalop until 1733, only to learn that in his absence the other priest, eight lay Spaniards, and four Filipinos had been murdered, A century and a half passed before the Spaniards attempted further missionary activity in the area.
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), Ulithi 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 Ulithifell 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), Ulithi fell within the Yap 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) Ulithi fell within the Yap Administrative Unit and then the Yap 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
Ulithi was part of the "Yap-Ulithi-"Woleai" chain of authority and the related "Sawei" Yap/Outer Island Trade and Tribute Network (sometimes called the "Yap Empire”).
Pre-contact social order was characterized by a social hierarchy with a strong egalitarian ethic and chief(s) with highly circumscribed powers (Goldman Level 1 of 3).; very rare interpersonal violence (between individuals who frequently, but not always, are known to one another); perhaps one death per decade (1 on Younger's 0-4 scale); occasional warfare, defined as armed aggression between political communities or alliances of political communities, with wars every few years (2 on Younger's 0-4 scale).
Property rights were characterized by 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 Council of Tamol.
In Yap, traditional leaders have a role in governnance that enshrines them as a "Fourth Branch." As John Haglelgam, former President of the FSM observed in his "Traditional Leaders and Governance in Micronesia" (1998), “in Yap, the traditional leaders have formal roles in the government. The Yap state constitution created two councils of chiefs: one for the main islands of Yap and one for the outer island chiefs. These councils are empowered to review and disapprove an act of the state legislature if it violates custom and tradition… The legislature cannot override the veto of these councils but can incorporate their objection in the bill and return it for their review. So far. the councils have used their power sparingly. The councils have also expanded their power to review policy of the executive branch which has forced the governor and his cabinet to justify their policy to the councils… The two councils are in essence public watchdogs, making sure that elected officials and bureaucrats are doing their job.“
Spanish and German Eras
The Deutsche Handels und Flantagengesellschaft, the largest German firm in the Pacific trade, expanded into the Western Carolines from their base of operations in the Marshalls, and by 1885 was operating stations a station on Ulithi.
In 1893 the German Godeffroy Company extended it's copra operations to Ulithi, Ifalik, Lamotrek, Satawal, and Woleai, seven years after Pope Leo XIII awarded Yap and the Caroline Islands to Spain, but granted Germany and other nations commercial rights.
Japanese Era
A detached weather station was situated on Ulithi during the Japanese Period. Information was relayed from these outlying stations to the Observatory at Koror, in Palau, seat of the South Seas Government.
A government radio station with the call letters JPL was located on Asor, Ulithi. It was licensed to operate at a capacity of 100 kw, used both A-1 and A-2 types of transmission, and broadcasted on frequencies of 4,975, 6,100, and 8,955 kc.
There was a branch office of the Nanyo Boeki Kaisha serving at the atoll. A man with the name of Akinaga was serving as manager in the mid 1930s. Matsuji Yamaguchi, the Japanese assistant manager of the Nanyo Boeki Kaisha branch office in 1934, was reported at that time to have had 17 years of experience in Lamotrek, Ulithi, and Woleai.
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. Ulithi is represented in the FSM Congress by the Yap, At-Large Seat Senator, and the Yap, Sole Population-Based District Senator.
Since the establishment of the FSM, Yap State voters have elected and maintained in Congress one Yapese Senator and one Outer Island Senator. This de facto power-sharing arrangement is similar to the requirement in the Yap's State Constitution stating "if the Governor is a resident of Yap Islands Proper, the Lieutenant Governor shall be a resident of the Outer Islands, and if the Governor is a resident of the Outer Islands, the Lieutenant Governor shall be a resident of Yap Islands Proper."
Education
The Local Education Agency, or “school district” for Ulithi is the Yap State Department of Education and Ulithi falls within the Ulithi Zone.
Runway
Ulithi Civil Airfield (ULI) is located in Yap State on Falalop Island on the northeast side of Ulithi Atoll, roughly 120 miles (194 km) east of Yap International Airport. It is currently served by Pacific Missionary Aviation. The runway is 3,000 by 75 feet of concrete.
Texts Dealing with Ulithi
Craib, John L. 1981. “Settlement on Ulithi Atoll, Western Caroline Islands.” Asian Perspectives 24(1).
Descantes, Christophe. 2004. “The Martyrdom of Father Juan Cantova on Ulithi Atoll: The Hegemonic Struggle between Spanish Colonialism and a Micronesian Island Polity.” In Missionalia,.
Hunter-Anderson, Rosalind L. 2006. “Integrating Archaeology and Ethnohistory: The Development of Exchange between Yap and Ulithi, Western Caroline Islands (Review).” Asian Perspectives 45(2). doi:10.1353/asi.2006.0017.
Kirtley, Bacil F., and William A. Lessa. 1963. “Tales from Ulithi Atoll: A Comparative Study in Oceanic Folklore.” The Journal of American Folklore 76(299). doi:10.2307/538082.
Lessa, William A. 1955. “Depopulation on Ulithi.” Human biology; an international record of research 27(3).
Lessa, William A. 1962. “The Decreasing Power of Myth on Ulithi.” The Journal of American Folklore 75(296). doi:10.2307/538176.
Lessa, William A. 1967. “Ulithi: A Micronesian Design for Living.” Man 2(1). doi:10.2307/2798713.
Lessa, William A. 2017. “The Place of Ulithi in the Yap Empire.” In Peoples of the Pacific: The History of Oceania to 1870, doi:10.4324/9781315247175-16.
Lessa, William A. L. “The Portuguese Discovery of the Isles of Sequeira.”
Lessa, William A. “Comments on Settlement on Ulithi Atoll.”
Lessa, William A. “The Social Effects of Typhoon Ophelia (1960) on Ulithi.”
Lessa, William A. “Traditional Uses of the Vascular Plants of Ulithi Atoll, with Comparative Notes.”
Lessa, William A. “Ulithi and the Outer native World.”
Lessa, William A., and Tracy Lay. 1953. “The Somatology of Ulithi Atoll.” American Journal of Physical Anthropology 11(3). doi:10.1002/ajpa.1330110314.
Mitchell, Roger E., and William A. Lessa. 1983. “More Tales from Ulithi Atoll: A Content Analysis.” The Journal of American Folklore 96(379). doi:10.2307/539836.
Spencer, Mary, and Rebecca Stephenson. 2019. Ulithi Atoll, Micronesia: Recalling the Past, Reaffirming the Future. 1st ed. University of Guam Press.
Viana, Augusto de. 2013. “Fr. Juan Antonio Cantova and the First Christian Mission in the Caroline Islands.” Philippiniana Sacra 48(144). doi:10.55997/ps2004xlix144a3.
