THIS is an open letter to the Honorable Shalanda D. Young, Director, Office of Management and Budget, Executive Office of the President; the Honorable Richard Resvesz, Administrator, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Executive Office of the President; and the Honorable Bob Sivinski, Chair, Interagency Technical Working Group on Race and Ethnicity Standards, Executive Office of the President.
Dear Director Young, Administrator Revesz, and Chair Sivinski:
Hafa Adai!
On behalf of the members of Matua Council for Native Chamorro Advancement, we write this letter to inform your respective good offices that regarding the documents 88 FR 5375, OMB-2023-0001 and SPD 15, and specifically, the “Initial Proposals for Updating OMB’s Race and Ethnicity Statistical Standards,” amendment to OMB Directive 15 document — that we OPPOSE the inclusion of “Refaluwasch” as there is without oral, social and academic documents supporting the use of this word in the Northern Mariana Islands, and consent of the indigenous people of the Mariana Islands archipelago.
More importantly, we seek these good offices to allow the people in our communities encompassing the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands to be informed on this policy proposal because we were not informed and/or given an opportunity to be educated on this important piece of policy amendment to the standards of OMB Directive 15. The information was exclusive only to those individuals employed by the CNMI government, and those organizations who benefit from resources (land, ocean access and taxpayers’ dollars) provided by the CNMI and federal governments.
Again, on behalf of us concerned citizens of the Northern Mariana Islands, and especially, the indigenous community, we humbly seek your assistance and guidance to allow our people and community to be informed on this call for policy change that may have a lasting and unintended consequences by this federal directive on public policies in the CNMI and may continue to negatively impact the cultural survival of the native people in the NMI.
The only information regarding OMB Directive 15 was from a post on April 11, 2023, in social media, Facebook, of a copy of a letter of support from the resident executive of the Office of Indigenous Affairs to the U.S. Executive Office of the President of the United States or the White House on updating the standards for the census documents. Our research found that the deadline for comments was set to expire on April 12, 2023, and was amended to April 27, 2023.
Unfortunately, our government representatives in the CNMI and the U.S. delegate’s office failed to provide listening sessions or public information for over one year or since the notice of proposal — to hear and directly engage the members of the public regarding OMB Directive 15. This community engagement should and must allow the government to receive comments and/or opinion, and especially the Chamorro, the indigenous people of the Northern Mariana Islands on the inclusion of an exclusive (natives Satawalese, Woleaian, Polowatese, etc., or outer islands/atolls of Yap island) from the Carolinian community as best described in the operational definition provided for in the 1991 Carolinian-English Dictionary (published by University of Hawai’i press) on the meaning of “Faluwasch” and “Refaluwasch” in verbatim: “land, Saipan, (‘our land’), similar to Refaluwasch.”
As persons who are among the ancestral and original peoples of the Mariana Islands archipelago: Guam, Rota, Tinian, Saipan, Pagan, and all islands north of the Marianas archipelago, we believe that including “Refaluwasch” as it stands in government documents for the Northern Mariana Islands or the Mariana Islands will legitimize the CNMI government’s decades of misinformation and conveyance of indigenous status through political public policy to a certain group of migrants of the Caroline islands who immigrated and settled in the Northern Marianas during the colonial periods of the Mariana Islands that began a little over 200 years ago — without the advice and expressed consent, proper knowledge and education of the indigenous people.
For example: the first CNMI Constitutional provision of Article III, Section 18, nearly a decade thereafter Article III, Section 23 was provided to the native inhabitants, and the Second CNMI Constitutional Amendment No. 43 of the 44 amendments introduced to amend our national identity and official languages without consent, proper information and education on its impact on the natives. To add continued injury to the natives, CNMI Public Law 1-8 that became law through legislative override is one of the most discriminatory race-based and gender-based public policy that is against the CNMI Constitution. But P.L. 1-8 continues to be utilized by the CNMI government in the appointment process to all board and commission of the CNMI government department and agencies, including government corporation. Yet, there is no guarantee or protection clause like such exclusive for the native inhabitants, the indigenous people, the Chamorros.
These offices must be aware that the use of “Carolinian” in the CNMI and in the CNMI Constitution encompasses several different and distinct races and ethnicity from each of the respective Caroline Islands. The Carolinians from Chuuk, Yap (proper or main islands, Colonia), Pohnpei, Kosrae, and Palau were all referenced and called “Carolinian” in the CNMI Constitution and public policy to reference groups of the distinct and different native peoples from the Caroline Islands which today we call Micronesia. The native or indigenous language of the Chamorros, the Chamorro word “Gupalao” references all peoples from the southwest to the southeast of the Marianas archipelago.
In the last four decades or since the signing of the first Constitution of the CNMI including the signing of the second Constitution to establish the office for the Chamorros under Article III, Section 23, Resident Executive for Indigenous Affairs — the CNMI government does not have a focused attention to mitigate the mental, emotional and socio-economic sufferings of the Chamorros as a result of colonialism, war, and immigration in order to provide programs and services aimed to directly support and advance the indigenous people of these archipelago. The CNMI government has failed the native people since 1978 and continues to fail the people in the treatment of the Indigenous Affairs Office to ensure provisions to advance the native inhabitants because the Indigenous Affairs Office has been completely politicized since its inception, and until this writing (referencing Letter date April 6, 2023 on OMB Directive 15 rom Mr. Ross Hugh S. Maglona, a recent governor’s appointee as Resident Executive for the Office of Indigenous Affairs).
As advocates of our native inhabitants, it is our moral and ethical responsibility to inform all parties of the inherent and consistent discrimination through public policies against the natives using taxpayers’ dollars both CNMI and U.S. and using federal definitions of “Native American” to fulfill such atrocity and injustice against the indigenous people of the CNMI.
To this end, it is imperative that we inform the federal government departments and agencies providing resources and oversight on programs and services, and public policy extended to the CNMI — that the definition of native people is correctly and adequately identified and defined. We are cognizant that the international community — the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples and the U.S. Federal government are aware that the Chamorros are the only indigenous people in the Mariana Islands archipelago. The Northern Mariana Islands should be no different.
It is important to note that identifying United States citizens from the Caroline Islands as “Native American” in federal grants has been taken out of context and narrative that amended policy narratives in the CNMI to include certain people of the Caroline Islands as indigenous of the CNMI by the CNMI government.
For example: In the Citizen Centric Reports starting from fiscal years 2018 to 2022, the Carolinian Affairs Office identifies itself in these mandatory public accountability report as the “Indigenous Carolinian of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands” in its report headline or title, mission, and then transitions to “Refaluwasch” in the narratives in these documents submitted to the CNMI Office of the Public Auditor, the Commonwealth Legislature of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Governor’s office of the CNMI.
Lastly, we support programs, services and projects that provide inclusion and diversity for all residents of the CNMI because everyone matters in our small islands’ community. The CNMI has always been a melting pot of thousands of people from many ethnic and racial backgrounds since colonial period up to our contemporary history on economic development policies of colonial nations, and today for the CNMI’s economy.
In closing, we appreciate the identification provided for and available in the 1997 Standards that provide the guideline for the recent 2020 decennial census under “Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander” and “Chamorro” as race and ethnicity, respectively. However, it is critically important that we continue to actively participate in the process to ensure that the ‘2023 Original People means indigenous, prior to colonial occupation’ in the Northern Mariana Islands. Thank you in advance for the opportunity to comment on this important public policy document.
Sincerely,
LIANA M.S. HOFSCHNEIDER
President
Matua Council for Native Chamorro Advancement
