So I first heard about the number of Samoans in Alaska just after I got to Michigan (thanks to my colleague, Kali Israel, who hails from there).  She gave me a local piece on that issue, and some concerns over Samoan gangs, which some day I’ll scan and post here, should I find it!  The History Channel gave this subject its standard, sensational, skimming treatment a few years ago in its reliably stupid Gangland series, and someone has (of course) put it up on youtube: Gangland: Ice Cold Killers.  That is not, of course a recommendation, but I’m sure if you’re so inclined you’ll watch it.

But this has been on my radar since I saw this recent piece about Islanders being excluded from bars, carried by Alaska Daily News. As that columnist puts it, ‘Alaska has one of the largest Pacific Islander communities, percentage-wise, in the United States.  We rank third behind Hawaii and Utah.’  (This is factually incorrect, at least for data from the last census: Hawai’i has 14% ‘Hawaiian and other Pacific Islanders’, California and Utah are next with 0.4%, and then Alaska and Washington State are both 0.3%: though in Washington this means over 15,000; in Alaska it is under 2,000).  I suspect that the data here is very flawed, due to a widespread fear of enumeration amongst many Islanders: this census is likely to produce a more accurate count, not least because of the advertising and community campaign that most Islanders have been made aware of.  (Last census stats here, if anyone is interested).

What led me to post this, though, was some news from a Catholic Newspaper sent to me via the Samoan Language Week group on facebook.  Though the piece is standard in many respects, its worth a look. 

My former student, Justin Thorington, who one day will have the courage to face me on a basketball court, also keeps a Pacific blog, called ‘Be Pacific’, from that heaven on earth that is Traverse City, Michigan.  Its a long way from his ancestral island, Pohnpei!   Check it out.  He actually posts stuff on his blog, unlike me ...