THE IFALUK PEOPLE OF MICRONESIA

The atoll of Ifaluk includes two tiny inhabited and two uninhabited coral islets of barely one-half square mile located in the Western Caroline Islands of Micronesia, which is in the western region of the north Pacific Ocean. The two inhabited islets, Falalop and Falachig, are separated by a 35-meter-wide channel that is completely dry during low tide and can easily be crossed on foot even during high tide. Ifaluk is about 350 miles east of Yap, the political center of the Western Carolines, and about 400 miles south of Guam, the nearest economic center. As of 1995, the Ifaluk population consisted of slightly over 600 individuals. Woleian is the primary language spoken on Ifaluk and the neighboring atolls of Woleai, Lamotrek, Faraulep, and Eauripik. Many men, but very few women, also speak English. According to Ifaluk legend, the island's first inhabitants came from Yap? although historical accounts identify migrants from Polynesia as the earliest settlers.

Beginning with Spain in the 1600s, for the last few centuries, the Caroline Islands have been under the control of several colonial powers. In 1893, Germany purchased the Carolines from Spain and began to systematically exploit human and agricultural resources. The Germans instituted the practice of “blackbirding,” a form of labor recruitment similar to slavery, in which Ifaluk men were taken to neighboring atolls to toil in phosphate mines.