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Hidden Treasures from the Pacific Collection

Pacific Collection Exhibit Items

March 1, 2007-March 31, 2007
Location: Bridge Gallery

Scattered across a vast expanse of water as wide as the continental United States are over twenty-one hundred islands that make up the cultural region known as Micronesia. The area includes three major archipelagoes: the Marshalls, Carolines, and Marianas.Having passed through colonial rule by the Spanish, Germans, and Japanese, the islands of Micronesia became a United States administered United Nations strategic trusteeship following World War II. This new arrangement was named the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI).

Beginning in the 1970s the districts began voting to end the trustee relationship with the US In 1986 the US notified the UN that its obligations were fulfilled. The UN officially dissolved the Trust Territory in 1990. Palau, the last of the Trust Territory districts, voted to end its trustee status in 1994.

Today the Former Trust Territory is comprised of four separate, self-governing districts:

  • The Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas
  • The Federated States of Micronesia, comprised of Kosrae, Pohnpei (Ponape), Chuuk (Truk), and Yap
  • The Republic of the Marshall Islands
  • The Republic of Palau (Belau)

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