In a letter, Historic Preservation coordinator Carmen A. Sanchez told Gov. Benigno R. Fitial that there is hardly anything indigenous about historical remains in the commonwealth because approximately 85 percent of indigenous Chamorros were annihilated by the Spanish in an attempt to convert the natives to Christianity from 1668 to late 1770.
By the early 1800s, Sanchez said there were no pure Chamorros in the Marianas chain of islands.
The NMI, she explained, is the “culmination of different cultures put together —Chamorro, Spanish, Filipinos, Chinese, German, Japanese, Americans and other nations —[that] left their influences in our cultures, traditions and languages.”
She added, “So the product of who we are today is a nation with mixed blood.”
Sanchez asked Fitial to please note that “we have irrevocably lost most of our customs and traditions and what we are practicing today are the customs and traditions of other countries.”
She said inter-marriages between Spanish, Filipinos, Chinese, German, Japanese, Americans and other nationalities with the Chamorro women produced “mestizo” off-spring.
Sanchez said HPO does comprehensive surveys to identify, locate and document all cultural and historic properties in the commonwealth.
It also collects and documents oral history to identify, locate and nominate historic and archeological resources for inclusion into the National and State Register of Historic Places.
HPO is a division of the Department of Community and Cultural Affairs, which receives $400,000 in grants from the U.S. National Parks Service.
These funds, Sanchez said, “are rendered solely to HPO.”
Sanchez also noted that the report by the Management Analysis on DCCA, excluded Tinian and Rota.
“How can this analysis exempt the two sister islands when I thought we call ourselves Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands? Was this report intended solely for Saipan and not Tinian and Rota? I really would appreciate clarifications of the above.” Sanchez told the governor.
