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Concept
Satawal
Summary
Satawal is a solitary coral atoll of one island with about 500 people on just over 1 km2 located in the Caroline Islands in the Pacific Ocean. It forms a legislative district in Yap State in the Federated States of Micronesia. Satawal is the easternmost island in the Yap island group and is located approximately east of Lamotrek.
The island, which measures long northeast-southwest, is up to wide and sits atop a small platform-like reef with a narrow fringing reef. The total land area is , and is thickly wooded with coconut and breadfruit trees. As there are no anchorages for large boats, Satawal is seldom visited by outsiders.
Administratively Piagailoe Atoll, located 71 kilometers to the northwest, belongs to Satawal municipality.
The native language is Satawalese, a Chuukic language closely related to Woleaian, and the entire population of the island numbers approximately 500. Although located in Yap State, the people of Satawal are more closely related, culturally and linguistically, to those of Chuuk.
The Satawalese primarily subsist on fishing and some agriculture (coconuts, breadfruit, taro). They build small thatch houses for sleeping and use the trunks of breadfruit trees for boat-building. Cultural forms primarily revolve around dance and story-telling, and an alcoholic beverage known as tuba (a palm wine) is brewed from fermented sap of the coconut flower spike.
In 1849 a earthquake struck which caused flood. This flood led to the island being submerged with the exception of trees people got on to. The island was submerged for several hours. People in certain cases who were on the trees were removed by the water and died. Eight survivors from the island came to the Marianas in April of 1849 to permanently live there. There were survivors who were still on the island but couldn't leave for lack of boats. They also planned on leaving the island permanently.
As with all of the Caroline Islands, sovereignty passed from Spain to the Empire of Germany in 1899.
Official source
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