Linda Boucher, age 14, of Longview, Wash., for her question:
WHERE DID THE PACIFIC ISLAND PEOPLE ORIGINATE?
First people of the Pacific Islands came from Asia several thousands of years ago. There are about 10 million persons living in the Pacific Islands today with only a few islands or groups of islands, such as Hawaii, Fiji, New Guinea and New Zealand, having large populations. Many islands have fewer than a hundred people.
For thousands of years, the people throughout the Pacific Islands lived much alike, except for slight differences in language, dress, law and religion. The life of most islanders was simple and relaxed.
In the early days, almost all of the people lived in small villages and fished or farmed for a living. They knew nothing of what went on in the rest of the world, and the rest of the world knew nothing of the Pacific Islands.
It wasn't until the 1500s, when the first Europeans arrived on the Pacific, that the rest of the world knew about the Pacific Islanders.
Then, by the late 1800s, several European countries and the United States had taken control over most of the Pacific Islands, or Oceania as it is also called.
Oceania is divided into three main island groups: Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. Scientists have decided that the people who live in the three regions belong to the three different races: Melanesian, Micronesian and Polynesian.
Melanesians are the shortest and have the darkest skin of the three Pacific Island races. Micronesians are somewhat taller and have somewhat lighter skin. Many have Asian characteristics, such as high cheekbones and straight hair.
Polynesians are the tallest and have the lightest skin. They have straight to wavy hair.. Marriages between islanders and Asians or European settlers have been common.
Other peoples make up only a small part of the total population of the Pacific Islands.
Only Fiji, Hawaii and New Zealand have a majority of people who are not native to the islands.
During the late 1800s, European landowners in Fiji brought thousands of people from India to work as laborers on the cotton and sugar plantations. Today, Indians outnumber native Fijians.
Hawaii has many American and Japanese settlers while most of the New Zealanders are descendants of settlers from Great Britain.
New Zealand and Hawaii differ from the other islands of Oceania in many ways.
New Zealand is an independent, highly developed nation and has a modern economy. Most of its people have a European background.
Hawaii, on the other hand, is a state of the United States and, like New Zealand, has a highly developed economy.