Atuu is a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

Tutuila Island Tutuila is the largest and most populous island of American Samoa and is part of the archipelago of the Samoan Islands. It is the third largest island in the Samoan Islands chain of the Pacific Ocean, Central Pacific. It is located roughly north ...

American Samoa American Samoa is an Territories of the United States, unincorporated and unorganized territory of the United States located in the Polynesia region of the Pacific Ocean, South Pacific Ocean. Centered on , it is southeast of the island count ...

. It is located on the coast of

Pago Pago Harbor Pago Pago Harbor on Tutuila Island in American Samoa is one of the world's largest natural harbors. The capital, Pago Pago, is located on the inner reaches of the harbor, close to its northwesternmost point. It has the highest annual rainfall o ...

, close to the capital,

Pago Pago Pago Pago ( or ; Samoan language, Samoan: )Harris, Ann G. and Esther Tuttle (2004). ''Geology of National Parks''. Kendall Hunt. Page 604. . is the capital of American Samoa. It is in Maoputasi County, American Samoa, Maoputasi County on Tutuila ...

. Atuu is the location of two tuna canneries, the main employers in American Samoa. According to business license records from the

Government of American Samoa The government of American Samoa is defined under the Constitution of American Samoa. The United States Congress, in the Ratification Act of 1929, provided that until the Congress shall provide for the Government of the islands of American Samoa ...

, the village of Atuu is home to 28 commercial businesses. Most of these are fast-food restaurants, eateries, night clubs, bars, and retail shops. The village is also home to a medical clinic, a laundromat, a consultant organization, and a fish agent. A portion of the

StarKist Tuna StarKist Tuna is a brand of tuna produced by StarKist Co., an American company formerly based in Pittsburgh's North Shore that is now wholly owned by Dongwon Industries of South Korea. It was purchased by Dongwon from the American food manufac ...

complex is also located in Atuu.

History

In 1909, the

Marist Brothers The Marist Brothers of the Schools, commonly known as simply the Marist Brothers, is an international community of Catholic Church, Catholic religious institute of Religious brother, brothers. In 1817, Marcellin Champagnat, a Marist priest from Fr ...

founded the Marist Sisters School in Atuʻu, where all instruction was conducted in English. Six years later, in 1915, they established the Marist Brothers School in the same area. In 1975, the Marist Brothers High School was relocated to Malaeloa. By 2024, StarKist Sāmoa had leased the land from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Samoa–Pago Pago and plans to develop the site for housing guest workers. In 1953, the Rockefeller Company launched the first fish cannery on Tutuila Island. A year later,

Van Camp Seafood Company A van is a type of road vehicle used for transporting goods or people. There is some variation in the scope of the word across the different English-speaking countries. The smallest vans, microvans, are used for transporting either goods or p ...

— a division of Ralston-Purina at the time — acquired the facility, rebranding it as

Chicken of the Sea Chicken of the Sea is a packager and provider of seafood, owned by the Thai Union Group in Samut Sakhon, Thailand. The brand is attached to tuna, salmon, clams, crab, shrimp, mackerel, oysters, kippers and sardines in cans, pouches and cups ...

in 1976.

Thai Union Group Thai Union Group PCL is a Thailand-based producer of seafood based products. It was founded in 1977, and was listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) on 22 November 1994. Thai Union operates worldwide with plant facilities in France, Ger ...

took over Chicken of the Sea in 2000, but after implementing three federally mandated wage increases within two years, the production line was closed in 2009. Subsequently, in April 2015, the Italian firm Tri Marine, the third-largest seafood provider in the United States, opened a cannery at the same Atu'u location. However, operations were halted in December 2016. In 1993, a village fire in Atu’u severely burned the house of Judge Falepule Itumalo A’au. He was evacuated to

Hawai’i Hawaii ( ; ) is an island state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only state not on the North American mainland, th ...

for treatment but died of his injuries. In 2002, traditional leaders in Atuu imposed a nightly curfew to combat social problems due to the number of nightclubs.

Demographics

References

Villages in American Samoa {{AmericanSamoa-geo-stub