Summary of Activities at RMIHPO in 2005

One outer island cultural inventory was carried out by RMIHPO on Mili Atoll. Thirty sites were recorded and mapped, including 12 historic and 18 traditional sites. This was done in collaboration with Alele Museum and its Staff Ethnographer. The Alele also conducted projects on traditional dancing on Arno Atoll and weaving.

RMIHPO did an assessment survey on Enemonet Islet on Majuro. This islet was the site of a U.S. submarine base during WWII. Several concrete structures were seen, and a detailed inventory of the cultural resources is planned after collecting archival material and following interviews.

RMIHPO was involved in an ongoing, long-term project to collect GPS data for all traditional, prehistoric, and historic sites on Majuro. Although Majuro was previously surveyed over a decade ago, no GPS information was collected at the time. This should also provide the opportunity to assess the condition of sites. This project is done in cooperation with MIVA (Marshall Islands Visitors Authority).

RMIHPO staff accompanied a Japanese war dead recovery team to Mili and oversaw the activities of TIGHAR (The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery) on Jaluit Atoll for the dedication of a monument to the Marshallese victims of an American bombing raid during WWII.

Two construction projects were monitored, including one on USAKA U. S. military base on Kwajalein Atoll, which resulted in the recovery of human remains, and one on Jaluit, which was COMPACT-II-funded.

One hundred eleven earth-moving applications were reviewed and approved, mostly on Majuro.

Two trips to USAKA helped identify areas of increased cooperation, such as the prevention of vandalism, site condition assessment, the illegal export of artifacts, dive permits, and the transfer of archaeological collections.

The past year has seen several projects being carried out by outside researchers and students. Four of these projects had an ethnographic focus and one had an archaeological component.