The Instrument of Cession signed by the representatives of the people of Tutuila was concluded at Pago Pago on 17 April 1900. Signatories, by Samoan custom: Leoso for the division of Fofo and Aitulagi, Pele for Sua and Vaifanua, in the presence of barrister E. W. Gurr; for the United States, Commander B. F. Tilley of USS Abarenda. It confirms a draft of 2 April. Texts: Samoan and English, with a certificate of interpretation. It is not the 1899 Tripartite Convention, which had partitioned the archipelago between Germany and the United States, and not the Manuʻa cession of 14 July 1904.

Clause 1 cedes Tutuila, Aunuʻu and adjacent waters to the Government of the United States, as a separate district named Tutuila. Clause 2 requires respect for individual rights to land and other property; taking for government use only upon fair consideration, as a principle, not as procedure. Clause 3 leaves chiefs the local control of towns if compatible with United States law concerning Tutuila; general legislation remains with the United States. Clause 4 provides for investigation of land titles. Clause 5 is an oath of allegiance. Geographic coordinates are not transcribed here as an annexation handbook.

Gurr attests that the signing took place immediately before the raising of the American flag at the naval station, on Sogelau Hill in Fagatogo. Subsequent naval administration is not transcribed as an occupation regulation. The original reached the Secretary of the Navy on 1 August 1900 and the Department of State on 1 March 1902, Treaty Series 314.

Congress confirmed the instruments of cession by the Ratification Act of 20 February 1929. Until 1951 administration was naval, then the Department of the Interior. American Samoa remains an unincorporated territory; inhabitants are United States nationals, not birthright citizens on that basis. The local constitution dates from 1967.

The register source, FRUS 1929, is the text published at ratification, not an instrument of 1929. Cover: Pago Pago Harbor, Tutuila, the place of signature; no claim is made to the ceremony. Wikimedia Commons, free licence.

Sources consulted: Treaty of Cession of Tutuila; Instrument of Cession of Tutuila (FRUS).