CHAMORROS IN PALAU

CHAMORROS IN PALAU

During German times in the early 1900s

As soon as they could, many Chamorros packed their bags and left the Marianas on ships for all parts of the world. 

In the early 1800s, the number of young Chamorro men leaving Guam as whalers was significant. Most never came back.

In 1886, Spain established a colonial government in the Caroline Islands for the first time, even though Spain had claimed these islands hundreds of years before. The threat of German commercial activity, and to a less extent American Protestant missionary work in the eastern Carolines, spurred the Spaniards to action.

Some Chamorros in the Marianas saw the beginning of a Spanish colonial government in Yap and Palau as an opportunity for them to move there and engage in trade or work for the Spanish government as teachers or middle-men between the Spaniards and the native Yapese and Palauans.

Yap received more Chamorro settlers in the 1880s and 90s, but Palau also attracted a few. Some of these early Chamorro immigrants to Palau were from the Borja, Aguon and Flores families.

MOVED TO PALAU FROM GUAM

Mariano de León Guerrero Borja and his wife the former Ana Aguon Flores

(photo from Borja family)

CHAMORRO ENCLAVE IN NGATMEL

Many of the Chamorros in Palau decided to confine their life and activities to the remote northern tip of Babeldaob, the main island. The area was called Ngatmel. The Catholic missionaries always remarked how devout the Chamorros were in their religion, and how some Chamorros were a big help to the missionaries in their work with the Palauan community. In time, a church was built in Ngatmel for the Chamorro families there.

The German missionaries said that the Chamorro community in Ngatmel did very well in "their lonely seclusion." By 1911, a Chamorro teacher (one for the entire, small community) had built a school and it was doing well.

NGATMEL

AGUON-BORJA-FLORES

The pillars of the Chamorro community in Ngatmel were from three main families, and there was a bit of intermarriage between them. One person would be the first to go to Palau, and then an in-law or sibling might follow. Most of this movement happened during the late Spanish times, in the 1880s and 90s.

The AGUONS who settled in Palau were the children of JOSÉ CEPEDA AGUON and his wife MARÍA DUEÑAS BORJA. You can see right there that the Aguons and Borjas were already combined.

María's brother SIMÓN DUEÑAS BORJA also moved to Palau.

A nephew, JOAQUÍN AGUON FLORES, also moved to Palau.

Most of the Chamorros moved back to the Marianas after World War II. But many of the ones who had Palauan blood tended to stay.

A BORJA IN PALAU

Theodoro, for example, has the Chamorro last name Borja, but is considered Palauan, having Palauan blood.

EMILIO BORJA

was Chamorro / Palauan

AGUON FROM PALAU

Saipan's Bishop Tomás Aguon Camacho was the son of a Chamorro lady born in Palau, María Borja Aguon, born in Palau in 1905, the daughter of Juan Borja Aguon and Vicenta de León Guerrero Borja.

VICENTE VIDAL AGUON and his wife CONCEPCIÓN CAMACHO BORJA

(photo from Borja family)

This Chamorro couple were both born in Palau around 1900. Vicente was the son of Ramón Borja Aguon of Guam and Regina Vidal. Concepción was the daughter of José de León Guerrero Borja and Rosario Cruz Camacho (familian Yeye') also of Guam.

This dear old lady, Tan Estefania Flores Camacho, was born in Palau but then moved to Saipan as a young woman when she married a man from Saipan.  She is 90 years old and still speaks Palauan, as well as Chamorro.  Her father Joaquin Aguon Flores was one of those Chamorros, born on Guam in the 1800s, who moved to Palau and died there.  Joaquin married a woman who was half-German, half-Chamorro.

ESTEFANÍA FLORES, MARRIED CAMACHO

Born in Palau

ANGAUR

Georg Fritz Collection, MARC

PHOSPHATE MINES IN ANGAUR

Many Chamorros worked here during German and Japanese times

Angaur is one of the islands of Palau, situated at the south of the island chain. Phosphate was discovered there and the Germans, who came in 1899, decided to mine it. They needed workers, and they got workers from all over Micronesia.

Some of the Chamorros living in Ngatmel moved to Angaur to work the mines, but other Chamorros from Saipan, and a few from Luta, also came to Angaur. Remember that the Northern Marianas were now under the Germans, so it was easy from Chamorros from Saipan and Luta to move to Palau.

Other Chamorros from the Northern Marianas later came in the 1930s to work for the Japanese Administration offices in Palau, or even to study. 

CHAMORRO GRAVE IN ANGAUR

Baby Cecilia Camacho Cabrera 1923

After world War II, the majority of the Palau Chamorros moved back to the Marianas.  But, to this day, there are people in Palau with the last names Borja and Aguon.

NGERCHUR, OR "AGUON ISLAND"

At the very top of Babeldaob, the main island of Palau, lie two tiny islands. The smaller one is called Ngerkeklau and the bigger one is called Ngerchur.

Both islands are not far at all from Ngatmel, the Chamorro colony in northern Palau.

The story goes that David O'Keefe, an Irish-American adventurer, bought Ngerchur from the Palauans and in turn gave the island to a Chamorro settler in Palau named RAMÓN BORJA AGUON. Ramón was part of the Aguon clan that moved to Palau.

Ramón's family basically lived on Ngerchur, and there are even Chamorro graves on the island till today. After the war, many of the Aguons moved away from Palau, going back to either Guam or the Northern Marianas.

But many of the Aguons who had Palauan blood remained in Palau. One of them, named Tobias Aguon, even became Governor of Ngarchelong, the state where Ngatmel is located.

A PALAUAN NAMED AGUON

Ismael Aguon, a descendant of Ramón Borja Aguon who owned Ngerchur Island, is now Director of the Bureau of Public Safety in Palau, more or less what we would call a Chief of Police.

AN AGUON CAN TAKE YOU TO "AGUON ISLAND"

Swing Aguon, a Palauan descendant of Ramón Borja Aguon, operates Swing's Palau Tours and can be hired to take you on his boat to Ngerchur (Aguon) Island or wherever else you might want to go in Palau.

In this video I talk to residents of the northern tip of Babeldaob, near where the prewar Chamorros lived in Ngatmel, about the Chamorros and the Aguons of Ngerchur Island.