ACHUGAO SAIPAN, ACHUGAO GUAM

Aqua Resort in Saipan is located in Achugao

Despite being 135 miles apart, both Guam and Saipan have places with identical names. One of them is Achugao.

There is an Achugao, Saipan and an Achugao, Guam.

Achugao, Saipan

"Unai" means "Sand" and refers to a beach

Achugao in Saipan is a small coastal area in between Tanapag and San Roque villages. There are maybe a dozen homes in Achugao.

Achugao in Guam is another story. It is so isolated that hardly anyone on Guam knows that it even exists. Achugao in Guam is located just south of Fakpi Point, south of Hågat and north of Humåtak.

Some people in Saipan can say they live in Achugao, but nobody on Guam lives in Achugao.

Achugao, Guam

WHAT IS "ACHUGAO?"

Does Achugao have a meaning?

What is certain is that achugao is a Chamorro word and it identifies a plant.

Exactly what plant is the question.

The 1918 von Preissig Chamorro dictionary doesn't have achugao listed.

Neither does Påle' Román's 1932 Chamorro dictionary, but it does have achugan and says that achugan is a plant, or a willow, like a rattan vine, and Achugao in Saipan is indeed a low-lying marshy area where reed-like plants dominate.

Safford's book about the plants of Guam, printed in 1905, also lists achugan, which is a "coarse swamp grass" that only karabao will eat. There may not be any connection at all between achugan and achugao, but clearer evidence would be nice to have one way or the other.

Topping's 1975 Chamorro dictionary does not list achugao. Nor does Francisco Valenzuela Cruz's 1967 dictionary.

It is Katherine Aguon's 2009 dictionary that says that achugao can be a "large onion," or a "perennial swamp grass that produces an edible bulb," or "a mangrove grass." And, Achugao in Saipan is a swampy, marshy area.

But another source, which includes a listing of Saipan place names, says that achugao is the Chamorro name for gleichenia, the scientific name for a kind of fern.

Safford's bookmentioned earlier, "The Useful Plants of the Island of Guam" lists gleichenia dichotoma, and says they are ferns which grow in the grassy uplands. But Safford doesn't say that these are called achugao in Chamorro, In fact, he says they are called mana.

So, we are left with a confusing assortment of different definitions. I have asked a number of older people from Saipan if they knew what achugao meant, and they didn't.

ACHUGAO, GUAM