On Sept. 24, the Star-Advertiser’s online edition posted an Associated Press article of yet another U.S. appeals court in Denver considering the status of American Samoan citizenship (“U.S. appeals court in Denver considers status of American Samoa citizenship”).

Recently, I have seen an uptick in the way that U.S. citizenship is being used as a stick to measure inclusiveness of American Samoans as Americans by non-Samoans. There is an underbelly to this conversation if an American Samoan is not a U.S. citizen, then they are not American. It is an attitude that implies American Samoans serving or retired from the U.S. Armed Forces are hoodwinked into service for a country that does not “give” them citizenship. Not so! American Samoans as territorial U.S. nationals may naturalize to become U.S. citizens, it is an individual decision.

Self-determination for American Samoans is the more important and neglected issue in this ongoing discourse. American Samoans should decide if they want to become automatic U.S. citizens. This should be done through the democratic process in which American Samoans vote to decide whether they desire to change their political status. Then, their U.S. congressional delegate should lobby for the desire of their electorate in the U.S. Congress just as every other U.S. territory has done to obtain U.S. citizenship.

Instead, several American Samoans are trying to push their personal agendas through the judicial system, in continental America, to force automatic citizenship vis-à-vis judicial fiat.

Most people do not realize that no one is stopping any American Samoan from naturalizing and becoming U.S. citizen through an already existent expedited process and fee. The continental circuit courts have become dizzied with the various U.S. citizenship cases coming before them in multiple states. Each is reading different Supreme Court cases and selecting precedent without rhyme or reason of consistency as they try to decide, “Should we grant U.S. citizenship to an entire people?”

This is critically important because unilateral bestowal of U.S. citizenship may have the secondary consequence of undoing American Samoan culture. Two of the most important aspects of American Samoan culture are communal (family owned) lands and the Fa’amatai (traditional chiefly system). Communal lands are administered by the Fa’amatai and cannot be owned by non-American Samoans. The American Samoan Senate chamber is composed of only American Samoan matai.

The many Political Status Review Commissions have never taken any action on U.S. citizenship because many American Samoans felt threatened since the U.S. Constitutional Due Process and Equal Protections Clauses may very well be used to grant ownership of communal lands to those who are not American Samoan. The Political Status Review Commission seeks public comment on the political status and citizenship issues. How long will it take before a non-American Samoan files a lawsuit because they cannot own communal lands that they live on? Legal think tanks in Washington, D.C., as well as U.S. citizens in American Samoa will shout from the mountain tops that those arguments represent irrational fears and U.S. citizenship will not cause any disruptions to the American Samoan way of life.

Kanaka Maoli here in Hawaii have the wisdom of hindsight in dealing with endless judicial fights to preserve Hawaiian lands and the onslaught of federal lawsuits by U.S. citizens demanding equality and fairness in traditional spaces. I do not think there is an irrational or misplaced fear that judicial fiat that grants birthright U.S. citizenship to all American Samoans will result in anything other than what can be seen right here in Hawaii to Hawaiian culture.

American Samoans should decide in the democratic process by electoral vote to become automatic U.S. citizenship in American Samoa.

Line-Noue Memea Kruse, Ph.D., is an adjunct faculty member in Pacific Islands Studies at Brigham Young University-Hawaii.