Thus, in American Samoa, there are restrictions on what non-Samoans can do with land. https://asbar.org/code-annotated/37-0204-restrictions-on-ali... .
This sort of discrimination is illegal in the rest of the US, and allowed because of the insular laws.
If the insular laws are found unconstitutional, then those restriction on alienation of land are illegal. Which means we'll be breaking (yet again) an agreement we made with indigenous people.
The article mentions the American nationals on American Samoa who want American citizenship. While (as I understand it), others in American Samoa want to preserve their traditional landownership practices, instead of letting wealth decide, and don't want this to change.
I recently found out in some Native American areas of the USA you aren't even required to pull over or anything if you're not literally in the tribe.
That seems... insane. Like you're gonna drive through the equivalent of a township or county, speed (or worse) and just go fuck you, call the state police?
People are really rude, they misunderstand on purpose, then they cry that the world is chaotic.
https://indianlaw.org/safewomen/law-was-meant-let-american-i...
Great!
They pay taxes, then look what happened during Hurricane Laura.
This liminal space of "fuck you, pay me, but don't expect the same benefits as the 50 states" needs to end, one way or another[1].
(But I'll defer to people who live or own property there, I don't have any ties to the island beyond the general feeling all Americans should be equal. Something something taxation without representation - it's been a long day, I'm tired.)
[1] https://www.npr.org/2018/05/06/608868104/federal-response-to...