Hawaiian activist praises Angel Santos as hero for all Pacific peoples

A prominent Hawaiian activist and attorney shared how a CHamoru rights pioneer helped shape and inspire her perspective of Pacific indigenous rights issues.

She was revered during her visit to Hagan Daughters of the Pacific panel and the Fanhita Decolonization Conference. But Hawaiian sovereignty activist and human rights Attorney MIlilana Trask said she looks up to a CHamoru rights icon, calling the late Angel Santos a "hero" for all Pacific peoples.

"I found his name on the Internet because we had cancer clusters appearing on Hawaiian homelands where there were military bases and when we saw the infants being born with leukemia and we researched it, we found the story about Angel and that is why he is a hero to all of us," she said.

Santos' 2-year-old daughter Francine died of a rare form of cancer while he was serving in the Air Force at Andersen Air Force Base. He later found, through federal documents, that the drinking water at Andersen had contained dangerously high levels of tetrachloral ethylene. The military knew but never informed the public.

Santos was key in the formation of Nasion Chamoru and through political pressure helped force the implementation of the Chamoru Land Trust Act. He was a three-term senator who also ran for governor in 1998. He was arrested six times and served six months in federal prison.

He died in 2003 at the age of 44.

"I think the reason why Angel Santos has kind of become a leader for all of us even though he may have passed is because when you learn of his struggle, when you see what videos there are, you can't help but be impacted by his commitment, Trask said.

Santos' history as an activist and leader taught her valuable lessons about indigenous movements in the Pacific.

"I was very informed by Angel Santos' struggle and what happened to him you know he was such a hero for all of us, we cannot lose his meaning," she explained.

Trask said she can see why videos of Santos' speeches resurfacing online have inspired    the younger generation of activists and helped make Pacific movements intergenerational. The woman who helped write the UN's declaration of rights of indigenous peoples says Santos spirit thrives today in what he has left behind.

"By bringing back videos, his writing, his speeches, our children who are yet to be born, are now being inspired by the words of Angel, his memory lives on, his teachings survive," she said.