Those new to the Commonwealth may hear or read an occasional
reference to the Trusteeship Agreement and the Trust Territory  and for
those unacquainted with the terms a cursory  explanation follows.
       At the conclusion of the First World War in 1919 the League of
Nations was organized.  Germany had controlled the Northern Mariana Islands
since acquiring them from Spain, but with its defeat, Germany was stripped
of all its overseas possessions. The Mariana Islands were turned over to
the newly created League of Nations to be administered as the Japanese
Mandated Territory.  Japan had become an ally of the United States, Great
Britain and France shortly before the end of the war and was named as the
Pacific area's administering authority, remaining  as such until defeated
by the United States in 1994 during  the Second World War.
       In 1945  the United Nations was organized, and in July 1947, the
islands were placed under the purview of the Security Council since they
were considered to be a strategic area. Of the eleven Trusteeships to
evolve out of the flames of World War II only one, that being in the
western Pacific, was to be supervise by the United Nations’ Security
Council where the United States exercised  a veto power.
     The United States was appointed the administering authority under an
agreement with the United Nations known as the Trusteeship Agreement.
Under the terms of this Agreement the United States assumed the obligation
to develop the area economically, socially and politically for eventual
self-government.  At that time the area, known as the Trust Territory of
the Pacific Islands, consisted of the island groups of Belau (Palau), Yap,
Chuuk (Truk), Pohnpei (Ponape), Kosrae (Kusaie),  the Marshalls and the
Northern Marianas. Guam was not part of the Trust Territory. Negotiations
for self-government, and thus eventual termination of the Trusteeship
Agreement, first began in 1970.  The people of the Marianas were the first
of all the former Trust Territory entities to decide their future political
identity, they decided to enter into a Commonwealth arrangement in
political union with the United States. In all of Micronesia they were the
only island group to do so.
       On May 28,1986 the United Nations Trusteeship Council concluded that
the United States had satisfactorily discharged its obligations to the
islands. On November 4, 1986 United States citizenship was conferred upon
those people of the Northern Marianas that met  the necessary
qualifications. On December 22,1990 the Security Council voted to dissolve
the trusteeship over the Northern Marianas, Marshall Islands and the
Federated States Of Micronesia. The full extent of the political
relationship of the Northern Mariana Islands with the United States of
America and many of the details pertaining there-to are largely unknown and
imprecise to many of us at this time. This results in part because the
relationship has not been defined in any detail and also from the fact that
no other member of the American political family became so associated under
circumstances even remotely similar to those by which the Northern Marianas
became affiliated with the United States. Not even the nexus between the
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico can provide much insight as to the extent and
scope of the CNMI's Covenant agreement. The issue is very much unsettled.
It may be somewhat disconcerting to some when it is discovered that even
students of the American legal structure will not venture to define what
U.S. laws prevail in the islands and those that do not. Students of
political science are uncertain of the connection with the result that
there is confusion because of the many unresolved issues in this unique and
complex  relationship.
     There are those in the Commonwealth that wish to retain as much
political and internal autonomy, indeed, independence from the federal
government and the American legal structure as possible. How and when a
determination will be made and a method devised to clear up the legal and
political ambiguities which remain in this sometimes awkward political
affiliation is a subject of conjecture and will no doubt remain so until
resolved at the highest level of the American judicial system, presuming ,
of course, that a sufficiently justified issue is brought before the U. S.
Supreme Court and the Court decides to hear the case.
       The CNMI /US relationship is sometimes confused because it is still
in the process of evolving. Indeed, Section 902 of the Covenant permits a
reassessment of the relationship every 10 years.  Thus, the process of
learning the unintended consequences of the merging relationship with the
United States, by necessity, continues to evolve and refined as time goes
by. Many of the complex issues which were  to arise in the future could not
possibly have been foreseen in 1975 and thus a document was produced to
permit flexibility in the new political relationship. A former Assistant
Secretary of the U. S. Department of Interior  has stated:
" Freedom to choose a political status carries with it the responsibility,
first, to make an informed choice and second, to live with the benefits and
responsibilities of that choice." Further the official stated," for insular
leaders to argue that what they freely chose many years ago is not what
they thought they were choosing is a criticism of those who chose, not
those who offered the choice. It is clear from the plain English of the
historical documents involved that the United States has sovereignty in the
Commonwealth ...  sovereignty is not conditional and does not lend itself
to subject applicability."

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