Swains Island – A remote atoll owned by the Jennings family since 1856
Swains Island, called Olohega in Tokelauan, was probably settled by Polynesian voyagers around the mid-1300s; mounds and a sacred stone still bear witness to that early life. Oral traditions link the atoll to Fakaofo in Tokelau as well as to Samoa. From around 1820, New England whalers stopped here for fresh water, and in 1841 Captain William L. Hudson of the US Exploring Expedition named it after a Captain Swain. Its most defining chapter began in 1856, when the family of Eli Hutchinson Jennings took ownership and ran a copra plantation until 1967. Since 1925 the island has been administered as part of American Samoa. Do you know stories or family memories from Swains Island? We warmly invite you to share them here!