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ASSOCIATED PRESS / 2011
House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, second from left, participates in a ceremonial House swearing-in ceremony for Delegate Eni H. Faleomavaega, third from right, in Washington, D.C. Faleomavaega, who became a congressional delegate in 1989, died Wednesday.
PAGO PAGO, American Samoa >> American Samoa’s longest-serving nonvoting delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives, Eni H. Faleomavaega, has died. He was 73.
His sister-in-law, Therese Hunkin, didn’t disclose how the former 13-term delegate died Wednesday, but said he was at his home in Provo, Utah.
“He passed away peacefully at his home surrounded by family and a few close friends,” Hunkin said in a brief phone interview from Provo.
The House delegate for American Samoa, a U.S. territory about 2,300 miles south of Hawaii, can vote in committee but not on the House floor. Faleomavaega, a Democrat, became a congressional delegate in 1989 and held the position for 13 consecutive terms.
He “had served the people and government of American Samoa faithfully for many years,” said American Samoa’s acting Gov. Lemanu Palepoi Peleti Mauga.
Faleomavaega began his political career in 1973 as an administrative assistant to Paramount Chief A.U. Fuimaono, the territory’s first elected representative to Washington. He served as staff counsel to the House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs from 1975 to 1981 before returning to American Samoa to be its deputy attorney general.
In 1985 he was elected lieutenant governor before becoming a congressional delegate.
He was a member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the House Committee on Natural Resources.
In 1996 Faleomavaega participated in a boycott of an address by French President Jacques Chirac before a joint session of Congress. Just days before Chirac’s speech, France conducted a series of nuclear tests at the Moruroa and Fangatauga atolls in the South Pacific, despite worldwide protests.
“It is with pleasure that I say that life with Eni was far from dull,” his wife, Hinanui Hunkin, said via email from Provo on Wednesday night. “I am so grateful for the trust that the people of American Samoa, for so many years, placed in him as their servant. I love and miss you, American Samoa.”
Born in Eni Hunkin in Vailoatai village on the U.S. territory, Faleomavaega graduated from Kahuku High School in Hawaii in 1962. He then earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science and history from Brigham Young University in Utah in 1966.
During his time in the House, Faleomavaega was challenged over the use of his surname, which is a Matai orator title bestowed upon him by the Faiivae family of Leone when he was known as Eni Hunkin. “Faleomavaega” is the Samoan chieftain title of the family.
High Chief Faiivae Apelu Galeais, who lost an election to Faleomavaega, asked the High Court of American Samoa in 1997 to strip the delegate of his title. Galeais, leader of the family clan, said Faleomavaega did not attend family meetings and did not contribute to their functions.
Faleomavaega dismissed the complaint as “vindictive.”
Faleomavaega was unseated in 2014 by Republican Aumua Amata Radewagen. In addition to his wife, he is survived by five children and 10 grandchildren.
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