Growing up in American Samoa, Filipo Ilaoa's neighbors were his cousins on a plot of land full of banana and breadfruit trees shared by his extended family and overseen by a chief elected by his relatives.
He worries a federal judge's recent ruling in Utah saying those born in the U.S. territory should be recognized as U.S. citizens could threaten "fa'a Samoa," the Samoan way of life, which includes cultural traditions like prayer curfews, communal living and a belief that the islands' lands should stay in Samoan family hands.
