Short answers, pulled from the story.
American Samoa is a self-governing, unincorporated and unorganized territory of the United States. It is administered by the Office of Insular Affairs under the U.S. Department of the Interior. Its constitution took effect on the 1st of July 1967, establishing a republican government with executive, legislative, and judicial branches.
People born in American Samoa are classified as U.S. nationals but not citizens at birth. This status is largely upheld by the preference of American Samoans themselves; in 2021, the territory's legislature unanimously passed a resolution opposing birthright citizenship, citing concerns that it would erode indigenous governance, communal land ownership, and use of the Samoan language.
Governor John Martin Poyer acted quickly after hearing news of the outbreak on the radio and requested quarantine ships from the U.S. mainland. The swift quarantine made American Samoa one of only a few places in the world, alongside New Caledonia and Marajo island in Brazil, to record no deaths from the pandemic. Poyer was awarded the Navy Cross for his response.
The 1899 Tripartite Convention partitioned the Samoan Islands between the United States and Germany. The eastern islands, including Tutuila in 1900 and Manua in 1904, became a U.S. territory after Deeds of Cession were signed with local leaders. The last sovereign of Manua, the Tui Manua Elisala, signed the Deed of Cession of Manua following a series of U.S. naval trials known as the Trial of the Ipu.
A Samoan male is estimated to be anywhere from 40 to 56 times more likely to play in the NFL than a non-Samoan American. About 30 players from American Samoa play in the NFL and more than 200 play NCAA Division I college football. Six-time All-Pro Junior Seau, a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the NFL 1990s All-Decade Team, is among the most prominent Americans of Samoan heritage to have played professionally.
Tuna canning is the backbone of the American Samoa economy. StarKist is the territory's one remaining major cannery, exporting several hundred million dollars' worth of canned tuna to the United States each year. Employment on the island falls into three roughly equal categories: the public sector, the single tuna cannery, and the rest of the private sector, each employing approximately 5,000 workers.