..."discovered" and they were colonized by Europeans. The Treaty of Peace contained a provision that staled, "The civil rights and political status of the native...ceded to the United States shall be determined by Congress." Native inhabitants at the time were the Chamoru people and it is clear that the referenced...

...Treaty of Paris, Spain recognized Congress' plenary power over Puerto Rico. See 30 Stat. 1754 (1899) ("The civil rights and political status of the native...ceded to the United States shall be determined by Congress."). Since then Congress has gradually allowed Puerto Rico an increasing degree of self-determination....

...the United States, carefully refrained from so doing; for it is expressly provided that (article 9) 'the civil rights and political status of the native...inhabitants of the territories hereby ceded to the United Slates shall be determined by the Congress.' In this language it is clear that it was the intention...

...last declaration of article nine was extremely important. It left to Congress the determination of the civil rights and political status of the native inhabitants of the ceded territories. In so doing, it departed from the usual policy of the United States in treaties...

...Mariana Islands have been held as possessions or property by the United States for over a century. The "civil rights and political status of the native inhabitants of the territories" have not been sufficiently determined by the US Congress in accordance with the Treaty of Paris (1898)...

...to have renounced it and to have adopted the nationality of the territory in which they may reside. "The civil rights and political status of the native inhabitants of the territories herein ceded to the United States shall be determined by the congress." law of the new state as applied...

...Islands, that the United States should pay to Spain the sum of twenty millions of dollars, and that the civil rights and political status of the native inhabitants of the territories thus ceded to the United States should be determined by the Congress. The treaty was ratified by the...

...Spanish-American War (but not the ensuing unrecognized Philippine-American War) empowered Congress to determine the civil rights and political status of the native inhabitants of the Philippines. The inhabitants of the territories were guaranteed ex proprio vigore (by its own force)...

...they were the Chamorros who for nearly fifty years had been trying to get the US Congress to determine "the civil rights and political status of the native inhabitants of the territories ceded to the United States" as promised by the Treaty of Paris. Now maybe they would be heard! Betty...