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Meaning & History
This is the Carolinian (Refaluwasch) name of the US territory "Commonwealth of The Northern Mariana Islands." In 1815 Satawalese Chief Aghurubw (pronounced A-GA-RU-B) and Chief of Elato Island Nguschul (pronounced NGU-SHOO-L) brought their groups, who would eventually be called Refaluwasch, to this region after a typhoon devastated their islands. Here from 1944-1945 the Carolinians were enslaved by Imperial Japan. This place became a Commonwealth in 1978.