Tokelauan

The Tokelauans are the Polynesian people of three small coral atolls, Atafu, Nukunonu and Fakaofo, lying north of Samoa. Settled from Samoa roughly a thousand years ago, the atolls may have served as a gateway into eastern Polynesia; their inhabitants lived by fish and coconut, venerated the god Tui Tokelau and were governed by chiefly clans.

Though sharing one language and custom and linked by intermarriage, the three atolls stayed politically separate, with occasional wars between them, and Fakaofo, the chiefly island, long held dominion over the other two.

The first European to sight the group was Commodore John Byron, who reached Atafu on 24 June 1765 and named it Duke of York's Island. In 1791 Captain Edward Edwards called at Atafu and Nukunonu while hunting the Bounty mutineers, finding houses, canoes and fishing gear but few people.