In the decade preceding 2000, the growth rate of the Pacific Islander population increased more rapidly than that of any other racial or ethnic [Page 1492]group in the United States—from 9% to 140%, compared to the 13% growth in the U.S. total population. Within the diverse U.S. Pacific Islander population is the heterogeneous population of Micronesians from the Western Pacific insular entities, including the U.S. citizens of the Territory of Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas (CNMI); along with the U.S.-affiliated Freely Associated States of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), and the Republic of Palau (RP). The United States is associated with the latter four entities because the United Nations assigned them to the U.S. ...