The Chamorro people are the indigenous people of the Mariana Islands -- the island chain comprised of the political entities of the U.S. territory of Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI).

The exact time of the arrival of Chamorros to the Mariana Islands is not known. Research continues on just how long the Chamorros have thrived in the island chain. However, sources place the arrival from Southeast Asia anywhere from 3000 - 1700 BCE (Before Common Era also sometimes referred to as BC - Before Christ).

In History of the Mariana Islands to Partition (pg. 67), it states that the oldest piece of pottery found (at the time of the book's publication in 2011) in the Marianas was 3,700 years old. This would put it roughly at 1700 BCE. The pottery was found at Achugao, Saipan in the CNMI.

The article "National Geographic project seeks to trace migration," (Pacific Daily News, Publication date: 10/14/2013) identifies two specific migrations to the Mariana Islands. The first migration occurred between 5,000 and 3,500 years ago (from the year 2013); the second occurred about 1,000 years ago (from the year 2013). Both migrations occurred from the same area -- the islands around Southeast Asia.

The online article "First Mariana Islanders Came from Philippines, New Study Shows" posted 12/23/2020 on the Sci-News.com website, adds a more recent condensed theory:

In new research, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Australian National University and the University of Guam analyzed ancient DNA from two humans who lived on Guam 2,200 years ago and found that their ancestry is linked to the Philippines. Moreover, they are closely related to ancient humans from Vanuatu and Tonga, suggesting that the early Mariana Islanders may have been involved in the colonization of Polynesia.

The same online article goes on to say that "There is debate over where people came from to get to the Marianas, with various lines of evidence pointing to the Philippines, Indonesia, New Guinea, or the Bismarck Archipelago."

This article was prepared based, on large part, from the inaugural article "Ancient DNA from Guam and the peopling of the Pacific" which was posted 11/12/2020 on the PNAS website.

This inaugural article includes a graphic theorizes on the migrations of people in the western Pacific. (See image immediately below.)


[ View Larger Image ]


While research and debate continues as to the origin(s) of the Chamorro people, the undisputed fact is that over the centuries, the original people of the Mariana Islands have been occupied by several foreign countries -- Spain, Germany, Japan and the United States.


Sources:
- "Ancient DNA from Guam and the peopling of the Pacific," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS)
- "First Mariana Islanders Came from Philippines, New Study Shows," Sci-News.com 
-  History of the Mariana Islands to Partition (Farrell, Don A., 2011)
-  Pacific Daily News ("National Geographic project seeks to trace migration," 2013)
-  Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Direct Link)