of the part of the Samoan Islands (now comprising American Samoa) under United States administration since 1900.

In 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed Peter Tali Coleman as Governor of American Samoa, the first person of Samoan descent to occupy that role.

Coleman, a member of the Republican Party, was a U.S. Army officer with a law degree from Georgetown University.

Within eighteen months, the congressman from North Carolina had removed several Samoans in administrative posts, who had been appointed by former Governor John Morse Haydon.

Governor Ruth was soon recalled to Washington, DC and was later quoted for having called Samoans "lazy, thieving liars."