[2] In the 1970s a Marshallese man named John Moody attended a university in the state of Oklahoma,[4] and then in the 1980s got employment at a Tyson Chicken factory in the area.
[6] By 2010 there were about 6,000 people in the Northwest Arkansas region who were of Marshallese ancestry, heavily concentrated in Springdale and beginning to settle other cities.
[7] As of June 2020, half of the people in Northwest Arkansas who died from COVID were of Marshallese ancestry.
A previous proposal in the Arkansas Legislature by Megan Godfrey of Springdale, House Bill 1342, was to allow any person of a citizen of a Compact of Free Association country (which includes the Marshall Islands) to be eligible to join a police department.
[10] That year the Arkansas Department of Public Safety stated that the agency could unilaterally change its rules and begin allowing Marshallese citizens to become police officers.
[14] Marshallese children began to have eligibility for the ArKids First health care coverage due to work by Jeff Williams, a member of the Arkansas House of Representatives.
[17] There is also a yearly festival meant to showcase Marshallese culture to the Springdale community, "Stroll the Atolls.