{{Short description|Atoll of the Federated States of Micronesia}} {{Redirect|Ngatik|Natik|Wampanoag people}} {{Infobox settlement |name = Sapwuahfik |image_skyline = USCGC Oliver Henry crew conducts Operation Rematau patrol in FSM (9346951).jpg |image_caption = Ngatik Island |settlement_type = Municipality |image_seal = Seal of Sapwuahfik, Micronesia.png |subdivision_type = Country |subdivision_name = Federated States of Micronesia |subdivision_type1 = State |subdivision_name1 = Pohnpei State }} {{Infobox islands |image_name=Ngatik Atoll.jpg |image_caption=NASA picture of Sapwuahfik Atoll |map=Federated States of Micronesia#Pacific Ocean |coordinates={{coord|5.7878|157.1533113}} |location=Pacific Ocean |total_islands=10 |major_islands=Ngatik |country=Federated States of Micronesia |country_admin_divisions_title=State |country_admin_divisions=Pohnpei |country_area_km2=110 |length_km=22.5 |width_km=9.6 |population=433 |population_as_of=2010 |languages={{Plainlist| * Ngatikese * Ngatik Men's Creole }} |timezone1=Pohnpei Standard Time |utc_offset1=+11:00 }} '''Sapwuahfik''', formerly '''Ngatik''',<ref name="Poyer1">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8GNDSzjK4ZYC |title=Cultural Identity and Ethnicity in the Pacific |first=Lin |last=Poyer |chapter=6. Being Sapwuahfik: Cultural and Ethnic Identity in a Micronesian Society |editor=Jocelyn Linnekin, Lin Poyer |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |year=1990 |isbn=0824818911 |page=127 |access-date=2012-12-15}}</ref> or the '''Raven Islands'''<ref name="ngatikairstrip">[http://www.ict.fm/civilaviation/sapwuahfik.html "F.S.M. Airports & Civil Airfields--Sapwuahfik Civil Airfield"]</ref> is a {{convert|110|km2||adj=on|sp=us}} atoll in Pohnpei state of the Federated States of Micronesia. It is a village and municipality of roughly 430 people on a land area of {{convert|1.5|km2||sp=us}}. It is mostly known in history as the site of the Ngatik massacre.
== Geography ==
It is located {{Convert|150|km|abbr=on}} southwest of the main island of Pohnpei in the Eastern Caroline Islands and consists of 10 individual islands on the reef. The largest and only inhabited island is Ngatik, at the western end.
The atoll is {{Convert|22.5|km|abbr=on}} long and up to {{Convert|9.6|km|abbr=on}} wide. The lagoon measures {{Convert|78.56|km2|abbr=on}} in area, and the total area is {{Convert|114|km2|abbr=on}}. The aggregate land area of the 10 islands is {{Convert|1.75|km2|abbr=on}}, of which the main island Ngatik is {{Convert|0.91|km2|abbr=on}}, or more than half. While Ngatik is the only inhabited island, the six larger of the remaining islands are used by the population for harvesting coconuts and growing taro, and animal husbandry (pigs and chickens). There are 12 buildings for temporary shelter on those islands.<ref name=Reptiles>{{Cite web|url=http://www.uog.edu/up/micronesica/dynamicdata/assetmanager/images/vol32/buden_sap.pdf|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100627075303/http://www.uog.edu/up/micronesica/dynamicdata/assetmanager/images/vol32/buden_sap.pdf|url-status=dead |title=Donald W. Buden: The Reptiles of Sapwuahfik Atoll, Federated States of Micronesia|archivedate=June 27, 2010}}</ref>
The islands, clockwise, starting at Ngatik in the west: {| class="wikitable sortable" |-style="background: #CCC;" ! Island || align="right"| Area<br>km<sup>2</sup><ref name="Reptiles"/>||Location |- |Ngatik|| align="right"| 0.906 || western end |- |Peina|| align="right"|0.206|| north |- |Bigen Karakar|| align="right"|0.025|| northeast |- |Jirup|| align="right"|0.023|| east |- |Bigen Kelang|| align="right"|0.047 || east |- |Pikepe (Piken Mategan)|| align="right"|0.009 || east |- |Dekehnman|| align="right"|0.009|| eastern end |- |Wat|| align="right"|0.281|| eastern end |- |Pikenmetkow|| align="right"|0.006 || southeast |- |Uataluk (Wateiluk)|| align="right"|0.039 || south |- |-style="background: #DDD;" | class="sortbottom" | Sapwuahfik (Atoll)|| align="right"| 1.551 || fringing reef |}
=== Airfield === Sapwuahfik has an airstrip that lies just off the island of Ngatik, the Sapwuahfik Civil Airfield ({{Coord|5.783711|157.167276|display=inline}}). Coastal erosion has cut the airstrip off from the island by about 20 meters, making it necessary to ferry arriving and departing passengers between it and Ngatik by boat. There are on-call personnel who go to the airfield whenever a flight is expected.<ref name="ngatikairstrip"/>
== Population ==
The population of Sapwuahfik was approximately 433 in 2010. The culture is closely related to that of Pohnpei, its closest neighbor; however it retains its own distinctive character.<ref name=Poyer2>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/ngatikmassacrehi0000poye |url-access=registration |title=The Ngatik massacre: history and identity on a Micronesian atoll |first=Lin |last=Poyer |publisher=Smithsonian Institution Press |year=1993 |isbn=1560982624 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/ngatikmassacrehi0000poye/page/1 1]–3, 146 |access-date=2012-12-15}}</ref>
The local creole, Ngatik Men's Creole, developed as a result of the 1837 Ngatik massacre, during which the island's male population was wiped out by the crew of Australian captain C. H. Hart and Pohnpeian warriors. Some of the Europeans and Pohnpeians settled and repopulated the island, taking the local women as wives. The island formed a new culture and language, a mixture of English and Ngatikese (a Pohnpeic language).<ref name=Poyer1/><ref name=Poyer2/> In addition to the creole, which is only spoken by men, all of the residents speak Ngatikese, a Pohnpeic language closely related to the Pohnpeian language.
==History==
The atoll was first discovered by Westerners on 6 April 1773 by the Spanish naval officer Felipe Tompson when sailing from Manila to San Blas in New Spain on board of the vessel ''Nuestra Señora de la Consolación'' also called in short ''Buen Fin''. Tompson charted the island as ''Los Valientes'' (the island of the bold in Spanish).<ref>Riesenberg, Saul H. "Six Pacific island discoveries" ''The American neptune'' Vol. 34; Salem, Mass. 1974, p.250</ref> At some point between 1793 and 1796, William Raven, captain of ''Britannia'' gave a firm sighting to the island.{{refn|The source for this information states that ''Britannia'' was a British East India Company vessel,<ref>{{cite book | last = Quanchi | first = Max| year = 2005 | title = Historical Dictionary of the Discovery and Exploration of the Pacific Islands | publisher = The Scarecrow Press |pages=143–4| isbn = 0810853957}}</ref> which she was not.|group=Note}}
Solomon Sumner, Seventh-day Adventist Missionary, was buried on the island in 1990.<ref>{{Cite web| title=Mission | url=https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/MissionsQtrly/MQ19930401-V82-02.pdf | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240110075746/https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/MissionsQtrly/MQ19930401-V82-02.pdf | archive-date=2024-01-10}}</ref>
==Education== Pohnpei State Department of Education operates public schools: * Sapwuafik Elementary School<ref name=Schoollist>"[http://pohnpei.doe.fm/index.php/statistics/pohnpei-schools Pohnpei Schools] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180726103941/http://pohnpei.doe.fm/index.php/statistics/pohnpei-schools |date=2018-07-26 }}." Pohnpei State Department of Education. Retrieved on February 23, 2018.</ref>
==Transportation== {{Infobox airport | name = Sapwuahfik Airfield | nativename = | nativename-a = | nativename-r = | image = | image-width = | caption = | IATA = | ICAO = | pushpin_map = | pushpin_map_caption = | pushpin_label = | pushpin_label_position = bottom | type = Public | owner = Government | operator = Civil Government | city-served = Sapwuahfik | location = | elevation-f = | elevation-m = | coordinates = | website = | metric-elev = | metric-rwy = | r1-number = 077 | r1-length-f = 1,200 | r1-length-m = 370 | r1-surface = Concrete | stat-year = | stat1-header = | stat1-data = | stat2-header = | stat2-data = | footnotes = }}
Just east of the Sapwuahfik is an Sapwuahfik Airfield with a paved {{convert|1200|ft|m|adj=on}} runway.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://tci.gov.fm/civilaviation/sapwuahfik.html | title=Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) Division of Civil Aviation | Sapwuahfik Civil Airfield, Sapwuahfik Atoll, Micronesia }}</ref>
==See also== * Madolenihmw * Kitti (municipality) * U, Pohnpei * Nett * Kapingamarangi * Pingelap * Sokehs * Nukuoro * Mokil * Kolonia * Oroluk * Palikir
==Notes== {{reflist|group=Note}}
== References == {{reflist|30em}}
== External links ==
* {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101223043232/http://www.oceandots.com/pacific/caroline/sapwuahfik.php |date=December 23, 2010 |title=Sapwuahfik - Oceandots }} * [http://www.ub.bildarchiv-dkg.uni-frankfurt.de/Bildprojekt/Lexikon/php/suche_db.php?suchname=Ngatik Deutsches Koloniallexikon] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200501022624/http://www.ub.bildarchiv-dkg.uni-frankfurt.de/Bildprojekt/Lexikon/php/suche_db.php?suchname=Ngatik |date=2020-05-01 }} (German) * [https://www.statoids.com/yfm.html Statoids.com], retrieved December 8, 2010 * [http://www.navegar-es-preciso.com/news/pohnpei-%28islas-carolinas-orientales%29-3%C2%BA-parte-/ POHNPEI (Islas Carolinas orientales). 3º parte.] (Spanish)
{{Coord|5.7878|157.1555|display=title|region:FM-PNI_type:isle}}
{{authority control}}
Category:Atolls of the Federated States of Micronesia Category:Municipalities of Pohnpei Category:Islands of Pohnpei