About 1,000 people of Tokelauan descent live in Hawai'i, many of them having arrived here in the 1950s.

Tokelau consists of populated atolls — three or four depending on whom you ask.

Betty Ickes, who arrived with her family in the early 1960s, said nearly 95 percent of Tokelauans here can trace family roots to the controversial atoll of Olohega, also known as Swains Island.

The 1 1/2-square-mile Olohega was "claimed" by American Eli Hutchinson Jennings in 1856, said Ickes, who wrote her master's thesis on the subject. The U.S. government later annexed the island and today it is part of American Samoa. The other three islands are a colony of New Zealand.

The Jennings family ran a copra plantation on Olohega, but poor living conditions led many workers to leave, Ickes said.

Many settled in Wahiawa, she said. Some local Tokelauans have started their own school — Te Lumanaki O Tokelau. Up to 80 youths meet every Saturday at Poamoho Camp to learn language, song, dance and the history of the islands.

Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com.