Chamorro civilians during the Battle of Saipan, 1944
The Chamorros are the indigenous peoples of the Mariana Islands in Micronesia. The Chamorros came to the islands from Southeast Asia in 2000 BC, and they were known as expert seafarers and potters. The Spanish explorers called the natives the "Chamorros", both a corruption of the word chamori, the ruling caste of the islands, as well as an old Spanish term for "bald", referring to the people's shaving habits. The Chamorros were forcibly converted to Catholicism and were given Spanish surnames, and they would later mix with Europeans, East Asians, and Filipinos to become a unique Austronesian culture. In 2000, 65,000 Chamorros lived in Guam, 19,000 in the Northern Mariana Islands, and 93,000 in Hawaii and the American West in the United States.