"Tabiteuea" is
Gilbertese for "no chief allowed"; the island is traditionally
egalitarian and is known for its huge
maneaba. On 1 July 1799, Charles Bishop and George Bass entered in the lagoon of Tabiteuea and many canoes visited his brig
Nautilus. Bishop called it Bishop’s Island, and called
Aanikai, Drummond’s Island. The
Battle of Drummond's Island occurred during the
United States Exploring Expedition in April 1841 at Tabiteuea, then known as Drummond's Island. After one sailor from
sloop USS Peacock, was missing without reason, the US party decided on exacting redress for the incident. Twelve islanders were killed in the fighting and others were wounded.
Utiroa village with more than 1,000 inhabitants, was burned and erased.. Around the 1840s, the USS Peacock crew stayed on the village in the North part of the island. After about 3 weeks, one crew from the American ship raped a young woman already betrothed to Tebubua from Eita village. The fiance came to Utiroa village and challenged the American sailor and he killed him on the Ocean side. After the incident, bad tension started but the hosting family was trying to calm things. In the end, the crew had a fight with the Utiroa young men. 2 locals were injured and 3 Americans died. The crew escaped to their ship. From the ship, they fired cannons to the village. There are several people died, men, women and kids in Utiroa village. The 3 dead ship sailors were taken to the maneaba and dismembered. They named their the place 'te raara ni matang'. It means 'the blood of the white men'. During the
American Civil War, the
Confederate States Navy steamer
CSS Shenandoah visited the island on March 23, 1865 in search of United States
whalers, but the whalers had fled the area. Captain
James Waddell described the islanders as "of copper colour, short of statue, athletic in form, intelligent and docile" and were "without a stitch of clothing". In the late 1800s, the two parts of the island were the site of a
religious war when the populace of North Tabiteuea, partly converted to
Christianity and, led by a Hawaiian pastor called
Kapu who had assembled a "hymn-singing army on a
crusade", invaded and conquered South Tabiteuea, where was recently (1860) created a cult of Tioba (Jehovah). Bishop
Octave Terrienne built his main Catholic Church in
Tanaeang, North Tabiteuea in 1936 and established there the see of his
apostolic vicariate of the
Gilbert and Ellice Islands. Tabiteuea
Post Office opened around 1911 and was renamed Tabiteuea North around 1972. Tabiteuea South Post Office opened on 13 September 1965. ==Education==