Rotu

Rotu was one of the two original tribes of Marquesas. It is considered to be the first tribe to dominate the challenges, winning 5 out of 6 immunity challenges, and 3 out of 5 reward challenges. The tribe's original color was blue.

Original Members

 * Gabriel Cade
 * John Caroll
 * Zoe Zanidakis
 * Tammy Leitner
 * Robert "General" DeCanio
 * Paschal English
 * Kathy Vavrick-O'Brien
 * Neleh Dennis

Additional Members
As a result of a tribal switch on Day 10, Rotu gained three new members:
 * Rob "Boston Rob" Mariano
 * Sean Rector
 * Vecepia Towery

Tribe History
When the game began, Rotu was seen as the underdog tribe, as it had the oldest contestant in the game and the majority of its members were over 35. However, it would go on to win the first six challenges, and did not have to attend tribal council until Day 15.

As the game went on, it was clear that Rotu was the stronger of the two tribes, even after a tribal switch, and it was a very unified tribe, even though Kathy was seen as not fitting in with the group, preferring to be alone instead of bonding with the rest of the tribe. The tribe worked very well together, soundly defeating Maraamu and being safe from the first three tribal councils. After the tribal switch on Day 10, Rotu gained Maraamu members Rob M, Vecepia, and Sean, who contrasted with the group's work ethic and caused conflict in the tribe. Despite this, Rotu won the fourth immunity challenge, sending Maraamu to tribal council for the fourth time in a row.

Rotu finally lost a challenge on Day 13, and as a result, lost most of the items it had won during Maraamu's raid. This caused the tribe to lose immunity as well, as it had lost many of the items that could be used to form a distress signal. After the tribe lost immunity, John formed an alliance with Tammy, Zoe, and "General" to vote off Gabe, who had expressed little desire to try to strategize in the game. Realizing that the three Maraamu members could force a tie by voting with Gabe, John approached Sean about voting for Gabe. Sean responded by going to Rob M. and they went to try to convince Gabe to vote with them. Gabe decided not to, and was voted out unanimously.

After voting out Gabe, John felt very good about his alliance's position in the game. Rotu lost its third challenge in a row in a closely fought reward challenge, but managed to easily win immunity, sending Maraamu to tribal council one last time where Gina was voted out, sending Rotu into the merge with a 7 to 3 member advantage over Maraamu. When they were told to send a representative for a secret meeting somewhere on the island, everyone was uneasy about going, except for Rob M., who went and tried to convince Kathy to join him and told her of the Rotu 4 alliance that planned to eliminate her, Neleh, and Paschal in the next three councils.

Trivia

 * Rotu is one of the few tribes to win six consecutive challenges.
 * Rotu is one of the most dominant tribes in Survivor history. Only Koror and Galu, of Palau and Samoa, have proven to be stronger.
 * Rotu is one of the few tribes to enter the merge with a four member advantage over the other tribe.