The Virgin Islands Police Department is investigating a reported machete assault that occurred Saturday night along Julian Jackson Highway near Brewers Bay beach on St. Thomas.
According to the VIPD, officers with the Criminal Investigation Bureau responded around 10 p.m. after a man reported he had been attacked while standing outside his vehicle. The victim told police a male suspect approached him and struck him in the head with a knife, resulting in a laceration.
Detectives are seeking witnesses or anyone with information that may assist in identifying the suspect. Tips can be reported by calling 911 or contacting Detective E. Rijo of the Criminal Investigation Bureau at 340-774-2211.
Information can also be shared anonymously through Crime Stoppers USVI at 800-222-8477. VIPD said all tips will be kept confidential.
Virtue of the Week focuses on building peaceful and caring communities through understanding and fostering the practice of virtues. The Source supports the Virtues Project and will publish one virtue developed by the project each week.
Independence
Independence is confident self-reliance. We have the courage to see reality with our own eyes, not through the eyes of others. We are true to ourselves. We make decisions without undue influence from others. We responsibly care for ourselves. We do not depend on another to define our value, or lose ourselves to love. We bring ourselves fully to a relationship, yet honor the boundaries that protect each other’s dignity.
Quote: “If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.” —Henry David Thoreau
The Practice of Independence
I think for myself.
I create enough to sustain myself.
I trust my own decisions.
I enjoy healthy self-care.
I do not burden my relationships with unrealistic expectations.
I balance intimacy with self-reliance.
Questions for Discussion
How can independence strengthen our social justice work?
What does independence look like in your strongest relationships?
What does healthy self-care look like in our community?
What do we need to be fully ourselves in our community?
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Virtue of the Week is provided by the Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands (CFVI) in partnership with the VI Source and Virtues Matter.
About the Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands
Since 1990, CFVI has been a catalyst for positive change in the territory through initiatives committed to youth, learning, family support and the environment. With a professional staff and a volunteer Board of Directors composed of community leaders, CFVI is a trusted advocate and supporter of programs that ensure opportunity and sustainability for current and future generations. CFVI is a registered non-profit organization entirely supported by individual donors, grants, trusts, corporate donations and estate planning. For more information, visit cfvi.net.
About Virtues Matter
Virtues Matter was started by a passionate wife-husband team of social entrepreneurs seeking to positively uplift as many lives as possible. We aim to inspire and empower, to build capacity, strengthen relationships, and help everyone lead lives of passion and purpose.
Virtues Matter believes in a world where people are committed to kindness and respect, strive to be their best, and live with hope, courage, and in unity. We built the Virtues Cards mobile app, an interactive personal and team development tool, to help people identify and develop key virtues skills. We also offer dynamic workshops, online training, and customized programs to help people cultivate these positive qualities of character. To learn more, visit virtuesmatter.com.
Check out our weekly weather forecast with Jesse Daley, covering Sunday, May 18, through Saturday, May 24. Our YouTube playlist is updated every week, AND check out Jesse’s daily weather updates here.
Remember this: In all your successes and failures, it was because of the Virgin Islands, not in spite of them. Remember where your dreams, your grit, your resilience, and your unshakable determination were forged.
What kind of success is it if you thrive but never at home?
Jonelle-Alexis Jackson (Submitted photo)
When you return and feel the sting of generational and systemic failures, the weight of decay, the ache of despair—know that these conditions exist in every corner of the Earth. And when you see others, native or not, thriving in the very soil where you once struggled, I hope something stirs awake inside you.
When the eyes of people who’ve never touched our shores light up when they hear where you’re from, that’s when you truly see what’s at stake. When we see and hear the dreams of many looking to escape the ills of their realities, who will quickly, liquidate, scam, and scrape whatever they can to find themselves here, I hope it makes your body ache.
Whether you’re coming home to mourn, to fete, or to reclaim yourself, tread every inch of these islands with reverence. Honor the people who have suffered and are still suffering. Understand that returning is not a performance—it is a responsibility.
(Source photo by Jonelle-Alexis Jackson)
I have been blessed to know that my roots stretch deep into this soil and far beyond it. I have been blessed to witness that while the horrors persist, so do the people! So do the communities and organizations that need your active support—not your commentary from afar, not your once-a-year post, but your presence, your partnership, your follow-through.
Stop feeding into the divide and those that benefit from it. Know your history. Ask and research for yourself. Tune in and follow the conversations with the same fervor you have after these decisions are made. We hold trivial matters to the fire with more urgency than we do the systems and individuals actively eroding our future. We shout louder at each other than we ever do at the ones who profit from our silence, confusion & disengagement.
Recognize the leverage we hold. We are not powerless—we are distracted. And that distraction serves someone. We’ve handed power to those who exploit and disrespect us. We can take it back.
Do not let them rest. Do not let them tread peacefully while our elders suffer, our youth flee, and our leaders fail to lead. Show them the price of their choices. Confront them with the consequences of their corruption and cowardice.
Let your love for these islands show not only in your celebration, but in your confrontation. In your commitment. In your refusal to be pacified by nostalgia, or lulled into thinking your success elsewhere exempts you from responsibility here.
Eagerness alone is not enough.
(Source photo by Jonelle-Alexis Jackson)
The idea that the diaspora is “eager and interested” is valid, but we need to examine how that eagerness manifests. Too often, there’s a pattern of distant engagement: showing up during crises, offering critique without context, or launching short-lived initiatives with no staying power. Meanwhile, those still living here navigate these challenges daily, without the luxury of stepping away when things get hard. That reality demands more than philosophical support. It demands real partnership.
One of the most harmful dynamics is when those who leave position themselves as more enlightened or capable simply because they’ve accessed different resources abroad. The mindset of “I left because things don’t change” may feel personally valid, but when weaponized, it becomes a quiet dismissal of those who stayed—of their strategies, their sacrifices, and the unglamorous, everyday labor of persistence.
If the diaspora truly wants to contribute, the work starts with decentering yourself.
It means listening before leading. It means taking the time to understand the current local ecosystem—not assuming that what works in New York or Atlanta can be copy-pasted into St. John, St. Croix, or St. Thomas.
It means putting money behind local initiatives, lending skills without strings, boldly saying NO to the parasites and village idiots we grew up with, and honoring the pace of real community work—which rarely aligns with quarterly benchmarks or viral content and election cycles.
It also means confronting your privilege. Leaving doesn’t make you less of a Virgin Islander—but it does change your vantage point. You may not experience the outages, the impossible bureaucracy anymore, but it doesn’t help to condemn and condescend. So while your ideas and solutions may be well-intentioned, they often don’t reflect the daily grind of survival here. That distance matters. Acknowledge it—with humility, not guilt. And definitely not with superiority.
And yes, modernization is necessary. But modernization is not just digital—it is relational. It’s about recalibrating the power dynamics between home and diaspora so efforts are rooted in mutual respect and shared leadership. Tech without trust is empty. Strategy without solidarity is performance.
So yes—let’s activate our people everywhere. But let’s do it with honesty. With equity. And with a deep, unshakeable grounding in the lived realities of those still holding the line at home.
Our future demands more than memory—it demands action. The 6th Constitutional Convention is not just a meeting of delegates—it is a defining moment. An opportunity to reflect the needs, dreams, and demands of Virgin Islanders in our own language, on our own terms. It is where we decide how power is distributed, how justice is upheld, how our identity is protected, and how our future is shaped.
This process isn’t just about politics. It’s about legacy. About the kind of Virgin Islands our children will inherit. About how we protect our land, our rights, and our people. And whether you’re on island or abroad, you have a role to play.
Don’t wait until it’s over to have an opinion. Don’t be louder after the fact than you are right now, when your voice and pressure could shape the outcome.
Share accurate updates and context within your networks
Ask hard questions. Demand transparency.
Amplify local voices doing the groundwork. Find an organization and get involved.
Submit your thoughts and concerns to your delegates
Bring others into the conversation—even if they don’t usually “do politics”
If you care about education, about land use, about housing, about autonomy—this is your moment. If you care about cultural preservation, about youth opportunity, about real economic development—this is your moment.
This is how we reclaim what has been lost, protect what remains, and define what’s next.
This is how we ensure that the Virgin Islands survives—not just as a memory or a vacation destination—but as a place where we can all live, thrive, and lead. This is our moment to get it right—let’s not waste it. Not this time. Not again.
—Jonelle-Alexis Jackson is a Virgin Islands-born photojournalist, media producer, and creative strategist committed to amplifying stories that challenge systems and uplift community. With roots in both the territory and the diaspora, her work bridges culture, accountability, and collective action.
Editor’s Note: Opinion articles do not represent the views of the Virgin Islands Source newsroom and are the sole expressed opinion of the writer. Submissions can be made to visource@gmail.com.
Hans Lawaetz’s story of his family and farm, “A Memoir of a Crucian Cowboy,” is available at Undercover Books and through Amazon. (Source photo by Susan Ellis)
“A Memoir of a Crucian Cowboy” by Hans Lawaetz is not an easy read. It took three years to write, and he has included many facts, events, and memories.
The 89-year-old cowboy not only rode the range but, following in his family’s footsteps, helped develop a breed of cattle, raised a family, and administered several national and community organizations.
Lawaetz has included various stories of his adventurous life. His experiences reflect basic Crucian strength. Each chapter tells of the people of the island during those days and their focus on conservation, athleticism, and agriculture.
Lawaetz is the third generation to farm the West end of the island. The first to settle on the island was Pastor Herman Lawaetz in 1889, who served as pastor of the Lord God of Sabaoth Lutheran Church in Christiansted.
Herman Lawaetz’s cousin, Carl, relocated to St. Croix in 1896 to farm 450 acres in the Western part of the island. Hans Lawaetz’s father Frits, was the third of seven children born to Carl and his wife.
“I wrote the book to get out the history of Senepol cattle,” he said.
Bromley Nethropp was the first to begin breeding Senepol cattle when he crossed a Bos Red Poll from England with a Bos Taurus N’dama, originally from Senegal, West Africa, in 1918. The two breeds are known for good milk, good beef, and being heat- and disease-resistant.
Years later, Frits Lawaetz and his partner purchased a herd of Nelthropp cattle and continued to work for years toward having the name Senepol trademarked. The breed was registered in 1949, and some said it was “the best looking breed.”
After Hans Lawaetz graduated from college, he served in the U.S. Air Force for five years and then returned to St. Croix to work at Annaly Farms. He eventually took over and managed the business, which eventually included a meat market that is still in existence.
Hans Lawaetz devoted decades to the Virgin Islands Olympic Committee. In 1966, the territory was given permission to participate, on a trial basis, in the 1966 Central American and Caribbean Games. Because participants did so well, the Virgin Islands was granted full membership in the International Olympic Committee. Hans Lawaetz served as president for 16 years and 20 years as secretary general. His fundraising for the Olympics included a fruitful day where he visited Lawrence Rockefeller and Leon Hess on the same day and received $15,000 in donations from both. A highlight of his time was watching his daughter Jodie carrying the V.I. flag and leading the Virgin Islands delegation in the 1984 Los Angeles Games.
The other organizations Hans Lawaetz was actively involved with included the V.I. Conservation District, Good Hope School, Country Day School, and the St. Croix Horse Show Association.
Some of his travels to places such as Colombia, Brazil, Paraguay, Mexico, and Guatemala, where he went to talk about cattle and the Senepol Breed Association, are recounted in his book.
Overall, Hans Lawaetz’s 329-page book is a thorough read of history and shares recollections of the Caribbean region, especially St. Croix.
A procession of uniformed first responders filed by the casket of the late St. Thomas Rescue Chief Carl Fleming on Saturday. (Source photo by Judi Shimel)
As Police Week winds down in the Virgin Islands, first responders in the St. Thomas-St. John District paid their respects to one of their own. The funeral service for Capt. Carl Fleming, Sr., who served with St. Thomas Rescue, was underway in the auditorium at the Bertha C. Boschulte Middle School on Saturday.
Fleming died April 8 at the age of 58.
As the viewing ended and the service began, uniformed EMTs, rescue responders, and firefighters marched silently past the casket. They took their seats in the back of the hall as the services began.
Saturday was a day to remember first responders on St. Thomas and St. John. (Source photo by Judi Shimel)
Outside the auditorium doors, members of the squad Fleming called his “A Team” spoke quietly among themselves. Rescue groups in service on St. Thomas, St. Croix, and St. John are volunteer organizations sometimes called community first responders.
Across the United States, some community responders are affiliated with ambulance services; others are not. The number of active groups is unclear, according to the National Institutes of Health.
And like rescue groups in other areas, local volunteers often have full-time duties as first responders. Victor Adams is one of them.
“I came into contact with Bigley — or Carl Fleming — approximately 18 years ago when I joined the EMS system,” Adams said, “and from the time I joined, he’s been like a big brother to me — mentoring, showing me the ropes.”
Former rescue volunteer Michael Wheatley became a fire captain in West Palm Beach, Fla. Outside the venue where the funeral took place, he described Fleming as “a family man, a community man — a rescue man.”
St. Thomas Rescue founder and President Patrick Benjamin described the group’s contribution to emergency response as “very good.” A veteran volunteer of 40 years, Benjamin said he and Fleming spent years working side by side.
“St. Thomas Rescue is highly trained. We started with first aid — basic first aid. We had to learn CPR, EMS – paramedics,” the president said, adding that some former volunteers are now in the States working as fire chiefs, nurses, and in emergency rooms.
Since he first joined the St. Thomas squad in 1996, Fleming trained and gained expertise at vehicle extractions — pulling victims out of the wreckage at auto accidents. Keridon Williams, a 20-year veteran, said the chief promoted training opportunities for all volunteers.
Today, the organization has about 50 active members.
“St. Thomas Rescue — it still is — a volunteer organization where back in the day, we would have only heavy rescue operations. So, any type of motor vehicle accident, it was rescue who was being called out in the middle of the night … to rappel off the side of the mountains, or to cut people out of cars. Biggs was effective – he was an extrication expert, so he passed on all of those training and all of those tips and techniques to us and on to the younger generation,” Williams said.
Many on the squad said their work as volunteer responders gave their lives a sense of purpose. They credited Fleming for setting an example they could easily follow.
“You mentioned about which call he was on. The question is, which call he wasn’t on. He was always on call; if there was a call for service, he was there,” Adams said.
Appreciation for the community service of V.I. rescue groups was shown later in the day on Saturday as the Prayer House of Faith held an appreciation day for police, firefighters, and members of St. John Rescue. About two dozen first responders joined the Cruz Bay event held to mark the church’s 16th anniversary.
Kapok trees in the Virgin Islands attract local leaf-nosed fruit bats (Artibeus jamaicensis). (Photo Gail Karlsson)
One morning at the Unitarian Fellowship meeting my friend Kim mentioned that the big kapok tree by her place nearby was in bloom, and invited us to come over that evening to check it out. We needed to wait until dark because the flowers only open up at night, to attract the nocturnal fruit bats that are their main pollinators.
This tree is huge, and dominates the skyline.
Large kapok (ceiba) trees can produce thousands of flowers all at once. (Photo Gail Karlsson)
I had read that kapoks, also known as silk-cotton trees (Ceiba pentandra), were viewed as sacred trees by the Tainos, the early inhabitants of the Caribbean islands who came up from South America. The Tainos were probably traveling in dugout canoes made from thick kapok tree trunks, and carrying the seeds with them. Reportedly, the Tainos revered the bats attracted to the kapok tree flowers as the spirits of the dead that offered a connection between those still living and the world beyond.
I had never actually seen the bats showing up at one of the trees. The kapoks don’t flower very often, and then it’s not always okay to go around looking for bats at night, especially on other people’s property. So we were grateful for this invitation.
When my husband and I arrived after dinner, it was already dark, a bit late, and it was hard to figure out what was going on. Small areas of the tree were being lit up by other people holding flashlights, and bats were frantically flying around the flowers that were already open. Someone pointed and yelled out ‘there’s one’’ and then that bat quickly sped off and other ones whizzed by out of the shadows. As they flew around they were knocking off dead flower heads, which showered down on us, along with occasional bits of nectar-scented poop. Good to have a hat on.
I had my telephoto lens with me, which requires two hands, and I couldn’t hold a flashlight as well. Also, I am not skilled at shooting in the dark, and had trouble focusing on the spots people were pointing at before the bat and circle of light had moved on.
It was challenging to try to focus my camera on bats flying around in the dark. (Photo Gail Karlsson)
It was all very frustrating and confusing until the tenants on the third floor invited us to come up and look at the mid-level of the tree from their deck. Up there, the bats and flowers were much closer. And one of the tenants was kind enough to hold her flashlight on a few nearby bats long enough for me to get some in-focus photos of them drinking nectar from the center of opened flowers.
Getting close, with someone holding a flashlight steady, I finally got a good look at some of the bats. (Photo Gail Karlsson)
By about half an hour after we arrived, the bats seemed to slow down, maybe because they had already drunk a good bit of nectar from the flowers. Instead of zooming around like crazy, they started dropping down and lying on top of clumps of the opened flowers with anthers sticking up full of pollen.
This bat seemed to drop heavily onto some flowers. (Photo Gail Karlsson)
By then the bats’ faces and brown fur were covered with the yellow pollen.
The bats transport the pollen as they move around to other flowers. (Photo Gail Karlsson)
The blooming and pollination process lasts for a few weeks as different sets of flowers on the tree open sequentially. Even though it seemed like there might have been over 100 bats coming to feed, they needed to keep coming back to get around to pollinating all the flower bunches as they opened. The tree had to produce a lot of nectar to keep them coming. Once this frenzy of activity was finished, it might be years before the tree would have the strength to bloom again.
After that first night I went back a few more times to try to understand more about what was happening, arriving well before dark to be ready when the bats started coming.
I prepared by going to the hardware store to get a strong flashlight. They recommended one called ‘Big Larry’ and I enlisted my husband to hold it steady while I tried to get photos of the bats in flight. The people with the balcony were no longer there, so I tried to find a good viewing spot from the ground. There were some relatively low-hanging branches with flowers, but unfortunately, Big Larry’s beam could not really reach that far.
The next day I went back and found an even stronger flashlight – all business, no nickname.
My husband held the flashlight as I tried to video the bats with my phone. (Photo Joan Farrenkopf)
That night I invited the visiting speaker for the Unitarian Fellowship to come with me, because she had missed the first night’s visit. It was particularly thrilling this time because when the bats came several of them swooped down low and circled us. In the dark I heard her exclaim “Mon dieu, il m’a touché”. When I looked over she was rubbing her arm and said she was so surprised she lost her English and reverted to her childhood French. Another night I promised a different tree-loving friend ‘a life-changing experience’ and she was not disappointed.
The bats were not the only creatures attracted to the tree’s flowers. When I went by one day in the late afternoon, I could see that bananaquits were investigating the buds. Some bananaquits seemed to be trying to pry open the flower’s tips. Others were more aggressive, poking their sharp beaks into the sides of the flowers as a short cut to getting at the nectar sac without providing any pollination services in exchange.
A bananaquit prepared to pierce a flower to reach the nectar. (Photo Gail Karlsson)
Later on, hummingbirds tried to sneak their long, skinny tongues into the flowers, just as the petals started to crack open.
An Antillean crested hummingbird explored the opening flower buds. (Photo Gail Karlsson)
At dusk, hummingbird moths and bees gathered around as the scent of the opened flowers started spreading through the area. I though the bees would be sleeping by then, but I guess this was an opportunity worth staying up for.
Bees stayed up as night fell to get a turn at the kapok flowers. (Photo Gail Karlsson)
What an adventure to stand underneath this marvelous tree at dusk and join the wild company drawn to its exuberant blossoming.
And then, when it got dark and the bats arrived, there was a wild frenzy that made my heart race. My time there certainly felt like a spiritual experience, connecting me with so many other ways of being in the world, in the night, on this island.
A pollen-covered bat stood still for an intoxicated moment before flying off. (Photo Gail Karlsson)
Gail Karlsson is the author of a photo book Looking for Birds on St. John, as well as two other books about nature in the Virgin Islands – The Wild Life in an Island House, and a guide book Learning About Trees and Plants – A Project of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of St. John. Follow her on Instagram @gailkarlsson and at gvkarlsson.blogspot.com.
Graduates cheer and wave their programs in celebration during the University of the Virgin Islands’ 2025 Commencement Ceremony. The joyful energy marked the culmination of years of hard work and dedication. (Source photo by Judi Shimel)
Graduates of the University of the Virgin Islands Orville Kean Campus heard words of praise and reassurance at commencement exercises held Friday on St. Thomas. They heard inspiring words from their guest speaker and shared a sigh of relief from the student chosen from among them to address the crowd.
They also watched as university officials awarded an honorary doctorate to an admired school administrator and military leader.
In spite of ups and downs and facing a changing and uncertain future, they had reached a milestone together — graduation day. More than 150 candidates for associate, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees marched across the stage at the Elridge Blake Sports and Fitness Center to accept their diplomas.
UVI President Safiyah George encouraged them and the roughly 130 who graduated Thursday on St. Croix to put their talents to work by serving their community in the V.I.
Relatives, friends and fellow students filled the bleachers in the sports center, cheering on the graduates and cheering the words of guest speaker Hill Harper. Harper is known for his work as an actor in numerous television and film projects, but he is also recognized as a Harvard-educated attorney, author, and scholar.
Faculty members and distinguished guests look on with pride as graduates celebrate their achievements during a packed commencement ceremony, held before a lively crowd of family and friends. (Source photo by Judi Shimel)
The speaker urged graduates to view their commencement as one step toward a life they design for themselves as architects of their own futures.
“I would suggest to you that after you leave this auditorium, you think every day about opening yourself up, opening doors to new people, new ideas, and new information. The way we win in this world — the way we become creative — is to put ourselves out in front,” Harper said.
Actor, scholar, lawyer and author Hill Harper offers inspiration to the UVI Class of 2025 at Friday commencement exercises. (Source photo by Judi Shimel)
Joleen Buchanan thanked the Class of 2025 for giving her a chance to deliver brief remarks. “Let’s be real; nothing here came easy, but that’s what made us tough and tenacious,” Buchanan said.
To prepare her address, the class speaker said she took an informal survey of her fellow students about life in the UVI dorms, life as student commuters, cafeteria food and forming relationships with UVI faculty and staff.
For Harper, the guest speaker, it all added up to a sense of family in the UVI community —something he said would give graduates an advantage as they made their way out into the world.
“There’s a family feeling here that’s so palpable and powerful. You can leverage that here to attract people, but you can also leverage that to go places and spread, and be a leader with that same spirit,” he said.
Spirits in the audience rose moments later as George and the board of trustees Chair Henry Smock honored Ivanna Eudora Kean H.S. Principal Sally Petty with a sash and certificate as an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters. Petty, who also serves as brigadier general of the Virgin Islands National Guard, is one of two military leaders honored by UVI in 2025.
UVI board of trustees Chair Henry Smock and President Safiyah George award National Guard Brigadier General Sally Petty an honorary doctorate degree. (Source photo by Judi Shimel)
Both Petty and retired Adjutant General Deborah Howell are UVI alumnae. “We are proud to honor these two remarkable women and UVI alumnae who lives exemplify the highest ideals of leadership, courage, and service. Their accomplishments are an inspiration to our students and to the entire Virgin Islands community,” George said.
A view of the Magens Bay watershed in 1962, including the Peterborg peninsula, as seen from the Drake’s Seat lookout. (Photo by Ray Miles)
This is the second and final of a two-part series article on the indigenous people of the Virgin Islands. At the end of the first article, I mentioned that there were no such names as Arawaks and Caribs Indians. According to historians, Arawak is a language not a people. Thus, what is known as Arawakan is a family of languages. These languages were widely spoken by indigenous people throughout the Amazon River Basin, the Orinoco Valley, Guianas, and in Columbus’s time and throughout the Caribbean region as well.
Olasee Davis (Submitted photo)
Many different ethnic or tribal groups spoke the Arawakan languages, depending on where they lived. For example, people in the Caribbean who speak English don’t called themselves Englishmen. The same goes for people who speak Spanish in the Caribbean — they don’t call themselves Spaniards. The various ethnic groups (Indians) in the Caribbean when Columbus arrived spoke the Arawakan-based language. However, they cannot all be called Arawak, according to archaeological findings.
Nonetheless, the Arawakan-speaking people began to colonize the Lesser Antilles from the Orinoco region of South America about 4000 B.C. As we learned in the first article, the Taino dominated the Greater Antilles. This ethic groups developed out of the early Arawakan-speaking settlers in the Caribbean, especially in the Greater Antilles.
Historians have divided the Taino region into three groups. The Western Taino includes central and eastern Cuba, Jamaica, and the Bahamas. Puerto Rico and Hispaniola were known as the Classic Taino, and the islands between the Virgin Islands and Antigua were known as the Eastern Taino. Archaeologists have learned that Arawakan languages were spoken by different ethic groups of indigenous people in the Caribbean region and not as we were taught in grammar school.
Now, the word Carib is not an indigenous name of the people that live in the Caribbean, South and Central America region. The earliest mention of Caribs is what Columbus’s journal on Nov. 26, 1492, noted, “All the people that he has found up to today, he says, are very frightened of those of Caniba or Canima.” If you noticed, Columbus mentioned a place where people live rather than the name of the people themselves. It was from this point that people and later a place came to be known as Caniba or Canima, modified in the Spanish writing calling the Arawakan-speaking indigenous people Caribi or Caribe and where they lived in the Caribbean.
The rest is history. The printing press of Europe got a hold of the name ‘Carib, like Indian’ and “West Indies,” although it was based on a mistake that remains forever in the human vocabulary. In today’s literature of the indigenous people of the Caribbean region, you will see the name Callinago, Kalinago, or Calliponam, which is what the natives called themselves. The island of Dominica is one of the few places in the Caribbean region where the Kalinago people still thrive today. Another myth is that the “Islands Caribs” ate people. That is another lie of the European printing press.
I want to mention some pre-Columbian sites in the northern Virgin Islands. Krum Bay on the south side of St. Thomas, known as “Sub Base,” has three pre-ceramic archeological sites. The three sites are Krum Bay 1 (VAm3-5), Cancel Hill ( VAm3-8), and Grambokola Hill (VAm3-7). These sites represent the earliest known human occupation in the northern Virgin Islands. However, the sites have been heavily impacted by industrial, military, and road construction since the 1940s.
The Tutu pre-Columbian site has been destroyed with a shopping mall or severely impacted. Botany Bay on the West End of St. Thomas was known historically for running slaves (Maroons) who escaped to Puerto Rico for freedom and is another pre-Columbian site. This site is gone with the wind of individual mansions built on the hilltops of Botany Bay Estate and possibly in the future a hotel development near the bay. This site also had “Native American Petroglyphs.’”
Workers excavate a pre-historic deposit site at Magens Bay in 1918. (Photo by Theodoor DeBooy and John T. Faris)
In 1976, the Magens Bay flatlands, at the foothills of the Magens Bay watershed, was listed as Magens Bay Archeological District on the National Register of Historic Places in the United States and the Virgin Islands. The area contains several artifacts exposed all over the ground, including an Indian village site dating back to about 700 A.D. However, the daily activities on the site relative to the recreation area, such as parking site and cleaning of the grounds, impact additional sites in the area.
A few years ago, probably in the 1970s or early ‘80s, a land use plan project was conducted in the watershed of Magens Bay to integrate the geological, faunal, botanical, sociological, and other disciplines into the investigation of the Magens Bay pre-Columbian site. During the investigation, about 60 acres of Peterborg, an arm of the Magens Bay watershed, was subdivided for development. From what I was told, there were no public hearings on the proposed development site. You don’t want to hear my comments. I will say this, however: we don’t care about our history.
Believe me, it is only a handful of residents of these islands that show interest in what remains of our natural, cultural, historical, and marine archeological resources of the Virgin Islands. There are pre-Columbian sites on Water Island as well as Hassel Island. Some of our surrounding cays, inlets, and small islands of the Virgin Islands once inhabited by indigenous people have pre-Columbian sites. For example, the eastern coast of Congo Cay off the northwest side of St. John is called on the Scorpion Survey map “Indian Inscription Point,” which refers to the petroglyphs carved in the rock.
On the island of St. John, there are several pre-Columbian sites, such as Cinnamon Bay and Trunk Bay, revealing the presence of the Taino people. I will say this: what makes these islands so rich in history are those pre-Columbian sites that remind us of a culture that existed for thousands of years before these islands were called by their colonial names of the United States of the Virgin Islands.
— Olasee Davis is a bush professor who lectures and writes about the culture, history, ecology and environment of the Virgin Islands when he is not leading hiking tours of the wild places and spaces of St. Croix and beyond.
Chief District Judge Robert Molloy has denied the Justice Department’s request for a 120-day stay in the murder case of Richardson Dangleben Jr. in an opinion issued late Friday afternoon upbraiding the government’s last-minute bid to seek the death penalty more than a year after it said it would not.
Molloy said not only has the deadline long passed for the government to declare it would seek capital punishment, but doing so now would clearly disadvantage Dangleben who faces first-degree murder, assault and gun charges in the July 4, 2023 shooting death of V.I. Police Detective Delberth Phipps Jr. on St. Thomas.
Dangleben has pleaded not guilty, and federal prosecutors signaled last February that they would not seek the death penalty.
However, following a Jan. 20 executive order by President Donald Trump entitled “Restoring the Death Penalty and Protecting Public Safety,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi notified all Justice Department employees that a “Capital Review Committee” would be evaluating all decisions to not seek such punishment in eligible cases charged during the Biden Administration that have not yet resulted in a conviction.
The V.I. Justice Department subsequently asked for a 120-stay in the Dangleben case, which Public Defender Matthew Campbell strongly opposed, writing in a brief on the matter in March that considering the death penalty now, more than a year into proceedings, had effectively pulled the rug out from under his client “based on a whim.”
Moreover, had he known the government might reverse course, Dangleben would never have requested a continuance when he was set to go to trial last October and the matter would now be moot, Campbell said.
On Friday, Molloy agreed.
“The Government has provided little to no evidence to support its request for a stay of proceedings. It argues that, because the trial in this matter has been continued without date, any delay as a result of a stay is not prejudicial to Defendant. However, the Government cannot dispute that the Court and the parties proceeded for over a year under the impression that the Government would not be seeking the death penalty. The matter was set for trial for a date certain and that date was continued, in part, because of Defendant’s reliance upon the Government’s notice not to seek the death penalty,” Molloy wrote in his nine-page opinion.
“Thus, Defendant now would be prejudiced by the change of position by the Government. Rather than addressing the elements necessary to support a motion for stay, as Defendant notes, the Government focuses on timeliness rather than any authority to withdraw or amend a ‘no-seek’ notice after such a notice has been filed,” the judge said.
Moreover, because Dangleben has been proceeding according to the “no-seek” decision, “he has been without the benefit of learned counsel for over a year and, thus, his trial preparation, as well as preparation for any re-review by the Capital Review Committee, is not what it would have been had a ‘no-seek’ notice not been filed,” Molloy wrote. “Consequently, despite the fact no trial date is currently set, the prejudice to Defendant cannot be overstated. Usually, when the death penalty is a consideration, learned counsel is appointed on behalf of the defendant at the earliest opportunity possible.”
In this case, learned counsel — an attorney expert in death penalty cases — was not appointed until Feb. 24, which Molloy said was unquestionably detrimental to Dangleben.
“Having Learned Counsel assist in persuading the government not to seek the death penalty is an immensely favorable outcome for the defense. In the matter at bar, relying on the United States’ representations not to seek the death penalty, Defendant did not immediately request the appointment of Learned Counsel. Thus, Defendant has no meaningful opportunity to submit mitigation evidence now in the timeframe the Government is seeking to make a decision. Defendant’s trial preparation, therefore, has been affected and any change to the United States’ position would be detrimental thereto,” Molloy wrote.
“The Court also finds that a stay would not simplify the issues and the trial of the case. … As mentioned above, the Government is requesting a 120-day stay in order to determine whether it will be seeking the penalty of death against Dangleben. This by no means simplifies any issue pending before the Court. In fact, to the contrary, if this case were to proceed as a death-penalty case, the complexities of this case will be multiplied exponentially. It is not lost on the Court that the Government, in effect, received a de-facto stay while the parties briefed this issue coupled with the Court’s consideration of the merits of a stay,” the opinion states.
“Nonetheless, the fact remains that the court-ordered deadline for filing a Section 3593 notice has expired. In sum, the Court finds that these considerations weigh against the granting of a stay,” Molloy wrote in denying the government’s motion.
A status conference is scheduled for 11 a.m. on May 20 at which both sides “shall be prepared to discuss the scheduling of all pending motions for disposition.”
