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89-655: Crucian can refer to: A person who is from Saint Croix , U.S. Virgin Islands A dialect of Virgin Islands Creole , spoken on St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands Crucian carp , a freshwater fish Crucian ( Dungeons & Dragons ) , a creature in Dungeons & Dragons Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with

178-620: A Spanish invasion from Puerto Rico in August 1650. Around 1650, a French force attacked and established a colony of 300. From 1651 until 1664, the Knights of Malta (at the time a vassal state of the Kingdom of Sicily ) ruled the island in the name of Louis XIV . The island then passed to the French West India Company . The colony was evacuated to Saint-Domingue in 1695, when France battled

267-401: A division of the U.S.-based Hess Corporation , and Petroleos de Venezuela, SA (PDVSA), Venezuela 's national oil company. Gas prices on St. Croix were slightly higher than average than in the continental U.S. On January 18, 2012, HOVENSA announced that its refinery would be permanently shut down. This had a major adverse effect on the economy of St. Croix and the entire U.S. Virgin Islands, as

356-607: A flat rate of $ 2.50, regardless of where a rider gets on and off. Taxis to specific locations are much more expensive and are typically used by tourists. Ferry service to St. Thomas restarted in 2017. The QE IV Ferry makes one trip per day departing from Gallows Bay, Christiansted, to Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas. The journey takes 2.5 hours and costs $ 60. The QE IV Ferry does not run during hazardous weather conditions. Some ferry companies based in St. Thomas and St. John sometimes operate St. Croix-to-St. Thomas service for special occasions, such as

445-414: A low number of European women in the colonial West Indies, many European men in colonial St. Croix had children with the majority African population, whose mixed-heritage descendants bear their European ancestors' surnames. There are also a handful of ancestral families on the island (traditionally known as bukra ) of full European ancestry . Due to historical economic and political differences, as well as

534-633: A new distillery on a 26-acre industrial site next to the HOVENSA Refinery. The new distillery produces Captain Morgan Rum. Diageo's entrance into the U.S. Virgin Islands rum industry has been controversial. The cash-strapped U.S. Virgin Islands government secured $ 250 million in bonds for the plant, about which the Puerto Rican government has bitterly complained. In 2023-24, the cruise ship port at Frederiksted received 3-8 ships per month. Cars on

623-519: A number of public schools in St. Croix. There are also multiple private schools, including St. Croix Montessori, Star Apple Montessori School, The Good Hope Country Day School , AZ Academy, St. Mary's Catholic School, Free Will Baptist, St. Croix SDA School, and The Manor School. The island's only colleges are the University of the Virgin Islands , St. Croix campus and Barry University , which operates

712-578: A physician assistant training program. The island's largest festival, Crucian Christmas Carnival, is celebrated on St. Croix throughout late December and early January. Another significant festival is the Agricultural and Food Fair, held in mid-February. Kalinago At the time of Spanish contact , the Kalinago were one of the dominant groups in the Caribbean (the name of which is derived from "Carib", as

801-472: A problem, particularly considering the lack of fresh groundwater and lack of freshwater streams or rivers. St. Croix has a desalination plant, but most residential homes and businesses have built-in cisterns used to collect rainwater. St. Croix does not have a weather station and thus climate averages are unknown. Inhabitants are called Crucians / ˈ k r uː ʒ ən / (frequently written as "Cruzans"). Due to St. Croix's history of immigration, there

890-744: A result. Such wars led to a geopolitical boundary separating the Lesser Antilles , inhabited by the Kalinago, from the Greater Antilles , inhabited by the Taíno . This boundary became known as the " poison arrow curtain". In 1660, France and England signed the Treaty of Saint Charles with Island Caribs. It stipulated that the Kalinago would evacuate all the Lesser Antilles except for Dominica and Saint Vincent , which were recognised as reserves. However,

979-754: A traditional canoe based on the fishing canoes still used in Dominica, Guadeloupe and Martinique . They launched a voyage by canoe to the Orinoco delta to meet up with the local Kalinago tribes, re-establishing cultural connections with the remaining Kalinago communities along the island chain, documented by the BBC in The Quest of the Carib Canoe . Historically, scholars assumed that Island Carib men and women spoke different languages. To explain this phenomenon, scholars proposed that

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1068-407: Is a U.S. territory, the U.S. Virgin Islands are maintained as a free port in a separate customs zone. Therefore, travelers to and from the contiguous U.S. and Puerto Rico must clear U.S. customs but do not need to present a passport, only proof of U.S. citizenship or nationality. The immigration status of non-U.S. citizens may be verified during this process. The St. Croix School District operates

1157-663: Is an island in the Caribbean Sea , and a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincorporated territory of the United States . St. Croix is the largest of the territory's islands. As of the 2020 U.S. census, its population was 41,004. The island's highest point is Mount Eagle , at 355 meters (1,165 ft). St. Croix's nickname is "Twin City", for its two towns, Frederiksted on

1246-585: Is common among St. Croix's Arab Palestinian community. Immigrants from the Anglophone Caribbean who came to St. Croix after their formative years tend to speak the English creoles of their respective islands in informal situations, which are, for the most part, mutually intelligible with Virgin Islands Creole English . Christianity is St. Croix's predominant religion ; the island has been called

1335-539: Is much debate as to what constitutes a native Crucian. The consensus in Crucian society is anyone bahn ya ("born here" in Crucian dialect) on St. Croix can claim to be Crucian, but not necessarily a native Crucian . People considered native Crucians , or ancestral native Crucian s, are those who can trace their ancestry to the era before Crucians was granted U.S. citizenship in 1927. Ancestral native Crucians (one-fourth to one-third of St. Croix's population) largely consist of

1424-420: Is rugged, though not extremely so. The island's highest point, Mount Eagle , is 1,165 feet (355 m) high. Most of the east end is quite hilly and steep, as is the north side from Christiansted west. From the north-side hills, a fairly even plain slopes down to the south coast; this was cultivated as the island's prime sugar land. The trade wind blows more or less along the length of the island. The hills of

1513-631: The 1848 St. Croix Slave Revolt , led by General " Buddhoe " Gottlieb. The British occupied the Danish West Indies in March 1801, with the arrival of a British fleet at St. Thomas. Denmark-Norway accepted the Articles of Capitulation and the British occupied the islands without a shot being fired. The occupation lasted until April 1802, when Britain returned the islands to Denmark-Norway. The British invaded

1602-682: The Carib Territory that was granted to the people by the British government in 1903. The Dominican Kalinago elect their own chief. In July 2003, the Kalinago observed 100 Years of Territory, and in July 2014, Charles Williams was elected Kalinago Chief, succeeding Chief Garnette Joseph. Several hundred Carib descendants live in the U. S. Virgin Islands , St. Kitts & Nevis , Antigua & Barbuda , Guadeloupe , Martinique , Dominica , Saint Lucia , Grenada , Trinidad and St. Vincent . " Black Caribs ,"

1691-522: The Danish West Indies . By the mid- to late 18th century, the peak of the plantation economy, St. Croix's enslaved population numbered between 18,000 and 20,000. The white population during this time ranged between 1,500 and 2,000. Future American revolutionary leader Alexander Hamilton and his brother lived in Christiansted with their mother, Rachel Faucette, on St. Croix after she returned to

1780-655: The Federal Bureau of Investigation , and the United States Marshals Service were brought in to restore order. The 2012 shutdown of the Hovensa refinery resulted in the loss of many jobs. Agriculture has seen a slow resurgence, due to an increase in demand for local produce and agricultural products. Category 5 Hurricane Maria 's weaker outer eyewall crossed St. Croix in 2017; sustained winds reached over 150 mph and gusted up to 250 mph in some places on

1869-480: The Lesser Antilles to the east and southeast) occurred mainly in the 1960s and 70s. In that period, agriculture declined as St. Croix's major industry, replaced by tourism, alumina production, and oil refining. Jobs were plentiful in these industries and down-islanders came to St. Croix by the thousands. The demand for imported labor in St. Croix was exacerbated by the fact that many ancestral native Crucians, having acquired U.S. citizenship decades earlier, migrated to

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1958-467: The local Creole English that still exists today. Known on the island as Crucian , Virgin Islands Creole English is spoken by the majority of the population in informal situations. Spanish is spoken by migrants from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic and their St. Croix-born offspring, and various French Creoles are spoken by St. Lucian , Dominican , and Haitian immigrants. Arabic

2047-472: The "Land of Churches" for the approximately 150 churches that serve its 50,000 residents. Protestant denominations are the most prevalent, but there is also a significant Roman Catholic presence due to St. Croix's large Hispanic population, as well as Irish influence during the Danish colonial period. Anglican , Methodist , Moravian , Presbyterian , Pentecostal , and Seventh-day Adventists are among

2136-608: The 1930s, '40s and '50s, when many Puerto Ricans relocated to St. Croix for work after the collapse of the sugar industry. The total population declined by 50% in the century preceding 1945. The United States Navy purchase of two-thirds of the nearby Puerto Rican island of Vieques during World War II resulted in the displacement of thousands of Viequenses , many of whom relocated to St. Croix because of its similar size and geography. The local holiday of Puerto Rico/U.S. Virgin Islands Friendship Day has been celebrated since

2225-493: The 1960s on the second Monday of October, the same date as Columbus Day . St. Croix's Puerto Ricans, most of whom have lived on the island for more than a generation, have kept their culture alive while integrating it into native Crucian culture and society. For example, in informal situations, many Puerto Ricans in St. Croix speak a Spanglish -like combination of Puerto Rican Spanish and Crucian Creole English . Migration from "down-island" (a local colloquial term for islands in

2314-545: The 2008 global recession. Down-island migration to St. Croix is most commonly thought of as a mid-20th century phenomenon brought upon by American immigration policy, but people of both European and African descent from the nearby islands of Anguilla , St. Martin , Sint Eustatius , Saba , St. Kitts , Nevis , Antigua , and Montserrat have been migrating to St. Croix since the 1600s. Many ancestral native Crucians also share family ties with Barbados , as Bajans were heavily recruited to St. Croix to work on sugar plantations in

2403-511: The 21st century, waves of migration to St. Croix have included people from the Dominican Republic , Haiti , Jamaica , the Philippines , and various South American nations. St. Croix's history of migration has sometimes caused tensions between immigrants and Crucians whose ancestry on the island dates back for generations. Tensions have subsided to some extent in recent years, mainly due to intermarriage among Crucians and other Caribbean peoples. In

2492-558: The Antilles, notably on the island of Dominica . The Garifuna , who share common ancestry with the Kalinago, also live principally in Central America. The exonym Caribe was first recorded by Christopher Columbus . One hypothesis for the origin of Carib is that it means "brave warrior". Its variants, including the English word Carib , were then adopted by other European languages. Early Spanish explorers and administrators used

2581-472: The Antilles. Irving Rouse proposed that a relatively small scale Carib force conquered but did not displace the Igneri, and the invaders eventually took on the Igneri language while still maintaining their identity as Caribs. Other scholars such as Sued Badillo doubt there was an invasion at all, proposing that the Igneri adopted the "Carib" identity over time due to their close economic and political relations with

2670-503: The Arrow). The Spanish never colonized the Islands, but most or all of the native population was eventually dispersed or killed. By the end of the 16th century, the islands were said to be uninhabited. Dutch and English settlers landed at Saint Croix in 1625, joined by some French refugees from Saint Kitts . The English expelled the Dutch and French settlers before they themselves were evicted by

2759-472: The Bahamas and the Lesser Antilles , Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano was killed and allegedly eaten by Carib natives on what is now Guadeloupe , near a place called Karukera (“island of beautiful waters”). Historian William Riviere has described most of the cannibalism as related to war rituals. Chief Kairouane and his men from Grenada jumped off the "Leapers Hill" rather than face slavery under

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2848-558: The Carib territory, killing a majority of the Yellow Caribs. After the eruption, 130 Yellow Caribs and 59 Black Caribs survived on St. Vincent . Unable to recover from the damage caused by the eruption, 120 of the Yellow Caribs, under Captain Baptiste, emigrated to Trinidad. In 1830, the Carib population numbered less than 100. The population made a remarkable recovery after that, although almost

2937-557: The Caribbean, the Maipurean -speaking Taínos reportedly relayed stories of the Caribs' war-like nature and cannibalism to him. When he arrived in the Lesser Antilles in 1635, the French missionary Raymond Breton made ethnographic and linguistic notes on the "Caribs", which also informed many of the early stereotypes about the Kalinago. Other missionaries, such as Cesar de Rochefort, would refute

3026-455: The Caribs had a common origin with contemporary groups in the Greater and Lesser Antilles. The transition from Igneri to Island Carib culture may have occurred around 1450. Archaeological evidence in support of either model is sparse, with "no confirmed Carib sites [known] prior to the 1990s." However, Cayo-style pottery found in the Lesser Antilles, and dated between 1000 and 1500, is similar to

3115-609: The Caribs, karibna was apparently associated with ritual eating of war enemies. The Caribs reportedly had a tradition of keeping bones of their ancestors in their houses. Missionaries , such as Père Jean Baptiste Labat and Cesar de Rochefort, described the practice as part of a belief that the ancestral spirits would always look after the bones and protect their descendants. The Caribs have been described by their various enemies as vicious and violent raiders. Rochefort stated they did not practice cannibalism. During his third voyage to North America in 1528, after exploring Florida ,

3204-561: The Danish West Indies again in December 1807. A British fleet captured St. Thomas on 22 December and St. Croix on 25 December. Denmark-Norway did not resist and the invasion again was bloodless. This occupation lasted until 20 November 1815. Both invasions were due to Denmark's alliance with France during the Napoleonic Wars . Upon the conclusion of a peace with France, the islands were returned to Denmark. The 1878 St. Croix labor riot shook

3293-677: The English and Dutch in the War of the Grand Alliance . The island was then uninhabited and abandoned for another 38 years. In 1725, St. Thomas Governor Frederik Moth encouraged the Danish West Indies Company's directors to consider purchasing Santa Cruz (St. Croix). On 15 June 1733, France and Denmark-Norway concluded a treaty by which the Danish West India Company bought St. Croix for 750,000 livres . Louis XV ratified

3382-447: The English later ignored the treaty, and pursue a campaign against the Kalinago in succeeding decades. Between the 1660s and 1700, the English waged an intermittent campaign against the Kalinago. By 1763, the British had annexed St Lucia, Tobago, Dominica and St Vincent. On Saint Vincent the Kalinago intermarried with runaway slaves, forming the ‘Black Caribs’ or Garifuna who were expelled to Honduras in 1797. The British colonial use of

3471-551: The Igneri. As this tradition was widespread in oral testimonies, and internally consistent, it was accepted as historical by Europeans. The second model proposes that the Kalinago developed out of the indigenous peoples of the Antilles. While the Caribs were commonly believed to have migrated from the Orinoco River area in South America to settle in the Caribbean islands about 1200 CE, an analysis of ancient DNA suggests that

3560-525: The Island Caribs may have killed the men and kept the women, allowing the Igneri language to survive among women. This assumption arose from the fact that by at least the early 17th century, Carib men spoke a Cariban-based pidgin language in addition to the usual Arawakan language used by both sexes. This was similar to pidgins used by mainland Caribs when communicating with their Arawak neighbors. Berend J. Hoff and Douglas Taylor hypothesized that it dated to

3649-523: The Kalinago Territory. As of 2008 , a small population of around 3,400 Kalinago survived in the Kalinago Territory in northeast Dominica, of whom some 70 "defined themselves as 'pure'". The Kalinago of Dominica maintained their independence for many years by taking advantage of the island's rugged terrain. The island's east coast includes a 3,700-acre (15 km ) territory formerly known as

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3738-456: The Kalinago had a reputation as warriors who raided neighboring islands. According to the tales of Spanish conquistadors , the Kalinago were cannibals who regularly ate roasted human flesh, although this is considered by the community to be an offensive myth. There is no hard evidence of Caribs eating human flesh, though one historian points out it might be useful to frighten enemy Arawak . The Kalinago and their descendants continue to live in

3827-559: The Kalinago occasionally allied with the Taínos to repel European invaders. When the Spanish attempted to colonize Puerto Rico, Kalinago from St. Croix arrived to aid the local Taíno. Daguao village, initially slated to be the Europeans' new capital, was destroyed by Taínos from the eastern area of Puerto Rico, with the support of Kalinago from neighboring Vieques . By the middle of the 16th century,

3916-508: The Kalinago were once called). They lived throughout north-eastern South America, Trinidad and Tobago , Barbados , the Windward Islands , Dominica , and possibly the southern Leeward Islands . Historically, it was thought their ancestors were mainland peoples who had conquered the islands from their previous inhabitants, the Igneri . However, linguistic and archaeological evidence contradicts

4005-576: The Koriabo complex from which the mainland Carib or Kari'na pottery tradition is descended. Cayo pottery was once thought to have preceded Suazoid pottery (associated with the Igneri) in the Lesser Antilles, but more recent scholarship suggests that Cayo pottery gradually replaced Suazoid pottery in the islands. Cayo-style pottery has been found in the Lesser Antilles from Grenada to Basse-Terre , and, possibly, Saint Kitts . Cayo pottery also shows similarities to

4094-586: The Meillacoid and Chicoid styles of the Greater Antilles, as well as to the South American Koriabo style. Upon his arrival in the Caribbean archipelago in 1492, the Maipurean -speaking Taínos reportedly told Christopher Columbus that Caribs were fierce warriors and cannibals, who made frequent raids on the Taínos, often capturing women. According to Columbus, the Taínos said the Caribs had spent

4183-636: The Protestant denominations prevalent on the island. There are also Jehovah's Witness es and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . As in most of the Caribbean, various forms of Rastafari are practiced on the island. Islam is prevalent among the Arab Palestinian community, and there is a Jewish presence as well. Hinduism and Islam are also practiced by the Indian population. St. Croix

4272-642: The St. Croix Agricultural Fair in February, Virgin Islands Carnival, Crucian Christmas Carnival, and horse races. The Henry E. Rohlsen International Airport serves St. Croix with regular flights from the U.S. mainland, Puerto Rico, and the Eastern Caribbean . Seaplanes, operated by Seaborne Airlines , fly from St. Croix to St. Thomas, departing and arriving in Christiansted Harbor. Though St. Croix

4361-477: The U.S. took place on 1 April 1917. St. Croix's inhabitants were granted U.S. citizenship in 1927. The island industrialized and moved away from an agrarian society in the 1960s. The 1972 Fountain Valley massacre , a mass shooting during a robbery at a golf club, led to a devastating reduction in tourism that lasted many years. In 1989, Hurricane Hugo struck the island with Category 4 winds. The United States Army ,

4450-453: The bark. The Ceiba pentandra tree is not only functional but spiritual and believed to house spirits that would become angered if disturbed. Canoes have been used throughout the history of the Kalinago and have become a renewed interest within the manufacturing of traditional dugout canoes used for inter-island transportation and fishing. In 1997 Dominica Carib artist Jacob Frederick and Tortola artist Aragorn Dick Read set out to build

4539-420: The common conception of the Caribs as cannibals. Early European accounts describe the taking of human trophies and the ritual cannibalism of war captives among both Arawak and other Amerindian groups such as the Carib and Tupinambá , though the exact accuracy of cannibalistic reports still remains debated without skeletal evidence to support it. Scholars such as Hilary McD. Beckles have instead suggested that

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4628-537: The descendants of enslaved Africans brought to the island by Europeans during the 18th and 19th centuries and the descendants of paid laborers the Danes recruited from the British and Dutch West Indies after the Danish emancipation law in 1848. As on other Caribbean islands, many ancestral natives are also descended from European settlers and planters who migrated to the West Indies during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Due to

4717-548: The descendants of the mixture of Africans live in St. Vincent whose total population is unknown. Some ethnic Carib communities remain on the American mainland, in countries such as Guyana and Suriname in South America, and Belize in Central America. The size of these communities varies widely. During the beginning of the eighteenth century, the Island Carib population in St. Vincent

4806-459: The dominant language on St. Croix since the 1700s and the official language since 1917, when the United States purchased the Danish West Indies . Previously, the official language was Danish , but it was not widely spoken. Other languages spoken throughout St. Croix's colonial history have included Irish, Scots, Spanish, and French, as well as a now-extinct Dutch Creole spoken by St. Thomas and St. John -born people living in St. Croix, as well as

4895-587: The entire tribe died out during the 1902 eruption of La Soufrière . Canoes are a significant aspect of the Kalinago's material culture and economy. They are used for transport from the southern continent and islands of the Caribbean, as well as providing them with the ability to fish more efficiently and to grow their fishing industry. Canoes, constructed from the Burseraceae , Cedrela odorata , Ceiba pentandra , and Hymenaea courbaril trees, serve different purposes depending on their height and thickness of

4984-671: The injury. Formerly the Caribs used an extensive range of medicinal plant and animal products. The Caribs are believed to have practiced polytheism . As the Spanish began to colonise the Caribbean area, they wanted to convert the natives to Catholicism . The Caribs destroyed a church of Franciscans in Aguada, Puerto Rico and killed five of its members, in 1579. Currently, the remaining Kalinago in Dominica practice parts of Catholicism through baptism of children. However, not all practice Christianity . Some Caribs worship their ancestors and believe them to have magical power over their crops. In 1492, when Christopher Columbus arrived in

5073-399: The island (and their descendants); and "Virgin Islander"—any U.S. citizen who has resided in the territory for five years. The United States Congress rejected the proposed constitution in 2010 for violating the principle of equal rights for all citizens of the territory, "native" or not, and sent it back to the convention for further consideration. St. Croix's population at the 2020 U.S. Census

5162-545: The island are driven on the left side of the road , but nearly all of them are left-hand drive. This has proven difficult for new residents and visitors from right-hand traffic locales such as the mainland U.S., the French and Dutch West Indies , the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. Roads have numerous potholes. The Virgin Islands Department of Public Works operates a public bus service, Virgin Islands Transit, or VITRAN. In addition to taxis and buses, St. Croix has shared taxis , locally known as "taxi buses" (also found on

5251-524: The island in 1765. Their residence was in the upper floor of a house at 34 Company Street, while Rachel used the lower floor as a shop selling food items. Within two years, Hamilton lost his father, James Hamilton, by abandonment, and his mother to death. Official documents from the island, a 1768 probate court testimony from his uncle, established Alexander's age at 13. By 1769, Hamilton's cousin, aunt, uncle, and grandmother had also died. Alexander’s brother James became an apprentice carpenter and Alexander became

5340-419: The island's western end. Maria damaged or destroyed 70% of St. Croix's buildings, including schools and the only hospital. Saint Croix lies at 17°45′N 64°45′W  /  17.750°N 64.750°W  / 17.750; -64.750 . The United States' easternmost point in the western hemisphere is St. Croix's Point Udall . The island has an area of 214.66 km (82.88 sq mi). The terrain

5429-399: The island. In 1916, Denmark sold St. Croix, St. Thomas, and St. John to the U.S., formalizing the transfer in the Treaty of the Danish West Indies , in exchange for $ 25 million in gold. In a national referendum on the issue, 64.2% of Danish voters approved the sale. In an unofficial referendum held in the islands, 99.83% voted in favor of the purchase. Formal transfer of the islands to

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5518-440: The last two centuries displacing the Taínos by warfare, extermination, and assimilation. The French missionary Raymond Breton arrived in the Lesser Antilles in 1635, and lived in Guadeloupe and Dominica until 1653. He took ethnographic and linguistic notes on the native peoples of these islands, including St. Vincent , which he visited briefly. Breton was responsible for many of the early stereotypes about Kalinago. Later,

5607-424: The late 1990s, many people supported legislation to define as a "native U.S. Virgin Islander" anyone who could trace their ancestry on the island to 1927, the year in which U.S. Virgin Islanders were granted U.S. citizenship. This effort by a select group of nationalist senators failed after much public outcry and controversy. It was learned that most native-born U.S. Virgin Islanders would not qualify as "native" under

5696-505: The late 19th century. Continental Americans, although small in number in comparison with Caribbean immigrants, have also been part of the St. Croix community. Most reside on the island's east end, and they tend to work in tourism, real estate, and legal professions. Many are temporary residents or retirees. Arab Palestinians have been an influential part of the local economy since the 1960s, when they first started to migrate to St. Croix to set up shops, supermarkets, and gas stations. In

5785-499: The mainland U.S. to pursue educational and career opportunities. Many down-islanders made St. Croix their permanent home, while others relocated to the mainland U.S. or returned to their native countries. Most down-islanders came from St. Kitts and Nevis , Antigua , St. Lucia , and Dominica , but people from every Anglophone Caribbean nation can be found on St. Croix. Down-islanders and their St. Croix-born offspring form most of St. Croix's middle class, which has dwindled in size since

5874-418: The notion of a mass emigration and conquest; the Kalinago language appears not to have been Cariban , but like that of their neighbors, the Taíno . Irving Rouse and others suggest that a smaller group of mainland peoples migrated to the islands without displacing their inhabitants, eventually adopting the local language but retaining their traditions of a South American origin. In the early colonial period,

5963-438: The origin of the Kalinago. The traditional account, which is almost as old as Columbus, says that the Caribs were a warlike people who were moving up the Lesser Antilles and displacing the original inhabitants. Early missionary texts suggested the original inhabitants of the islands were the Igneri , while the Kalinago were invaders originating in South America (home to the mainland Caribs or Kalina) who conquered and displaced

6052-425: The other U.S. Virgin Islands). Taxi buses are full-sized vans running from Frederiksted to Christiansted. They are privately owned and operated; they do not follow a regular schedule and have no set stops. People simply wait by the side of the road until a taxi bus approaches, then flag the driver down by waving. Passengers can get out anywhere along the route. Taxi buses are not metered and are required by law to charge

6141-428: The proposed legislation, as their immigrant ancestors had arrived later than 1927, but thousands of Danish citizens would have qualified. In 2009, the proposed U.S. Virgin Islands Constitution proposed by the Fifth Constitutional Convention established three definitions of U.S. Virgin Islanders : "Ancestral Native Virgin Islander"—those with ancestral ties (and their descendants); "Native Virgin Islander"—those born on

6230-483: The refinery employed 1,200 residents and 950 contractors. The refinery restarted in January 2021, but shut down again in May 2021 due to unsafe emissions. St. Croix is also home to the Cruzan Rum Distillery , makers of Cruzan Rum , a brand of Beam Suntory, Inc. The Cruzan Rum Distillery was founded in 1760 as Estate Diamond , and for many years used locally grown sugar cane to produce a single "dark"-style rum . It now imports sugar cane molasses from other countries in

6319-498: The region, primarily the Dominican Republic and South America. In recent years, Cruzan Rum, along with Bacardi from Puerto Rico and Gosling's from Bermuda , has contributed to the resurgence of "single-barrel", super-premium rum. Cruzan Estate Rums has won more than 30 Spirit Awards. Cruzan Estate Diamond Rum (aged five years in American oak barrels) and Cruzan Single Barrel Estate Rum (aged 12 years in American oak barrels) are two examples. Diageo has completed construction of

6408-456: The remnants of a 19th-century caste system based on skin complexion, socioeconomic class differences among ancestral native Crucians can vary widely, even within the same family. Most ancestral native Crucians today are employed by the Government of the Virgin Islands, while others are involved in the tourism industry and the legal and medical professions. Puerto Rican migration was prevalent in

6497-488: The resistance of Taínos and Kalinago alike was largely quashed across the Greater Antilles. The survivors were enslaved to work in agriculture or mining. The Kalinagos were more successful in repelling the Spanish—and later the French and English—in the Lesser Antilles, retaining their independence. The lack of gold in the area and the large numbers of casualties inflicted upon the Spanish contributed to their survival. In

6586-459: The rising mainland Carib polity. Both theories accept that the historical Island Carib language developed from the existing tongue of the islands, and thus it is also known as Igneri. By the early twenty-first century, a combination of bush medicine and modern medicine was used by the Kalinago of Dominica. For example, various fruits and leaves are used to heal common ailments. For a sprain, oils from coconuts, snakes, and bay leaves are used to heal

6675-517: The seventeenth century, the Kalinago regularly attacked the plantations of the English and the French in the Leeward Islands. In the 1630s, planters from the Leewards conducted campaigns against the Kalinago, but with limited success. The Kalinago took advantage of divisions between the Europeans, to provide support to the French and the Dutch during wars in the 1650s, consolidating their independence as

6764-400: The stories of "vicious cannibals" may have comprised an "ideological campaign" against the Kalinago to justify "genocidal military expeditions" by European colonizers. The Island Carib word karibna meant "person", although it became the origin of the English word "cannibal" after Columbus shared stories of flesh-eating Kalinago, apparently heard from their historic Taíno enemies. Among

6853-543: The term Black Carib , particularly in William Young 's Account of the Black Charaibs (1795), has been described in modern historiography as framing the majority of the indigenous St. Vincent population as "mere interlopers from Africa" who lacked claims to land possession in St. Vincent. On Dominica the runaways formed distinct Maroon communities while the Caribs remained distinct. A remnant of these Caribs lives on in

6942-459: The terms Arawak and Caribs to distinguish the peoples of the Caribbean, with Carib reserved for Indigenous groups that they considered hostile and Arawak for groups that they considered friendly. The Kalinago language endonyms are Karifuna (singular) and Kalinago (plural). The name was officially changed from 'Carib' to 'Kalinago' in Dominica in 2015. William F. Keegan and Corinne L. Hofman have outlined two major models for

7031-461: The time of the Carib expansion through the islands, and that males maintained it to emphasize their origins on the mainland. Linguistic analysis in the 20th century determined that the main Island Carib language was spoken by both sexes, and was Arawakan , not Cariban . Scholars adopted more nuanced theories to explain the transition from the earlier Igneri to the later Island Carib societies in

7120-685: The title Crucian . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Crucian&oldid=1250878228 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Language and nationality disambiguation pages Saint Croix Saint Croix ( / k r ɔɪ / KROY ; Spanish : Santa Cruz ; Dutch : Sint-Kruis ; French : Sainte-Croix ; Danish and Norwegian : Sankt Croix ; Taino : Ay Ay )

7209-464: The treaty on 28 June 1733 and received half the payment in French coins, with the remaining half paid in 18 months. On 16 November 1733, Moth was named St. Croix's first Danish governor. The 1742 census lists 120 sugar plantations, 122 cotton plantations, 1,906 slaves, and 360 whites. By 1754, slaves numbered 7,566. That year, King Frederick took direct control of St. Croix from the company. For nearly 200 years, St. Croix, St. Thomas, and St. John were

7298-491: The ward of Thomas Stevens, a merchant on King Street. Hamilton was soon clerking in the export-import business of Beekman and Cruger at the intersection of King and King's Cross Streets. In 1772 a local businessmen funded Hamilton's further education in New York. The slave trade was abolished in the Danish colonies in 1792, although the prohibition did not go into effect until 1802. Existing enslaved people were freed in 1848, after

7387-608: The western end and Christiansted on the northeast part of the island. The island's indigenous Taino name is Ay Ay ("the river"). Its indigenous Carib name is Cibuquiera ("the stony land"). Its modern name, Saint Croix , is derived from the French Sainte-Croix , itself a translation of the Spanish name Isla de la Santa Cruz (meaning "island of the Holy Cross ") given by Christopher Columbus in 1493. The French name

7476-430: The western part of the island receive a good deal more rain than the east end; annual rainfall is on the whole extremely variable, averaging around 40 inches (1,000 mm). The east end of the island is a dry desert range with a substantial amount of cactus, while the west end has lush vegetation and palm trees. The island has multiple ecosystems in a small geographic area. Fairly severe and extended drought has always been

7565-506: Was 41,004. For census and planning purposes, St. Croix is divided into the following subdistricts (with population per the 2020 U.S. census): Historically, St. Croix, like the rest of the Virgin Islands, had been divided into quarters, with these further divided into estates. These were used for census purposes until 1980 until they were replaced by the subdistricts above, and estates are still commonly used for navigation, writing addresses, and discussing real estate. English has been

7654-586: Was greater than that in Dominica. Both the Island Caribs (Yellow Caribs) and the Black Caribs ( Garifuna ) fought against the British during the Second Carib War . After the end of the war, the British deported the Garifuna (a population of 4,338) to Roatan Island , while the Island Caribs (whose population consisted of 80 people) were allowed to stay on St. Vincent. The 1812 eruption of La Soufrière destroyed

7743-536: Was once an agricultural powerhouse in the Caribbean, but that period ended with the rapid industrialization of the island's economy in the 1960s. As on many other Caribbean islands today, tourism is one of St. Croix's main sources of revenue. A number of other industries contribute to its economy. St. Croix was home to HOVENSA , one of the world's largest oil refineries . HOVENSA is a limited liability company owned and operated by Hess Oil Virgin Islands Corp. (HOVIC),

7832-453: Was partially retained under Danish rule as Sankt Croix , and the island was given its current spelling after the U.S. takeover in 1917. The associated demonym for the island is Crucian, derived from the original Spanish name. Igneri pottery indicates human presence on the island from 1 to 700, followed by the Taíno from 700 to 1425, before the encroachment by the Caribs in 1425; the island

7921-470: Was uninhabited by 1590. Various indigenous groups inhabited the island during its prehistory. Columbus landed on Santa Cruz, as he called it, on 14 November 1493, and was immediately attacked by the Kalinago , who lived at Salt River on the north shore. This is the first recorded fight between the Spanish and a New World native population, and Columbus gave the battle site the name Cabo de la Flecha (Cape of

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