Op-Ed: State of the Territory | The Fight for Land and Identity in the U.S. Virgin Islands: Gentrification in the Wake of Natural Disasters

As a Virgin Islander, I have seen firsthand how the struggle for land has shaped our history. But in the aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Maria, that struggle has intensified.

These storms didn’t just devastate homes and infrastructure—they opened the door for outside developers to swoop in and seize prime land, leaving many of us displaced or on the brink of losing our ancestral lands. For us, this isn’t just a fight to rebuild; it’s a fight to preserve our survival, identity, and homeland’s future.

Nowhere is this more evident than on my beloved St. John, where the encroachment of the Virgin Islands National Park has pushed local families to the margins. In 1956, the U.S. Congress limited the park’s holdings on St. John to 9,485 acres. But today, the park’s footprint has grown to 7,259 acres, leaving only 3,015 acres for the people who have lived here for generations. This isn’t just about numbers—it’s about a loss of community, culture, and identity that we may never recover if we don’t act soon.

I remember when we were forced to swap land with the federal government just to build a school for our children. Think about that—a basic necessity, something as fundamental as education, and we had to trade away more of our precious land to get it. This land swap is a painful reminder of our colonial past and how we continue to be at the mercy of outside forces. We are being forced to make impossible trade-offs just to meet basic needs.