This essay highlights some of the unexpected leadership roles that women have played in relation ... more This essay highlights some of the unexpected leadership roles that women have played in relation to the oil industry on St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) from 1965 to the present. The people of St. Croix (Crucians) have a long and proud history of strong women as community and family leaders. Despite their invisibility in contemporary narratives of oil refining under U.S. colonialism on St. Croix, Crucian women have contested commonly held stereotypes of women’s roles and contributed to, as well as challenged, the refinery on their own terms. This article is part of a broader literature about women’s leadership across civil society, the private sector, and the public sector in the Caribbean and Latin America that focuses on women’s agency. This essay is also about the unequal situations that places like St. Croix face when negotiating with multinational corporations under colonial circumstances. While the oil industry generates income for the USVI, the refinery has environ...
With the increasing geopolitical instability and environmental devastation occurring across the g... more With the increasing geopolitical instability and environmental devastation occurring across the globe, human migration is increasing. We report a case that illustrates a migration pattern seen a century ago that is currently in the process of repeating itself. Using information from a neuropathological examination, genetic analyses, and historical sources, we linked a patient with autosomal dominant Alzheimer's disease in Hawai'i with her ancestors in Puerto Rico. In this patient we identified the G206A PSEN1 mutation, previously identified as being linked to a founder effect from Puerto Rico. At the turn of the twentieth century, due to devastating hurricanes in Puerto Rico and the island's new status as a possession of the United States, over 5,000 Puerto Ricans, including the grandparents of our patient, migrated to Hawai'i. This short-term but historic migration has resulted in a significant population of Puerto Ricans in Hawai'i, today. As physicians we some...
On December 23, 1910, the S.S. Mongolia arrived at the Port of Honolulu with 119 Filipinos aboard... more On December 23, 1910, the S.S. Mongolia arrived at the Port of Honolulu with 119 Filipinos aboard. The treatment of these passengers resulted in vigorous debates about Filipino labor mobility that impacted U.S.-Philippine relations, Hawaiian business needs, and health policies, as well as continental U.S. labor and sugar interests. From January through April 1911, officials in Washington, D.C., and the Philippines worked hard to stem fears about the health of Filipinos and maintain both the flow of these workers to Hawai‘i and the U.S.-Philippine political-legal relationship. Despite extensive regional protests, the acquisition of labor for sugar plantations and the preservation of U.S.-Philippine colonial ties ended up prevailing over nativist fears about the health and growing numbers of Filipinos in the United States.
'Balancing the Tides' highlights the influence of marine practices and policies in the un... more 'Balancing the Tides' highlights the influence of marine practices and policies in the unincorporated territory of American Sāmoa on the local indigenous group, the American fishing industry, international seafood consumption, U.S. environmental programs, as well as global ecological and native concerns. Poblete explains how U.S. federal fishing programs in the post–World War II period encouraged labor based out of American Sāmoa to catch and can one-third of all tuna for United States consumption until 2009. Labeled “Made in the USA,” this commodity was sometimes caught by non-U.S. regulated ships, produced under labor standards far below continental U.S. minimum wage and maximum work hours, and entered U.S. jurisdiction tax free. The second half of the book explores the tensions between indigenous and U.S. federal government environmental goals and ecology programs. Whether creating the largest National Marine Sanctuary under U.S. jurisdiction or collecting basic data on local fishing, initiatives that balanced western-based and native expectations for respectful community relationships and appropriate government programs fared better than those that did not acknowledge the positionality of all groups involved. Despite being under the direct authority of the United States, American Sāmoans have maintained a degree of local autonomy due to the Deeds of Cession signed with the U.S. Navy at the turn of the twentieth century that created shared indigenous and federal governance in the region. Balancing the Tides demonstrates how western-style economics, policy-making, and knowledge building imposed by the U.S. federal government have been infused into the daily lives of American Sāmoans. American colonial efforts to protect natural resources based on western approaches intersect with indigenous insistence on adhering to customary principles of respect, reciprocity, and native rights in complicated ways. Experiences and lessons learned from these case studies provide insight into other tensions between colonial governments and indigenous peoples engaging in environmental and marine-based policy-making across the Pacific and the globe. This study connects the U.S.-American Sāmoa colonial relationship to global overfishing, world consumption patterns, the for-profit fishing industry, international environmental movements and studies, as well as native experiences and indigenous rights. Open Access publication of this book was made possible by the Sustainable History Monograph Pilot, an initiative sponsored by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
This essay highlights some of the unexpected leadership roles that women have played in relation ... more This essay highlights some of the unexpected leadership roles that women have played in relation to the oil industry on St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) from 1965 to the present. The people of St. Croix (Crucians) have a long and proud history of strong women as community and family leaders. Despite their invisibility in contemporary narratives of oil refining under U.S. colonialism on St. Croix, Crucian women have contested commonly held stereotypes of women’s roles and contributed to, as well as challenged, the refinery on their own terms. This article is part of a broader literature about women’s leadership across civil society, the private sector, and the public sector in the Caribbean and Latin America that focuses on women’s agency. This essay is also about the unequal situations that places like St. Croix face when negotiating with multinational corporations under colonial circumstances. While the oil industry generates income for the USVI, the refinery has environ...
With the increasing geopolitical instability and environmental devastation occurring across the g... more With the increasing geopolitical instability and environmental devastation occurring across the globe, human migration is increasing. We report a case that illustrates a migration pattern seen a century ago that is currently in the process of repeating itself. Using information from a neuropathological examination, genetic analyses, and historical sources, we linked a patient with autosomal dominant Alzheimer's disease in Hawai'i with her ancestors in Puerto Rico. In this patient we identified the G206A PSEN1 mutation, previously identified as being linked to a founder effect from Puerto Rico. At the turn of the twentieth century, due to devastating hurricanes in Puerto Rico and the island's new status as a possession of the United States, over 5,000 Puerto Ricans, including the grandparents of our patient, migrated to Hawai'i. This short-term but historic migration has resulted in a significant population of Puerto Ricans in Hawai'i, today. As physicians we some...
On December 23, 1910, the S.S. Mongolia arrived at the Port of Honolulu with 119 Filipinos aboard... more On December 23, 1910, the S.S. Mongolia arrived at the Port of Honolulu with 119 Filipinos aboard. The treatment of these passengers resulted in vigorous debates about Filipino labor mobility that impacted U.S.-Philippine relations, Hawaiian business needs, and health policies, as well as continental U.S. labor and sugar interests. From January through April 1911, officials in Washington, D.C., and the Philippines worked hard to stem fears about the health of Filipinos and maintain both the flow of these workers to Hawai‘i and the U.S.-Philippine political-legal relationship. Despite extensive regional protests, the acquisition of labor for sugar plantations and the preservation of U.S.-Philippine colonial ties ended up prevailing over nativist fears about the health and growing numbers of Filipinos in the United States.
'Balancing the Tides' highlights the influence of marine practices and policies in the un... more 'Balancing the Tides' highlights the influence of marine practices and policies in the unincorporated territory of American Sāmoa on the local indigenous group, the American fishing industry, international seafood consumption, U.S. environmental programs, as well as global ecological and native concerns. Poblete explains how U.S. federal fishing programs in the post–World War II period encouraged labor based out of American Sāmoa to catch and can one-third of all tuna for United States consumption until 2009. Labeled “Made in the USA,” this commodity was sometimes caught by non-U.S. regulated ships, produced under labor standards far below continental U.S. minimum wage and maximum work hours, and entered U.S. jurisdiction tax free. The second half of the book explores the tensions between indigenous and U.S. federal government environmental goals and ecology programs. Whether creating the largest National Marine Sanctuary under U.S. jurisdiction or collecting basic data on local fishing, initiatives that balanced western-based and native expectations for respectful community relationships and appropriate government programs fared better than those that did not acknowledge the positionality of all groups involved. Despite being under the direct authority of the United States, American Sāmoans have maintained a degree of local autonomy due to the Deeds of Cession signed with the U.S. Navy at the turn of the twentieth century that created shared indigenous and federal governance in the region. Balancing the Tides demonstrates how western-style economics, policy-making, and knowledge building imposed by the U.S. federal government have been infused into the daily lives of American Sāmoans. American colonial efforts to protect natural resources based on western approaches intersect with indigenous insistence on adhering to customary principles of respect, reciprocity, and native rights in complicated ways. Experiences and lessons learned from these case studies provide insight into other tensions between colonial governments and indigenous peoples engaging in environmental and marine-based policy-making across the Pacific and the globe. This study connects the U.S.-American Sāmoa colonial relationship to global overfishing, world consumption patterns, the for-profit fishing industry, international environmental movements and studies, as well as native experiences and indigenous rights. Open Access publication of this book was made possible by the Sustainable History Monograph Pilot, an initiative sponsored by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
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