Qualla: Navassa Island

Navassa Island: Introduction

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Alexander Wetmore, Public domain. Two nations claim Navassa Island, and neither one lives there. This 2.1-square-mile scrap of coral and limestone sits in the Windward Passage between Cuba, Jamaica, and Haiti, ringed by vertical white cliffs that rise thirty feet or more straight from the sea. When Christopher Columbus's crew landed here in 1504, stranded and desperate during the explorer's fourth voyage, they found no fresh water and named the place Navaza before paddling on toward Hispaniola. For the next 350 years, mariners took the hint and largely stayed away. It took something far less glamorous than gold to finally draw people to Navassa: bird droppings.

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Image: Alexander Wetmore | Public domain

Navassa Island: The Guano Rush

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit User:Golbez, CC BY-SA 4.0. By the mid-nineteenth century, guano phosphate had become the miracle fertilizer of American agriculture. In 1856, Congress passed the Guano Islands Act, authorizing U.S. citizens to claim uninhabited islands rich in the stuff. Sea captain Peter Duncan did exactly that on Septemb...

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Image: User:Golbez | CC BY-SA 4.0

Navassa Island: Rebellion on a Forgotten Rock

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. The conditions were as harsh as the name Romance was ironic. In 1889, simmering rage over the treatment of laborers erupted into a full-scale riot that left five supervisors dead. A U.S. warship carried eighteen workers back to Baltimore to face murder charges in federal court. T...

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Image: Public domain

Navassa Island: Light in the Passage

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Department of Commerce. Bureau of Lighthouses. 1913-7/1/1939, Public domain. The Spanish-American War in 1898 finally forced the Phosphate Company to abandon Navassa. Haitians briefly occupied the island and seized the company's remaining assets, though they could not operate the machinery. The company went bankrupt, and Navassa fell quiet. When the Panam...

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Image: Department of Commerce. Bureau of Lighthouses. 1913-7/1/1939 | Public domain

Navassa Island: A Refuge for What Remains

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Department of Commerce. Bureau of Lighthouses. 1913-7/1/1939, Public domain. In 1999, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service established the Navassa Island National Wildlife Refuge, encompassing 1,344 acres of land and a twelve-nautical-mile radius of surrounding marine habitat. The island shelters eight species of native reptiles, all believed to be endemic,...

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Image: Department of Commerce. Bureau of Lighthouses. 1913-7/1/1939 | Public domain

Navassa Island: Claimed by All, Held by None

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit IllationGroup2000, CC0. The territorial dispute remains unresolved. Haiti has named Navassa explicitly in its constitution since 1874. The United States administers it through the Fish and Wildlife Service. Cuba backs Haiti's claim. The standoff has prevented the definitive delimitation of maritime boun...

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Image: IllationGroup2000 | CC0