The residents of St. John, US Virgin islands are U.S. citizens, although they cannot vote in presidential elections and have only non-voting status in Congress. 19 Square Miles 4300 residents US Dollar. Major Credit Cards are accepted. ATM machines are located in banks and selected commercial outlets Banco Popular, First Bank Virgin Islands, Scotiabank There is no sales tax in St. John, Virgin Islands. Residents pay income tax to the USVI government. Iguanas, pelicans, mongoose, scorpions (not poisonous), donkeys, deer, hummingbirds, herons, bats and more. There are also various lizards, frogs and insects. Banana, Mango, Orange and Cashews. Frangipani, Allamanda, Heliconia, Bougainvillea, Oleander, Hibiscus, Double Hibiscus, Flamboyant (Orange), Flamboyant (Yellow), Ixora, Agave / Century Plant, Cactus The Virgin Islands national flower is the yellow cedar (Tecoma Stans). The language of the locals in St. John, Virgin Islands, is English with a West Indian based dialects. For instance, the 'H' is often discarded ("thing" becomes "ting", and "thanks" becomes "tanks...mon"). Also water is pronouced watta and mother matta. St. John, US Virgin Islands, was first settled by the Arawak Indians who had migrated north from coastal Colombia and Venezuela around AD 300. The Arawaks inhabited the island until around the year AD 1300, when they were driven off by the more aggressive and warlike Carib Indians. Extensive archaeological work has been undertaken from 1996 to the present at Cinnamon Bay. Christopher Columbus is the first European to see the Virgin Islands during his second voyage to the New World in 1493. He named the island group "Once Mil Virgenes", or Eleven Thousand Virgins, in honor of the feast day of Saint Ursula and the 11,000 virgins who were martyred with her. The Danish West India and Guinea Company represented the first Europeans to settle the island in 1718. They are also credited with naming the island St. John (Danish: Sankt Jan). The Danish crown took full control of the colony in 1754, along with St. Thomas and St. Croix. Sugar plantations, such as the famous Annaberg Sugar Plantation, were established in great numbers on St. John because of the intense heat and fertile terrain, which provided ideal growing conditions. It is estimated that by 1775, slaves outnumbered the Danish settlers by a ratio of 5:1. Slavery was finally abolished in St. John on 3 July 1848. In 1917 the United States purchased the U.S. Virgin Islands for $25 million from the Danish government in order to establish a naval base whose purpose was to prevent German expansion in the Western Hemisphere. The U.S. Virgin Islands are an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States. U.S. Virgin Islanders are . Since 1972, they have elected their own governor. They enjoy a large degree of self-rule through a local 15-seat legislature that covers all three of the islands. In 1956, Laurance Rockefeller donated most of the land he had acquired on the island to the United States' National Park Service, under the condition that it must be protected from future development.