This paper uses a case study approach to understand how perceptions of language threat have worked to maintain local language practices on the islands of Aruba and Puerto Rico. Through document analysis, interviews with key players in language policy and planning efforts as well as participant observation, this paper explains the historical build-up of the perception that Papiamento and Spanish, respectively, are in some way threatened. In addition to documenting the language maintenance efforts, this paper argues that differing colonization practices impacted islanders’ orientation toward language, such that in Aruba a language-as-a-resource orientation has resulted in societal multilingualism whereas a language-as-a-problem orientation has resulted in monolingualism on the island of Puerto Rico.