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The woman who would one
day be known as Juana Maria
spent 18 years of her life
alone on a deserted island
after missionaries
abducted every other member
of her tribe.
Juana and her people
lived on the three
by five mile island of San
Nicolas in the Channel Islands
off the coast of California.
Spanish explorer Juan
Rodriguez Cabrillo
allegedly discovered
the archipelago
in the mid 16th century.
But the island
chain actually holds
the paleontological evidence of
the earliest human inhabitants
in North America.
By the time Cabrillo was the
first European to set foot
in California, the Nicoleño has
already lived there for around
10,000 years.
They existed in
harmony with nature
as well as coexisting with
the Chumash and the Gabrieleno
tribes on neighboring islands.
However, in 1811, 30 Russian
fur traders and Alaskan hunters
hired by a
Russian-American Company
descended on the island.
They proceeded to decimate
not only the otter population,
but the interlopers
occupied themselves
by raping the native women
and killing the men who
tried to protect them.
A massive battle
broke out in 1814.
And when the dust settled, the
once thriving community of 300
Nicoleño had been whittled
down to around a dozen.
By the 1830s, that number had
dropped to roughly 20 people.
Some accounts put the remaining
number as low as seven.
This opened the door for
Christian missionaries
to make their move.
Franciscan friars
in Santa Barbara
either hoped to
rescue the survivors
or replace the church's
native labor force that
was dying by the thousands.
In 1835, a schooner
named the Peor es Nada
or better than nothing
arrived at the northern tip
of San Nicolas.
Every member of the Nicoleño
tribe boarded the vessel,
except for two--
Juana Maria and a child
who was either her brother
or her offspring.
No one really knows
what happened.
Some versions of the
story have her staying
behind looking for
a missing child.
Others have her
dramatically jumping off
the boat when she realized
the child wasn't with her.
But the earliest accounts
said that Juana Maria simply
didn't make it on board.
And what happened next
is still a mystery.
According to
romanticized versions,
several boats went back,
but came up empty handed.
Others said there was
a storm that wouldn't
allow for a rescue attempt.
One said Captain Charles
Hubbard and his men
were unable to go
back because they
had to deliver a shipment
of lumber to Monterrey
and there were no other ships
available to make the journey.
It's more likely that no
rescue attempt was considered.
Every story more
dramatic than that
didn't surface until the 1880s.
Regardless, Juana
was presumed dead
by the members of her tribe.
Occasionally, a sailor reported
seeing a solitary woman
on one of the Channel
Islands running towards them
and waving her arms
as they passed.
A 49er sailing to California
during the Gold Rush
even wrote about
her in his journal.
A year later, an otter hunter
reported seeing her hut.
George Nidever's effort
to corroborate the story
bore little fruit.
He saw some footprints
in the sand and a basket
on one of his
trips, but it wasn't
until 1853 on his third
trip to the island
that he and his hunting party
found a basket of tools.
Thinking the owner of the basket
was deliberately eluding them,
the men dumped the
contents on the ground.
When they returned
later, everything
was back in the basket.
A few hours after that,
they found Juana herself.
And at this point, she
was around 50 years old.
She wore a garment
that was fashioned out
of green cormorant skins
and had constructed
a hut made of whale bone.
In fact, her surroundings
looked as civilized
as could be considering
her situation.
There was seal blubber
drawing on the poles.
She had a brush fence and even
had some domesticated dogs.
Everything in the
village would be
handled by men or women of the
tribe had been expertly handled
by Juana.
She warmly greeted the visitors,
sharing her food with them,
and excitedly
spoke in a language
that nobody could understand.
But that didn't stop them
from striking up a friendship.
Juana kept them company
during the three weeks
they hunted on the island
helping them around their camp
and showing them around the
place that she had called home.
When it was time
for them to leave,
the woman that they had taken
to calling Better than Nothing
needed little convincing to
pack up her few belongings
and join them.
Friars gave Juana
Maria her name,
but we'll never know
what her actual name was.
No other tribe could
understand her.
And no one from her
tribe lived long enough
to be there for her
arrival in Santa Barbara.
While she was staying
with Nidever and his wife,
Juana is said to have
used sign language
to describe how her child
had been killed by wild dogs.
But even that tragic tale didn't
diminish her friendly demeanor
or her fascination with
her new surroundings.
She had never seen things
like horses before.
Legend has it she thought
a horse and its rider
were one beast and
she was shocked
when the man dismounted.
Because her diet on the
island had been limited,
Juana was enamored with things
like fresh fruit, coffee,
and alcohol.
Everyone around her
fed off her enthusiasm.
Juana's new food
preferences were
considered interesting
enough to make the papers.
The language barrier and
the uninhibited nature
she developed by spending
almost two decades by herself
turned Juana into a
curiosity for the public.
She took it all in stride,
though happily performing
her native songs and dances
for anyone who would visit.
But as was common with
indigenous people being
introduced into a
new environment,
her immune system was weak.
And Juana passed away a
mere seven months later
from dysentery.
To make matters worse,
nearly all of her belongings
were destroyed in the great San
Francisco earthquake of 1906.
But Scott O'Dell's 1960 novel
Island of the Blue Dolphins
took inspiration from
her tale and helped
keep her legend alive.
The novel's premise, much
like the real life story,
centers on the mysterious woman
who braved the wilds of nature
and against all
odds survived alone
on an island for 18 years.
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