She Was Left Behind On An Island — For 18 Years | San Nicolas Island

Juana Maria | San Nicolas Island A single woman was left behind on San Nicolas Island—a windswept scrap of land 60 miles off the California coast—when the last of her people, the Nicoleño, were evacuated in 1835. The retrieval ship sank shortly after, and she was forgotten. Against all odds, she survived entirely alone for 18 years. She built a shelter from whale ribs, wove watertight baskets, hunted seals, and crafted a dress from green cormorant feathers. When otter hunters finally found her in 1853, she greeted them warmly. But back on the mainland, a tragic reality emerged: every other member of her tribe had already died from imported diseases. No one alive could understand her language, and her real name was never recorded. Baptized as Juana María, she died of dysentery just seven weeks after her rescue, taking the 10,000-year-old language and history of her people to the grave. Her life inspired Scott O'Dell's famous children's novel *Island of the Blue Dolphins*. --- If you read Island of the Blue Dolphins as a child and never knew there was a real woman behind it, drop a line in the comments below and let us know where you're watching from! Don't forget to like, subscribe, and hit the notification bell for more forgotten history. Let us know where we should go next!