San Nicolas Island: Inspiration for “Island of the Blue Dolphins”
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By Lesekker.
FROM 1835 TO 1853, A Native American woman, stranded after the evacuation of her people, lived alone on San Nicolas Island. Her story inspired one of the most popular children’s novels ever written.
Named Karana in Scot O’Dell’s Island of the Blue Dolphins, the Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island’s native name is not known. She was part of the Nicoleño tribe that inhabited the island, the most remote of the Channel Islands at 61 miles off the coast of California, for some 10,000 years.
Some say the young woman was not initially left behind, but jumped off the ship when she realized a young boy, either her son or younger brother, had been left on the island. This is a later addition to the story, attributed by some to Victorian romanticism. In any case, the woman lived alone on the island for the next 18 years, surviving on roots, seal meat, and shellfish meat.
The knowledge of someone having been left behind never lasted through the years. There were stories of a lone woman seen running along the beaches of San Nicolas Island by fishermen. After several failed attempts to find her, a fur trapper named George Nidever and his crew finally tracked her down. They followed footsteps in the sand and found her skinning a seal and wearing a skirt made of green cormorant feathers.
She was reportedly a very happy and pleasant person.
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