"
"
Island of the Blue Dolphins
Analyzing the Lone Woman’s Death
Grade Level
High School: Ninth Grade through Twelfth Grade
Subject
Literacy and Language Arts, Social Studies
Common Core Standards
6–8.RH.1, 6–8.RH.2, 6–8.RH.3, 6–8.RH.9, 9–10.RH.1, 9–10.RH.2, 9–10.RH.3, 9–
10.RH.9, 11–12.RH.1, 11–12.RH.2, 11–12.RH.3, 11–12.RH.9
Background Information
The goal of this lesson is to have students engage with several primary sources and
then consider how they, as historians, might explain the cause of the Lone Woman’s
death given incomplete and contradictory evidence. This activity asks students to read
several accounts, weigh the evidence, and determine whether the cause of death can
be reasonably known.
The Lone Woman lived on San Nicolas Island alone for eighteen years (1835–53),
beginning when the rest of her people (the Nicoleños) were removed to San Pedro,
California, and ending when sea otter hunter George Nidever brought her to his home in
Santa Barbara.
Contemporary accounts described the Lone Woman as being about 50 years old and in
good health when she arrived on the California mainland. However, within seven weeks
of her arrival, this healthy, active woman died. How do we explain her rapid decline and
death?
First, we want to understand the context. California has one of the most diverse
indigenous populations in North America, with many linguistically and culturally distinct
peoples. With Spanish colonization, however, the population began to decline
dramatically as native peoples, particularly on the coast, were gathered into missions
where disease spread and many suffered from labor exploitation and abuse. This result
is not exceptional. Research has shown that within the first 100 years after initial
European contact, indigenous populations throughout the western hemisphere declined
by 80–90 percent.
The Lone Woman arrived on the mainland following the Mexican-American War, so
California had been transferred to American hands and the Spanish missions operated
more as local churches than as institutions for managing native populations. But the
California Gold Rush of 1849 brought renewed threats to native people. As fortune
seekers poured into the region, they disrupted ecosystems by extracting natural
resources (gold) in large quantities. Their activities paved the way for new settlements
throughout the region even as they upended life for the indigenous peoples, who were
1
"
"
exposed to disease and who were unable to grow, harvest, and gather their traditional
sources of food and manufacture (clothing, shelter, tools).
Materials
• Copy of readings and activity sheet for each student (provided)
Procedure
1. Prepare materials and familiarize yourself with the texts.
2. Introduce students to the lesson by having them read the background material on
the activity sheet individually. Then, discuss the information and purpose of the
activity as a class.
3. Review directions for completing the chart, as well as the activity questions. Ask
students to work individually or in pairs to complete the activity sheet.
4. Come back together as a class to debate the following question: Can the cause
of the Lone Woman’s death reasonably be known? If so, what do you think
caused her death?
Enrichment Activities
Further reading:
Alfred W. Crosby, Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900–
1900 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986).
Kent G. Lightfoot, Indians, Missionaries, and Merchants: The Legacy of Colonial
Encounters on the California Frontiers (Berkeley: University of California Press,
2006).
Benjamin Madley, An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian
Catastrophe (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016)
Russell Thornton, American Indian Holocaust and Survival (Norman: University of
Oklahoma Press, 1987).
2
"
"
"
Name ________________________
Island of the Blue Dolphins
Analyzing the Lone Woman’s Death
Background Information
The Lone Woman lived on San Nicolas Island for eighteen years after the rest of her
people were removed to San Pedro, California in 1835. Sea otter hunter George
Nidever brought her to his home in Santa Barbara, California, in 1853.
Contemporary accounts described the Lone Woman as being about 50 years old and in
good health when she arrived on the California mainland. However, within seven weeks
of her arrival, this healthy, active woman died. How do we explain her rapid decline and
death?
First, we want to understand the context. California has one of the most diverse
indigenous populations in North America, with many linguistically and culturally distinct
peoples. With Spanish colonization, however, the population began to decline
dramatically as native peoples, particularly on the coast, were gathered into missions
where disease spread and many suffered from malnutrition, labor exploitation, and
abuse. This result is not exceptional. Research has shown that within the first 100 years
after initial European contact, indigenous populations throughout the western
hemisphere declined by 80–90 percent.
The Lone Woman arrived on the mainland following the Mexican-American War, so
California had been transferred to American hands and the Spanish missions operated
more as local churches than as institutions for managing native populations. But the
California Gold Rush of 1849 brought renewed threats to native people. As fortune
seekers poured into the region, they disrupted ecosystems by extracting natural
resources (gold) in large quantities. Their activities paved the way for new settlements
throughout the region even as they upended life for the indigenous peoples, who were
exposed to disease and who were unable to grow, harvest, and gather their traditional
sources of food and manufacture (clothing, shelter, tools).
With this context in mind, we next want to think about the Lone Woman’s death
specifically. A number of sources present explanations of her death in 1853, but they
disagree. This activity asks you to read several accounts, weigh the evidence, and
determine whether the cause of death can be reasonably known.
1
"
"
"
Document 1: “Narrative of a Seafaring Life on the Coast of California”
Background
Carl Dittman (1825–1901, also known as Charley Brown) was a Prussian-born member
of George Nidever’s hunting crew. In 1853, he accompanied Nidever to San Nicolas
Island, where the men searched for the Lone Woman as a side task to hunting sea
otters for trade. It was Carl Dittman who actually first spied the Lone Woman on the
island. In 1878, he dictated his first person account of “discovering” the Lone Woman to
E. F. Murray, a researcher for the historian Hubert Howe Bancroft. The manuscript is
located at the University of California, Berkeley.
Nidever’s family took good care of the old woman but I think they allowed her to
eat freely of fruit & vegetables. About a month after we brought her ashore
Nidever & I went up to San Francisco & while away the old woman died.
Source: Carl Dittman, “Narrative of a Seafaring Life on the Coast of California.”
Manuscript C-D67, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
Document 2: “The Life and Adventures of a Pioneer of California Since 1834”
Background
George Nidever (1802–83) was an American sea otter hunter who captained the
schooner that brought the Lone Woman from San Nicolas Island to Santa Barbara in
1853. After their arrival on the mainland, Nidever brought the Nicoleño woman into his
family home, where she lived until her death seven weeks later. Like Dittman, he told
his life story to E. F. Murray, a researcher for the historian Hubert Howe Bancroft. The
manuscript is located at the University of California, Berkeley. It was also published in
book form and is still in print today.
About 5 weeks after she was brought over, she was taken sick from eating too
much fruit & 7 weeks from the day of her arrival died. The Fathers of the Mission
baptised [sic] her sub conditione [conditionally—they could not determine
whether she had been previous baptized] & named her Juana Maria. I left here
for San Francisco just before she died having first made her a rough coffin. My
wife can tell you better about her after I brought her ashore.
Source: George Nidever, “The Life and Adventures of a Pioneer of California
Since 1834.” Manuscript C-D133, The Bancroft Library, University of California,
Berkeley.
2
"
"
"
Document 3: “Eighteen Years Alone: A Tale of the Pacific”
Background
Emma Chamberlain Hardacre (1844?–1930) was an Illinois-born journalist who traveled
widely and wrote for a number of newspapers in the Midwest and East, including the
Louisville Courier-Journal, Chicago Times, and New York Herald. Her article about the
Lone Woman, published in Scribner’s Monthly in 1880, was widely reprinted and treated
as an authoritative source. After Hardacre’s grown daughter settled in California,
Hardacre moved to Santa Barbara. Here, she was acknowledged as a local expert on
the Lone Woman.
She was greatly disappointed when none of her kindred were found. She
drooped under civilization; she missed the out-door life of her island camp. After
a few weeks she became too weak to walk; she was carried on to the porch
every day in a chair. She dozed in the sunshine, while the children played around
her. She was patient and cheerful, looking eagerly into every new face for
recognition, and sometimes singing softly to herself. Mrs. Nidever hoped a return
to her old diet would help her. She procured seal’s meat, and roasted it in ashes.
When the sick woman saw it, she patted her nurse’s hands affectionately, but
could not eat the food. She fell from her chair one morning, and remained
insensible for hours. Seeing the approach of death, Mrs. Nidever sent for a
priest to baptize her protégé. At first he refused, not knowing but that she had
been baptized previously, although the burden of proof was against it. At length,
heeding the kind Catholic lady’s distress, he consented to administer the rite,
conditionally. As she was breathing her last, the sign of the cross was pressed on
her cold brow, and the unknown and nameless creature was christened
by Father Sanchez in the beautiful Spanish, “ Juana Marie.”
Source: Emma Hardacre, “Eighteen Years Alone: A Tale of the Pacific.”
Scribner’s Monthly 20, no. 5 (1880): 657–64.
Document 4: “An Indian Woman Eighteen Years Alone on the Island of San
Nicolas, off the Coast of Southern California. Physical Condition Good;
Recollected Events, but had Lost all Knowledge of the Computation of Time and
the Dialect of her Tribe.”
Background
Absalom B. Stuart (1830–87) was a prosperous doctor born in Pennsylvania. He trained
at the Berkshire Medical College at Williams College in Massachusetts and at the
Bellevue Medical College in New York. He then relocated to Minnesota Territory and to
California, where he was licensed to practice medicine. In 1879, more than twenty years
after the Lone Woman’s death, he appears in the Santa Barbara voting records. It is
likely that he met with George Nidever and Carl Dittman, then wrote the article below.
Stuart’s account of the Lone Woman was published in 1878 in the Minnesota
3
"
"
"
newspaper the Winona Republican. The article was then reprinted, in whole or in part,
many times, across the United States and abroad. Finally, in 1880, it was published in
the Sanitarian, a medical journal.
She did not wish to sleep in a bed; and when in bed, did not desire bed-covering;
but was careful not to expose her person. Her manners were not rude, and in
many things she was more refined than many who enjoy civilized privileges; yet
in many things she was very much like a child. She wanted everything which she
saw that appeared pleasant to the eye, or seemed good to the taste; and if fruit
was withheld from her she would plead for it in such a childlike manner that it
was hard to refuse her. When found, she was in excellent physical condition,
strong and active; but the eating of fruit and vegetables brought on a diarrhæ or
dysentery in about three weeks after she landed; and that, in connection with an
injury to the spine, received by falling from a porch, terminated her life four weeks
later, or seven weeks from the time she landed. During her sickness she
reluctantly permitted her kind hostess to dress her in flannel underclothes, and
took her bed under proper covering; but positively refused to return to her former
plain diet, as was proposed by some of those who called to see her.
Statistics in civilized life show a greater longevity in the marital and social
relations than in celibacy and the life of the recluse; but here is one who had
attained the age of fifty years with a physique indicating that a period in the future
might be reached equal to that of the past, that for eighteen years had been
absolutely alone. With the exception of the sickness imediately [sic] after her
desertion, she reported no illness during the time of her exile. She appeared to
enjoy perfect health, with no failure of any of the bodily functions, excepting that
of sight, which may have been either hypermetropic or presbyopic; if the former,
most likely it was congenital; if the latter, it may have been hastened by the little
use made of the power of accommodation for near objects—she daily cultivated
the power of distant vision, in commanding a view of the island and looking
seaward. The extremes of heat and cold are unknown on the islands off this
coast; frost is seldom seen in the winter, and the heat of summer is not
oppressive, owing to the ocean winds, which give a most equable climate the
year round, favorable to an outdoor life. During the rainy season she probably
took shelter in a cave, or under shelving rocks, as found upon the island; but be
that as it may, the vicissitudes of the weather did not appear to affect her
unpleasantly. Her outdoor life gave a digestion equal to the use of the seal
blubber, and her supply of the small variety of vegetables assisted in nourishing
her without deranging the secretions. On this island, estimated at fourteen miles
in length and averaging about four in width, its highest elevation being not more
than six hundred feet above sea level, but sparsely timbered, with its rocks,
sandy plains and limited vegetation, clear spring water, which invited repeated
ablutions, with no roof to intercept the welcome rays of the sun, our Female
Crusoe possessed and used the means conducive to a long life. But the change
from such a life to one of more luxury and indolence soon demanded the penalty
of the violated laws of health—sickness and death!
4
"
"
"
Source: Absalom B. Stuart, “An Indian Woman Eighteen Years Alone on the
Island of San Nicolas, off the Coast of Southern California. Physical Condition
Good; Recollected Events, but had Lost all Knowledge of the Computation of
Time and the Dialect of her Tribe.” Sanitarian 8, 90 (1880): 402–06.
Document 5: Harrington’s Field Notes
Background
Ethnographer John Peabody Harrington (1884–1961) was a noted anthropologist who
specialized in the native cultures of Southern California. As a researcher for the Bureau
of American Ethnology, he collected a tremendous amount of data about California
languages. In the first decade of the twentieth century, he posed questions about the
Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island to Luisa Ygnacio, a Chumash Indian whom he
regularly consulted for information about local tribes. (Anthropologists often describe
such people as “native informants” or “native consultants.”) Harrington refers to Luisa
Ygnacio by the initials “SA.” The following document is excerpted from his unpublished
field notes, which are handwritten notes he took during oral interviews. The Smithsonian
holds these field notes.
Luisa Ygnacio would have been in her mid-twenties at the time of the Lone Woman’s
death; however, she did not meet her. In 1920, when Harrington interviewed her about
the Lone Woman, she was about 90 years old, living in Santa Barbara with her
daughter. She spoke Spanish.
If they had let the woman stay with the Indians here, she would have been all
right. But they kept her with Qorqe [George Nidever]. Martina and Pilar came
from Ventura one time and got some clams and maybe some other things on the
road, and when they passed by here, in Santa Barbara, they visited the woman
and gave her the clams. The woman was greatly pleased. Martina and Pilar had
just made a little trip to Ventura. SA [Luisa Ygnacio] thinks they had seen the
woman before that time.
Source: J.P. Harrington’s field notes as reprinted in Travis Hudson, “Recently
Discovered Accounts Concerning The ‘Lone Woman’ of San Nicolas Island,”
Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 3, no. 2 (1981): 193.
5
!
!
!
Note-taking Chart +
Date
source
created
Kind of source
(memoir,
professional
journal, field
notes)
Origin of author’s
information about
the Lone Woman
(LW)
Proposed cause
of death
Positive (healthful)
aspects of SNI life for
the LW
Positive (healthful)
aspects of Santa
Barbara life for the
LW
Your thoughts
about the source
George Nidever
Carl Dittman
Emma Hardacre
Absalom Stuart
Luisa Ygnacio
(JP Harrington)
6
!
!
!
Questions:
1. Is one or more of the sources more reliable than the others? Why or why not? (Consider everything you filled into
the chart in answering this question. There is not a “right” answer.)
2. Read Emma Hardacre’s excerpt closely. How does its language differ from that of the other sources? How does
the difference in style affect the way you read and interpret the account?
3. Read the physician’s account closely. How is it unique? Why do you think he wrote the article?
4. Read Luisa Ygnacio’s account closely. She was a native “informant” or “consultant” to J.P. Harrington. Does this
make her document unique? If yes, how so?
5. A number of the accounts suggest that eating fruits and vegetables contributed to the Lone Woman’s death. Today,
in the twenty-first century, we might consider this hypothesis strange since fruits and vegetables are deemed
healthy foods. Does their hypothesis have merit? Why do you think those who blame fruits and vegetables might
have named these foods as a cause of sickness? Remember the year: 1853.
6. Write a paragraph that explains how and why the Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island died. Incorporate evidence
from the sources above. To do so, you must both evaluate the documents’ merit and cite your evidence. Use the
chart as a guide to your thinking.
7
