Uncovering California Vol. 13
Survival, some news and of course righting some wrongs
Elaborations
If you were a California 4th Grader, you may know this story already. It’s a tragic tale with an unlikely survival story mixed in.
Juana Maria was a member of the Nicoleno tribe which inhabited San Nicolas Island, located about 60 miles from the mainland.
There’s a rich history of Native Tribes on the Channel Islands going back thousands of years. Unfortunately, though, these island tribes weren’t spared the horrors of European colonization.
Most of the Nicoleno people were killed in the early 1800s by otter hunters and the few that survived evacuated to the mainland. Except for Juana Maria, the Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island.
She survived on the island from 1835 until she was found in 1853. She subsisted mostly on fish and seals and made multiple shelters.
When she got to the mainland, though, she discovered most of her tribe died of disease and she could hardly communicate with anyone as the Nicoleno language was all but dead.
Juana Maria’s time on the mainland didn’t last long. She died of dysentery just seven weeks after arriving.
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California News Rundown
How the Golden Poppy Became California’s State Flower (NY Times)
Fire season delayed by record precipitation (San Bernardino Sun)
Where are the most affordable places to live in California? (KTLA)
Righting Some Wrongs
We know, we know, it’s been a minute since we’ve sent out a newsletter but here are all of the corrections we can remember.
In the “How California Eradicated Its Largest Lake” video, we pronounced Tule Lake incorrectly, it’s pronounced too-lee.
In our video on California’s political landscape, we neglected to clarify that despite a lot of counties being “red” or conservative, they have much smaller populations than California’s mostly liberal or “blue” counties.
In our video on Plumas County, we incorrectly referred to Lake Almanor as Lake Amador.