This Woman Lived Alone for 18 Years on Her Tribe’s Island
Juana Maria, the only survivor of her tribe
Many movies have tried to portray how life would be like if one got stuck on an island. For Juana Maria, living on an island alone was not a movie: she spent eighteen years alone on the island of San Nicolas, in the Channel Islands, off the coast of California.
Maria was the last surviving descendant of the Nicoleño tribe during the 1700s to 1800s. She and her people inhabited the island of San Nicolas. By the time she was born, her descendants had lived on the island for almost
10 000 years. The name Juana Maria was given to her by Franciscan Friars.
What happened to Juana’s Tribe?
In 1811, the island of San Nicolas was descended upon by thirty Russian missionaries. The missionaries killed the native Nicoleño men and raped the women. This led to a very destructive battle in 1814.
The battle killed a lot of the Nicoleño people, leaving just a handful. The war’s impact was so damaging on the Nicoleño tribe that by 1830, the tribe was reduced to only twenty people. Some records estimate the number of survivors to be as low as seven.
