page_title: Juana Maria
section_title: Life at Santa Barbara Mission
hierarchical_section_title: Juana Maria / Biography / Life at Santa Barbara Mission
caption_attribution_description: English: A plaque commemorating Juana Maria, who died in 1853 and was the last living member of the Native American Nicoleño branch of the Chumash tribe, from San Nicholas Island off the coast. The plaque was placed at the Santa Barbara Mission cemetery in 1928 by the Daughters of the American Revolution.
context_page_description: Juana Maria, better known to history as the Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island, was a Native Californian woman who was the last surviving member of her tribe, the Nicoleño. She lived alone on San Nicolas Island off the coast of Alta California from 1835 until her removal from the island in 1853. Scott O'Dell's award-winning children's novel Island of the Blue Dolphins was inspired by her story. She was the last native speaker of the Nicoleño language.
context_section_description: Juana Maria was reportedly fascinated and ecstatic upon arrival, marveling at the sight of horses, along with European clothing and food. She was allowed to stay with Nidever, who described her as a woman of "medium height, but rather thick ... She was probably about 50 years old, but she was still strong and active. Her face was pleasing as she was continually smiling. Her teeth were entire but worn to the gums."
  Juana Maria apparently enjoyed visits by curious Santa Barbara residents, singing and dancing for her audiences. One of the songs Juana Maria sang is popularly called the "Toki Toki" song. Knowledge of this song came from a Ventureño man named Malquiares, an otter hunter who had joined Nidever's expedition to the island and who had heard Juana Maria sing it. Malquiares later recited the words to his friend Fernando Kitsepawit Librado (1839–1915). The song's words are as follows:
  Toki Toki yahamimena (×3)
  
  weleshkima nishuyahamimena (×2)
  
  Toki Toki ... (continue as above)
  Librado recited the words to a Cruzeño Indian named Aravio Talawiyashwit, who translated them as "I live contented because I can see the day when I want to get out of this island;" however, given the lack of any other information on Juana Maria's language, this translation's accuracy is dubious, or perhaps was an intuitive guess. Anthropologist and linguist John Peabody Harrington recorded Librado singing the song on a wax cylinder in 1913.
  The following text was published by an anonymous writer in Sacramento's Daily Democratic State Journal on October 13, 1853:
  The wild woman who was found on the island of San Nicolas about 70 miles from the coast, west of Santa Barbara, is now at the latter place and is looked upon as a curiosity. It is stated she has been some 18 to 20 years alone on the island. She existed on shell fish and the fat of the seal, and dressed in the skins and feathers of wild ducks, which she sewed together with sinews of the seal. She cannot speak any known language, is good-looking and about middle age. She seems to be contented in her new home among the good people of Santa Barbara.
caption: A plaque commemorating Juana Maria at Santa Barbara Mission cemetery, placed there by the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1928.
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS2 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2009:07:27 15:47:43", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "302", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5384", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1024", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "768"}