WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:27.650 --> 00:00:32.070 thank you very much Bryson and thank you all for coming I'm delighted to be 00:00:32.070 --> 00:00:36.809 here and I also would like to let you know that I have been working with some 00:00:36.809 --> 00:00:41.219 wonderful very experienced colleagues so the research that you're going to hear 00:00:41.219 --> 00:00:46.680 tonight is not just my work it's the work of a collaborative effort of John 00:00:46.680 --> 00:00:52.170 Johnson, Steve Schwartz Renee Vilabowitz and Glenn Paris so without further 00:00:52.170 --> 00:01:00.690 ado let's see if we can get going. there the story of the 00:01:00.690 --> 00:01:05.070 lone woman is so much more than just the story of one woman who was abandoned on 00:01:05.070 --> 00:01:09.780 San Nicolas island for 18 years. Tonight we're going to talk about the people who 00:01:09.780 --> 00:01:16.710 left that Island in 1835. These were her people who were her family, her community, 00:01:16.710 --> 00:01:22.080 probably even very close family. So much of what has been written about them has 00:01:22.080 --> 00:01:27.000 come from secondary sources and one thing we focused on was finding original 00:01:27.000 --> 00:01:32.579 sources with primary information that is eyewitness accounts or event participant 00:01:32.579 --> 00:01:39.509 accounts because as you can see the lone woman's story and her people has pretty 00:01:39.509 --> 00:01:44.250 much been told through newspaper accounts from the 19th century, the 20th 00:01:44.250 --> 00:01:48.479 century, and so much of that information has been incorrect. There have been some 00:01:48.479 --> 00:01:54.060 kernels of truth but a lot of it has been hearsay or secondary passed on from 00:01:54.060 --> 00:02:00.000 person to person and actually I think before I go a little bit beyond this 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:05.070 just to make sure we're all on the same page, how many of you have read Island 00:02:05.070 --> 00:02:11.670 of the Blue Dolphins? Okay a lot but not everybody okay then I I should just 00:02:11.670 --> 00:02:16.109 do a little bit of basic background of Island of the Blue Dolphins was a 00:02:16.109 --> 00:02:21.239 children's novel written by Scott O'Dell, first published in 1960, it was 00:02:21.239 --> 00:02:25.560 based on the story of the lone woman of San Nicolas Island she was also called 00:02:25.560 --> 00:02:32.790 the lost woman and in some cases the wild woman of Santa Nicolas Island she was 00:02:32.790 --> 00:02:40.230 left alone from 1835 to 1853 when her people were removed from the island she 00:02:40.230 --> 00:02:43.319 was unintentionally left behind, there are 00:02:43.319 --> 00:02:49.019 stories and they may or may not be true that she jumped off the boat when all of 00:02:49.019 --> 00:02:55.080 her people were on the boat, she said she missed a son on the island and we're 00:02:55.080 --> 00:02:58.860 actually doing some research to find out if this was in fact accurate and not 00:02:58.860 --> 00:03:04.860 just a fantasy, but at this point from what we know so far she was left to live 00:03:04.860 --> 00:03:11.610 by herself for 18 years. Then a otter hunting group that was led by George 00:03:11.610 --> 00:03:16.830 Nidever from Santa Barbara came and found her on the island, picked her up 00:03:16.830 --> 00:03:22.860 had her accompany them back to Santa Barbara. She lived about seven weeks from 00:03:22.860 --> 00:03:25.980 the time she arrived in Santa Barbara and lived with the Nidever family 00:03:25.980 --> 00:03:30.750 there's a thought that she likely contracted dysentery, she also fell off 00:03:30.750 --> 00:03:35.430 the porch of the Nidever Adobe and hurt herself that way but she 00:03:35.430 --> 00:03:39.989 declined quite rapidly about seven weeks from the time that she was 00:03:39.989 --> 00:03:45.989 brought to Santa Barbara. But in that time that she was in Santa 00:03:45.989 --> 00:03:49.560 Barbara there were attempts made to find people who could communicate with her 00:03:49.560 --> 00:03:54.989 and some of those attempts were partially successful but for the most 00:03:54.989 --> 00:04:00.090 part her story and the story of her people, most particularly people taken to 00:04:00.090 --> 00:04:05.670 San Pedro was not recorded so what we tried to do is go back to the original 00:04:05.670 --> 00:04:09.989 records that were recorded at the time that the Nicolanos were taken from 00:04:09.989 --> 00:04:17.639 San Nicolas Island, brought to San Pedro. And we had these basic questions to 00:04:17.639 --> 00:04:23.130 answer how many Nicolanos sailed from the island and we know that they sailed on a 00:04:23.130 --> 00:04:28.470 schooner called the Peores Nada. Where were the Nicolanos taken after they 00:04:28.470 --> 00:04:33.770 arrived in San Pedro, and were any Nicolanos alive when the lone woman 00:04:33.770 --> 00:04:41.669 sailed to Santa Barbara in 1853? And you can see from the the map here there's a 00:04:41.669 --> 00:04:47.550 pretty straightforward route between San Pedro and San Nicolas Island. We're not 00:04:47.550 --> 00:04:51.300 sure if this is the exact route that the the Peoras Nada took but it's likely 00:04:51.300 --> 00:04:57.390 that they went to pick up this group, the community living at the Tulle 00:04:57.390 --> 00:05:07.320 Creek site on the northwest coast of the island. And we had two features that 00:05:07.320 --> 00:05:11.850 helped us to find and follow the Nicolanos that was to look at original 00:05:11.850 --> 00:05:17.070 sources with primary information about original sources, copies of the originals or 00:05:17.070 --> 00:05:21.680 the original documents in the cells rather than relying on derivative 00:05:21.680 --> 00:05:27.360 information like transcripts or translations or indexes because whenever 00:05:27.360 --> 00:05:32.400 humans transcribe a document there is room for error and it's not that 00:05:32.400 --> 00:05:37.410 original sources are free of error but there's less error possible when you go 00:05:37.410 --> 00:05:42.510 to the original source. And the other part of that search strategy was to look 00:05:42.510 --> 00:05:47.000 for primary information-that is information from event participants or 00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:53.700 eyewitnesses to events. So we looked at, particularly, and focused on Mexican 00:05:53.700 --> 00:06:00.660 records from Alta California from 1835 through 1850 and after that we looked at 00:06:00.660 --> 00:06:07.170 United States documents particularly census records, land records, probate, 00:06:07.170 --> 00:06:10.800 that sort of thing. We also looked at other material for context which was 00:06:10.800 --> 00:06:16.620 very helpful because it's not just about the number of people and where they went 00:06:16.620 --> 00:06:20.070 but who were they living with and how were they treated we wanted to know all 00:06:20.070 --> 00:06:24.690 those things. The second fact a feature that helped us to find and follow the 00:06:24.690 --> 00:06:28.290 Nicolanos was to use a genealogy research technique called the FAN 00:06:28.290 --> 00:06:33.420 principle and basically we're looking for the Nicolanos's FAN club and I 00:06:33.420 --> 00:06:39.500 know that sounds odd but FAN stands for Friends Associates and Neighbors and 00:06:39.500 --> 00:06:45.710 this helped us not only to understand the social and economic context in which 00:06:45.710 --> 00:06:50.490 the Nicolanos were living in Los Angeles at the time but it helped us to 00:06:50.490 --> 00:06:55.740 harvest clues that allowed us to track the Nicolanos as they were moving 00:06:55.740 --> 00:07:02.490 through their new lives in Los Angeles so FANS were very important and this 00:07:02.490 --> 00:07:07.960 document here is an example of how we used FAN research it's a 1836 00:07:07.960 --> 00:07:14.940 initial page of the Indian section for the Mexican census of Los Angeles 00:07:14.940 --> 00:07:21.600 and this census was fabulous because it told us in very detailed descriptions of 00:07:21.600 --> 00:07:28.790 where many of the Indians came from: Yuma, or Yaqui, or in this case in the 00:07:28.790 --> 00:07:34.020 highlighted square there was one woman who was noted as "islania" and that 00:07:34.020 --> 00:07:38.070 means Island Indian. We believe she is one of the Nicolanos. It is highly likely 00:07:38.070 --> 00:07:44.010 to be one of the Nicolanos who came from San Nicolas island in 1835. What was 00:07:44.010 --> 00:07:50.240 frustrating about this census record was that the people who did the enumeration 00:07:50.240 --> 00:07:56.670 segregated the Indians from the other people in the city so you couldn't tell 00:07:56.670 --> 00:08:00.390 from looking at the census record whether or not the Indians were living 00:08:00.390 --> 00:08:06.750 with and working for some of the other non-Indian people in the city so what 00:08:06.750 --> 00:08:12.690 we had to do was to look at who Juana's neighbors were and her immediate neighbor 00:08:12.690 --> 00:08:17.250 just above her was a young boy by the name of Ignacio and he was a Yaqui 00:08:17.250 --> 00:08:23.940 Indian and from primary and secondary records we learned that Ignacio was from 00:08:23.940 --> 00:08:29.250 northern Mexico from the Guaymas area, he had been captured by a Mexican soldier 00:08:29.250 --> 00:08:35.700 was about to be shot and his life was spared because James Johnson who was an 00:08:35.700 --> 00:08:40.320 Englishman who was in Guaymas saw what was about to happen. He offered the soldier 00:08:40.320 --> 00:08:47.520 twelve dollars to buy this young boy and the soldier agreed so Ignacio got to 00:08:47.520 --> 00:08:52.710 join the family of James Johnson. James Johnson was known as Santiago Johnson in 00:08:52.710 --> 00:08:58.470 Alta California and in Mexico. And he came with the family to Los Angeles and 00:08:58.470 --> 00:09:06.780 lived with James Johnson's family and his relatives the Guiraros. It was his 00:09:06.780 --> 00:09:13.440 wife's mother's family so we know from the association on the census record and 00:09:13.440 --> 00:09:19.530 we also know because Juana's godmother was a "neives Guiaros" that she was living 00:09:19.530 --> 00:09:23.820 in the same household. That's how FAN club research helped us 00:09:23.820 --> 00:09:30.779 with this particular issue. Now these two gentlemen were our primary source of 00:09:30.779 --> 00:09:37.110 information about the Peoras Nada. We know that Isaac Sparks was one of 00:09:37.110 --> 00:09:41.790 the gentleman who was on the Peoras Nada, the Mexican schooner that went to 00:09:41.790 --> 00:09:47.100 San Nicolas Island to pick up the Nicolanos and bring them to Los Angeles. We 00:09:47.100 --> 00:09:50.630 know that from a Mexican document that I'm going to show you in a moment and 00:09:50.630 --> 00:09:57.390 George Nidever was a otter hunter. He was born in 1802 and Tennessee came to 00:09:57.390 --> 00:10:03.839 Santa Barbara in the early 1830s. Isaac Sparks was born in 1803 in Maine also 00:10:03.839 --> 00:10:10.260 came to Los Angeles area initially and then lived in Santa Barbara and they met 00:10:10.260 --> 00:10:18.089 up and they went otter hunting and in December of 1835, January of 1836 and it 00:10:18.089 --> 00:10:23.760 was on this trip that Isaac Sparks told George Nidever about the fact that 00:10:23.760 --> 00:10:28.079 Isaac Sparks had taken the Peoras Nada to San Nicolas Island to pick up the Nicolanos 00:10:28.079 --> 00:10:34.410 and bring them to Los Angeles. So we don't have the information directly 00:10:34.410 --> 00:10:38.399 from Isaac Sparks but he has noted on a Mexican document and we learned this 00:10:38.399 --> 00:10:46.850 from George Nidever's oral history that was recorded by E.F. Murray in 1878. 00:10:46.850 --> 00:10:52.529 This is the document, this is not an original, this is a copy from 1878 made 00:10:52.529 --> 00:10:59.520 by Thomas Savage for Hubert Howe Bancroft, this is from 1835 and this gave 00:10:59.520 --> 00:11:04.589 us a starting point from which to look for information on the Nicolanos in 00:11:04.589 --> 00:11:10.350 Los Angeles. This says that the Peoras Nada, that they were getting ready to load 00:11:10.350 --> 00:11:14.730 aguardiente which is a brandy and angelica which i believe is also an 00:11:14.730 --> 00:11:19.620 alcoholic beverage onto the ship. They were sending it up to Monterey and from 00:11:19.620 --> 00:11:26.160 Monterey they were going to send lumber up to San Francisco and this was a note 00:11:26.160 --> 00:11:31.199 asking for permission to ship from the captain of the port. So this gives us a 00:11:31.199 --> 00:11:36.749 place or a date in time from when to begin to look for information on the 00:11:36.749 --> 00:11:41.339 Nicolanos and unfortunately there's no passenger manifest. It doesn't say 00:11:41.339 --> 00:11:45.059 that the ship had been on San Nicolas Island but this sure gives us an 00:11:45.059 --> 00:11:49.649 indication of the approximate date when the ship would have been out there 00:11:49.649 --> 00:11:56.149 and been back to San Pedro. These two gentlemen definitely played a part in 00:11:56.149 --> 00:12:03.419 where the Nicolanos went when they came off the boat. James Johnson who I 00:12:03.419 --> 00:12:09.869 mentioned before had a lease understanding with the owners of Rancho 00:12:09.869 --> 00:12:15.839 San Pedro so he was running horses and cattle on Rancho San Pedro right down 00:12:15.839 --> 00:12:24.299 here by the water between 1833 and 1840 and Isaac Williams was another American 00:12:24.299 --> 00:12:30.749 born 1799 in Pennsylvania, came to Los Angeles, he also knew Isaac Sparks and 00:12:30.749 --> 00:12:36.720 George Nidever from hunting trips and both of these gentlemen appear to have 00:12:36.720 --> 00:12:42.869 worked together to distribute the Nicolanos in Los Angeles. They may have 00:12:42.869 --> 00:12:51.110 actually been in cahoots if you know the old-time term. They may have secretly 00:12:51.110 --> 00:12:56.369 collaborated because they both benefited. One of them had a female Nicolania 00:12:56.369 --> 00:12:59.100 come to live with him- Isaac Williams and I'll tell you more about 00:12:59.100 --> 00:13:06.329 that in a little bit and James Johnson known as Santiago Johnson he was 00:13:06.329 --> 00:13:11.730 connected with four different people who were godparents to Nicolanos so he 00:13:11.730 --> 00:13:14.790 and his family definitely benefited from having the Nicolanos in their 00:13:14.790 --> 00:13:20.449 household and basically what they did with them as have them act as servants so 00:13:20.449 --> 00:13:26.879 they had homes to go to but they were expected to serve the families. and this 00:13:26.879 --> 00:13:33.539 is a scene here of San Pedro about 1875 and you can see Dead Man's Island in the 00:13:33.539 --> 00:13:38.519 background. There's only two-there's been two, primary source documents that we 00:13:38.519 --> 00:13:42.869 looked at before this time that had information about the Nicolanos 00:13:42.869 --> 00:13:47.350 and that was about a middle-aged man who was very robust 00:13:47.350 --> 00:13:52.150 and we learned this from both George Nidever and from William Dayon Phelps 00:13:52.150 --> 00:13:58.870 who was master and commander of the Alert. Phelps wrote in his diary of 1841 00:13:58.870 --> 00:14:04.690 that there was a man who was partly foolish from San Nicolas Island from a 00:14:04.690 --> 00:14:10.360 hit on the head that he had from a fight with the Alaskan native otter hunters 00:14:10.360 --> 00:14:15.520 but that he lived at San Pedro and he helped, he would assist the 00:14:15.520 --> 00:14:20.010 hunters, assist the sailors by hauling in the ships and hauling in seals and 00:14:20.010 --> 00:14:25.780 helping them scrape the blubber off or whatever it is they do with the marine 00:14:25.780 --> 00:14:29.650 life there. Anyway those were the only two accounts we'd had up until this 00:14:29.650 --> 00:14:33.850 point that were eyewitness accounts about a gentleman by the name of Black 00:14:33.850 --> 00:14:38.550 Hawk and of course that was not his name that was the name given to him by sailors 00:14:38.550 --> 00:14:46.030 who were on the ship Alert. And as it turned out the best source of 00:14:46.030 --> 00:14:50.470 information initially after we found the Mexican document were sacramental 00:14:50.470 --> 00:14:57.070 records from the Catholic Church. There had been rumors about the Nicolanos 00:14:57.070 --> 00:15:02.920 being taken to Mission San Gabriel and it turns out that that was not the case. 00:15:02.920 --> 00:15:09.760 We looked very thoroughly at the records- the baptismal and death records at 00:15:09.760 --> 00:15:13.750 Mission San Gabriel, Mission San Fernando Rey and the Los Angeles Plaza Church 00:15:13.750 --> 00:15:18.670 which was part of the Catholic Church obviously in the Los Angeles area. 00:15:18.670 --> 00:15:25.750 There were no Nicolano, no islanio, no people from isla and that stands for 00:15:25.750 --> 00:15:33.030 Island Indian showing up in records in Mission San Gabriel in 1835 or later. 00:15:33.030 --> 00:15:38.740 But there were Nicolano and probable Nicolanos showing up in Los Angeles at 00:15:38.740 --> 00:15:46.300 the Los Angeles Plaza Church from 1835 through 1836 and one of the reasons why 00:15:46.300 --> 00:15:50.170 they weren't going to Mission San Gabriel was because the missions were 00:15:50.170 --> 00:15:55.930 going through secularization, they were being given over to civil administration. 00:15:55.930 --> 00:16:00.970 In fact the Franciscan Padre Tomas es Tenaga 00:16:00.970 --> 00:16:05.589 left Mission San Gabriel without leave and he was gone from Mission San Gabriel 00:16:05.589 --> 00:16:13.779 from July of 1835 through April of 1836 so it made no sense that they would have 00:16:13.779 --> 00:16:18.279 the Nicolanos go to Mission San Gabriel when there was no Franciscan 00:16:18.279 --> 00:16:25.839 padre there. As it turns out the very first person to be baptized was a young 00:16:25.839 --> 00:16:32.350 boy and he was noted as being "coma de cinco anos" so about five years old. His 00:16:32.350 --> 00:16:36.819 parents were noted as Gentiles or unbaptized Indians from San Nicolas 00:16:36.819 --> 00:16:44.740 Island and he was baptized by a French Catholic priest who was at that time in 00:16:44.740 --> 00:16:49.060 charge of both Mission San Gabriel and the Los Angeles Plaza Church. This is 00:16:49.060 --> 00:16:55.300 Father Jean Agustus Alexis Bachelo and he signed his name Alejo Bachelo 00:16:55.300 --> 00:17:01.720 when he was in Alta California. He himself had been in exile, he was kicked 00:17:01.720 --> 00:17:06.429 out of Hawaii he had been sent to Hawaii to establish a Catholic mission there 00:17:06.429 --> 00:17:10.539 and there was a squabble and the Protestant missionaries convinced the 00:17:10.539 --> 00:17:15.490 Queen in Hawaii that it was dangerous to have a Catholic priest there, so she 00:17:15.490 --> 00:17:20.230 kicked him out, she sent him on a boat to San Pedro and he and his compatriot 00:17:20.230 --> 00:17:27.490 Patrick Short were dumped off uncharitably at the beach at the San 00:17:27.490 --> 00:17:31.809 Pedro, so he was much like the Nicolanos, he was without a home in 00:17:31.809 --> 00:17:38.140 the place that he didn't belong. But he stayed in California. He assisted Father 00:17:38.140 --> 00:17:43.870 Sanchez and Father es Tenaga at Mission San Gabriel and when the need arose he 00:17:43.870 --> 00:17:49.690 helped out at Los Angeles Plaza Church and helped to baptize a little Tomas 00:17:49.690 --> 00:17:55.480 Guadalupe. By the way the Franciscan priests and Father Bachelo were 00:17:55.480 --> 00:18:00.820 estimating the ages of the Nicolanos. They didn't know all the California 00:18:00.820 --> 00:18:05.200 Indian languages so they just looked at the person and decided, oh he's about 5 or 00:18:05.200 --> 00:18:13.700 she's about 20 so then you know the ages are kind of a general estimate. 00:18:13.700 --> 00:18:21.540 Tomas had a godmother who is very interesting: Elida Johnson who was 00:18:21.540 --> 00:18:26.400 the five-year-old daughter of James Johnson so we found this very intriguing 00:18:26.400 --> 00:18:30.660 because we had never before seen a godmother who was five years old. She was 00:18:30.660 --> 00:18:36.420 the same age as Tomas. We still haven't figured that out but it's true. We've 00:18:36.420 --> 00:18:39.630 checked her birth records, there's no question that she was very 00:18:39.630 --> 00:18:44.910 young, maybe they wanted to teach her responsibility for a real early age. 00:18:44.910 --> 00:18:54.990 And the other person who we know who is unquestionably Nicolania was baptized 00:18:54.990 --> 00:19:01.800 as Maria Madalena or Magdalena. She was baptized by Father Pedro Cabot because 00:19:01.800 --> 00:19:08.160 Father Bachelo was out of town at the time and as you can see from her baptism 00:19:08.160 --> 00:19:12.990 record she was only indicated as islania when she was baptized, not from 00:19:12.990 --> 00:19:17.910 San Nicolas Island but because we check original records we always make sure 00:19:17.910 --> 00:19:21.780 we're checking every original record we can get our hands on. We looked at the 00:19:21.780 --> 00:19:27.390 burial record and it clearly states she is a neophyte de las islas de 00:19:27.390 --> 00:19:31.950 San Nicolas and of course islas was a mistake it's the island of San Nicolas 00:19:31.950 --> 00:19:38.090 not the islands of Santa Nicolas and the burial was officiated by Father 00:19:38.090 --> 00:19:44.040 Alejo Bachelo so thank goodness that Father Bachelo at least knew if she was 00:19:44.040 --> 00:19:48.420 from San Nicolas Island. The other thing that's interesting about this is she 00:19:48.420 --> 00:19:54.900 was ill, she was noted as "inferma" so she was not baptized in the 00:19:54.900 --> 00:20:00.990 church she was baptized in the pueblo. And this made us very curious, where was 00:20:00.990 --> 00:20:06.330 she? Who was she living with at the time? She was given- even though she was sick- 00:20:06.330 --> 00:20:12.210 she was given godparents Narciso Botteo and his wife Francisca Ruiz. They were 00:20:12.210 --> 00:20:17.430 cousins to James Johnson's wife, so more connections with the Johnson family. 00:20:17.430 --> 00:20:24.720 Johnson family made out very well but she didn't show up in the 1836 census 00:20:24.720 --> 00:20:28.780 she probably died before they did the census. 00:20:28.780 --> 00:20:32.620 So it took us a while but we finally figured out where Maria 00:20:32.620 --> 00:20:42.700 Magdalena was living and I will tell you about that just a minute. Okay so this 00:20:42.700 --> 00:20:48.730 shows you a summary of the people who we know are from San Nicolas Island 00:20:48.730 --> 00:20:56.050 Tomas Guadalupe and Maria Magdalena who I've just told you about. Juana, you've 00:20:56.050 --> 00:21:03.600 seen, the first page of the Indian section, the 1836 census, she was listed as 00:21:03.600 --> 00:21:12.180 "islania" or "de la isla" but because of the timing of her baptism in 00:21:12.180 --> 00:21:17.470 1836 because no other island indians were being baptized from any of the 00:21:17.470 --> 00:21:22.420 other islands, from San Clemente Island, or from Catalina Island, we believe it's 00:21:22.420 --> 00:21:27.970 highly likely that she was from San Nicolas Island as well. And little Maria 00:21:27.970 --> 00:21:35.200 Luciana was interesting she was a newborn but she was baptized and her 00:21:35.200 --> 00:21:41.940 parents were said to have been island Indians, again, because of the timing of 00:21:41.940 --> 00:21:48.760 her baptism in 1836 it's possible that her parents also could have come off the 00:21:48.760 --> 00:21:54.030 boat from San Nicolas Island. It's also possible that they could have come from 00:21:54.030 --> 00:22:00.160 earlier from San Clemente Island or Santa Catalina Island and not been 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:05.560 baptized waited and waited and waited they had a daughter they wanted her baptized so 00:22:05.560 --> 00:22:11.110 they're a little bit less likely but it's still a strong possibility and 00:22:11.110 --> 00:22:16.990 if they were Nicolanos then she was conceived on San Nicolas Island so 00:22:16.990 --> 00:22:22.840 she would have been Nicolano had she not come over on the boat and been born in Los 00:22:22.840 --> 00:22:30.250 Angeles. And Maria Aleja is another one who we think is highly likely to be from 00:22:30.250 --> 00:22:37.960 San Nicolas island she was said to have been about 45 years old and we do have a 00:22:37.960 --> 00:22:44.649 fairly reliable record, well we've got a primary source- the US census for 1850 00:22:44.649 --> 00:22:51.970 noting a woman by the name of Maria in her godmother's household in the 00:22:51.970 --> 00:22:57.909 household of Maria Ignacio Amador we also have a newspaper account saying one 00:22:57.909 --> 00:23:01.659 of the middle-aged Nicolanias lived in the household of the highly 00:23:01.659 --> 00:23:07.330 respectable citizen for most of her life while she was in Los Angeles so we 00:23:07.330 --> 00:23:12.279 believe Maria Aleja is also highly likely to be a Nicolania and I love 00:23:12.279 --> 00:23:17.049 this photograph by the way this is 1880 Los Angeles intersection 00:23:17.049 --> 00:23:23.340 of Main and Temple and Spring Street, some of you may recognize this area, 00:23:23.340 --> 00:23:31.029 and within the the red rectangle is where Tomas lived with the Johnson 00:23:31.029 --> 00:23:37.539 family he lived there probably until 1859 when Carmen Johnson, James Johnson's 00:23:37.539 --> 00:23:42.250 widow, was forced to sell the home because the financial circumstances were 00:23:42.250 --> 00:23:48.220 declining. But this is where Tomas lived when the lone woman was in Santa Barbara 00:23:48.220 --> 00:23:54.250 in 1853 and she was only alive for seven weeks so obviously they didn't have time 00:23:54.250 --> 00:23:59.440 to find him. But this is the heart of downtown Los Angeles, the business 00:23:59.440 --> 00:24:04.630 district as it was then, and of course this is 1880s this is not 1835 so it 00:24:04.630 --> 00:24:09.730 wouldn't have been quite this crowded. In fact I love to point out, look at 00:24:09.730 --> 00:24:14.080 that look at the the parking it's really at a premium already you've got horses 00:24:14.080 --> 00:24:20.169 and carts they're lining up there so it's already a hot spot actually 00:24:20.169 --> 00:24:24.880 the whole block before the red rectangle is now where the federal courts building 00:24:24.880 --> 00:24:31.840 is and the block where Tomas lived with the Johnson family is where the City 00:24:31.840 --> 00:24:37.690 Hall is, the 32 story City Hall of Los Angeles. So that's right where the 00:24:37.690 --> 00:24:42.039 neighborhood where the Nicolanos grew up at least spent the first 00:24:42.039 --> 00:24:46.120 many years of their life in Los Angeles. The other thing that's really 00:24:46.120 --> 00:24:49.960 interesting about this photograph is it's taken from the viewpoint of the Bella 00:24:49.960 --> 00:24:54.910 Union Hotel and this was where Isaac Williams lived. 00:24:54.910 --> 00:25:01.420 He had an Adobe built here in 1835, it actually was taken over by Pio Pico and 00:25:01.420 --> 00:25:07.120 was the the last headquarters of the Mexican government in Alta California. It 00:25:07.120 --> 00:25:13.060 later became Bella Union Hotel, the Charles Hotel and went into decline 00:25:13.060 --> 00:25:18.970 after that but this photograph shows you how close...actually I'm giving it away 00:25:18.970 --> 00:25:26.500 right now... Maria Magdalena lived at this location with Isaac Lampton, and I should 00:25:26.500 --> 00:25:31.150 go into that story right now because I'm getting ahead of myself. This is another 00:25:31.150 --> 00:25:37.600 example of FAN research. We ended up looking at her neighbors in the burial 00:25:37.600 --> 00:25:45.370 record and two of her neighbors really stood out: Hervasio Olipus and Maria 00:25:45.370 --> 00:25:54.070 Del Rosario Via and there was a notation on Maria's record that said "ambos 00:25:54.070 --> 00:25:59.980 pasados por las armas al dia antecedente" and I had never seen that before. My 00:25:59.980 --> 00:26:06.460 Spanish is really poor but I was curious so I did Google Translate, and can 00:26:06.460 --> 00:26:12.100 anybody tell me what that means? Anybody here know Spanish: "ambos pasados 00:26:12.100 --> 00:26:24.750 por las armas al dia antecedente?" There in the back? "Ambos pasados por las armas" 00:26:24.750 --> 00:26:33.100 "ambos pasados por las armas" and in the context they're in a cemetery, they 00:26:33.100 --> 00:26:38.860 were put to death, basically, they were executed and the reason was 00:26:38.860 --> 00:26:45.310 they had murdered her husband, Rosario Via's husband. These were two lovers 00:26:45.310 --> 00:26:52.930 Hervasio Olipus and Maria del Rosario Via, only they lived together while she was 00:26:52.930 --> 00:26:58.750 married to Domingo Felis and they murdered Domingo Felis because he had 00:26:58.750 --> 00:27:03.820 the nerve to have the alcohol. They forced his wife to come back and join 00:27:03.820 --> 00:27:07.179 him and they were they were leaving town 00:27:07.179 --> 00:27:14.169 they were going to Rancho Los Felis and unfortunately Hervasio came and used 00:27:14.169 --> 00:27:19.750 his lasso and roped for Domingo off the horse. Domingo was on the ground, Hervasio 00:27:19.750 --> 00:27:25.330 stabbed him and he was dead and they dragged him off to ravine and kind 00:27:25.330 --> 00:27:30.490 of partially buried him, and this is kind of a long-winded story but it will get 00:27:30.490 --> 00:27:36.460 to the point. The citizens of the town found out about it very quickly the 00:27:36.460 --> 00:27:42.789 horse the empty horse without Domingo Felis and his wife came back and they 00:27:42.789 --> 00:27:48.460 realized that Domingo Felis had been murdered so they captured Hervasio 00:27:48.460 --> 00:27:53.950 Olipus and Rosario Via. They put him in jail and shackles they took her to Abel 00:27:53.950 --> 00:27:59.260 Stern's house and kept her under lock and key but the citizens of the town 00:27:59.260 --> 00:28:03.520 were irate there was so much violence it was going unpunished they knew that this 00:28:03.520 --> 00:28:08.799 was a capital case that would not come to sentence and an execution would 00:28:08.799 --> 00:28:14.110 not take place because an appeal would automatically be made and a judge in 00:28:14.110 --> 00:28:21.039 Mexico would have to hear the case so this was the first vigilante committee 00:28:21.039 --> 00:28:30.280 action. About 50 citizens formed a party for the defense of public safety and 00:28:30.280 --> 00:28:37.690 they sent messages to the city council saying, 'man we want these prisoners are 00:28:37.690 --> 00:28:42.039 you going to release them to us or not or are you going to execute them as they 00:28:42.039 --> 00:28:46.330 should be executed,' and the City Council said we have nothing to do with you 00:28:46.330 --> 00:28:51.190 this is an illegal action but the City Council was powerless to do anything 00:28:51.190 --> 00:28:57.820 about it so the people and this vigilante committee overpowered the 00:28:57.820 --> 00:29:03.280 guard took Hervasio Olipus on the hill behind the LA Plaza Church and they shot 00:29:03.280 --> 00:29:09.460 him 4:30 in the afternoon on April 7th and half hour later at five 00:29:09.460 --> 00:29:14.289 o'clock they also shot Rosario Via and they let her sit in the chair they were 00:29:14.289 --> 00:29:17.570 they were a little nice to her she was really scared 00:29:17.570 --> 00:29:21.050 but they shot her and then they took these two bodies and had them out for 00:29:21.050 --> 00:29:25.370 2 hours in front of the jail so everybody could see them and then they 00:29:25.370 --> 00:29:30.260 got to be buried and this comes to the part which ties in with the Nicolania, 00:29:30.260 --> 00:29:40.340 Maria Magdalena. She was baptized on April 9th. These two were buried on April 00:29:40.340 --> 00:29:47.300 8th and they were buried and their ceremony was performed by Father Pedro 00:29:47.300 --> 00:29:54.410 Cabot so he was summoned, as it turns out, read the report the vigilante 00:29:54.410 --> 00:29:59.420 committee report by Victor Prudon who was the president of the committee. There was a 00:29:59.420 --> 00:30:03.770 footnote that said Isaac Williams sent a note to Father Pedro Cabot to ask him to 00:30:03.770 --> 00:30:09.350 come and baptize a sick woman who was living in his household and there was a 00:30:09.350 --> 00:30:13.480 dual-purpose. There really was a sick woman living in Isaac Williams household 00:30:13.480 --> 00:30:18.920 but they also wanted Father Pedro Cabot to come and administer the last rites to 00:30:18.920 --> 00:30:25.400 the condemned murderers and Father Cabot didn't come until the 8th so that 00:30:25.400 --> 00:30:30.380 was a day late, you know the execution had already taken place but so 00:30:30.380 --> 00:30:36.860 he buried Hervasio Olipus and Rosario Via on April 8th and then the next 00:30:36.860 --> 00:30:44.030 day he baptized Maria Magdalena on April 9th. That was how we knew she was living 00:30:44.030 --> 00:30:50.600 with Isaac Williams so FAN research was very helpful there. It's kind of a 00:30:50.600 --> 00:30:55.340 long way around, thank you for hanging in there with me. It took a while but we 00:30:55.340 --> 00:31:01.630 got there. Ok this is the the handout that you all have or some of you have 00:31:01.630 --> 00:31:06.710 this is just to show you and actually this is a partial view of the handout 00:31:06.710 --> 00:31:12.830 that you have this is to show you we did look at the native people from the 00:31:12.830 --> 00:31:17.660 southern islands of San Clemente- that's the the left-hand column and Santa 00:31:17.660 --> 00:31:24.530 Catalina that's the next column over and the undifferentiated island Indian or 00:31:24.530 --> 00:31:30.170 what's called either isla or islania and as you can see a lot of them took 00:31:30.170 --> 00:31:37.640 place in the early to mid 1820s and 1830s and 00:31:37.640 --> 00:31:42.830 most of the island Indians from San Clemente and Santa Catalina had come 00:31:42.830 --> 00:31:48.020 off of the island by 1820 but they continued to trickle in and get baptized 00:31:48.020 --> 00:31:51.380 either as adults or have their children baptized or even have some of their 00:31:51.380 --> 00:31:58.150 infants baptized. But right about 1835 is kind of a cut off; all the people from 00:31:58.150 --> 00:32:02.780 San Clemente Island, Catalina Island, had already been baptized if they were going 00:32:02.780 --> 00:32:07.850 to be baptized and they'd had their children baptized and then that was when 00:32:07.850 --> 00:32:13.310 we started to see the Nicolanos, Tomas, Maria Magdalena, Juana, Maria Aleja and 00:32:13.310 --> 00:32:19.640 Maria Luciana being baptized so that's how we figured out they had come off the 00:32:19.640 --> 00:32:27.410 boat in 1835, late 1835, but it was important to understand the context what 00:32:27.410 --> 00:32:35.090 happened to the other southern island Indians. And this is when we finally get 00:32:35.090 --> 00:32:40.700 to see one of the Nicolanos Tomas in the household of his godparent, actually 00:32:40.700 --> 00:32:45.560 in this case it was his godmother's mother Carmen Johnson. She was now a 00:32:45.560 --> 00:32:51.830 widow, James Johnson had died in 1847 and she headed this pretty incredible 00:32:51.830 --> 00:32:59.840 household and a couple things that are funny about this: her age was 32 here, 00:32:59.840 --> 00:33:06.400 well she had also been listed as 32 in the 1844 Mexican census and it wasn't just 00:33:06.400 --> 00:33:17.360 vanity, it truly wasn't. The problem was this was a newly minted American town. It 00:33:17.360 --> 00:33:22.430 had formerly been all Spanish-speaking. There were very few English speakers so 00:33:22.430 --> 00:33:27.230 the census enumerator was John Everttson from New York, he comes to Los 00:33:27.230 --> 00:33:32.450 Angeles, he can't speak Spanish very well, the Spanish-speaking people sure can't 00:33:32.450 --> 00:33:36.860 speak English very well so they did the best they could. Anyway, her age stayed 00:33:36.860 --> 00:33:43.410 the same, Tomas in the 1844 Mexican census of Los Angeles was listed as 15 00:33:43.410 --> 00:33:46.493 here he's listed as 14. Well guess what, 00:33:46.493 --> 00:33:52.860 the native people were not giving their ages directly to the census enumerator, it was a head of household. 00:33:52.860 --> 00:33:57.510 Carmen Johnson didn't know how old he was, she didn't care, she just, you know, 00:33:57.510 --> 00:34:01.410 figured out what or maybe you looked in the census numbers from the previous 00:34:01.410 --> 00:34:09.750 census oh he's 15 so oh and the other thing on this one, there is both 00:34:09.750 --> 00:34:17.250 Tomas and a Brea del Carmen are noted as "I" as Indian in the census. She is not one 00:34:17.250 --> 00:34:22.230 of the Nicolanos, we don't believe. She didn't show up as Nicolano or Isla in 00:34:22.230 --> 00:34:29.880 1835, 1836 or later but there is a Maria del Carmen who was baptized in 1833 Los 00:34:29.880 --> 00:34:35.160 Angeles Plaza Church and she was from Quienque which means San Clemente Island so 00:34:35.160 --> 00:34:38.060 we think she was another Island Indian but from San Clemente Island. 00:34:38.060 --> 00:34:42.540 And had ended up in the household of the Johnson's but this is a real interesting 00:34:42.540 --> 00:34:48.929 household, we'll look how diverse it is, we've got Carmen Johnson was born in Sonora, 00:34:48.929 --> 00:34:55.140 Mexico, three of her children were half European, her husband James Johnson was 00:34:55.140 --> 00:35:02.040 from England, we've got one of her relatives Jesus Guerraro and down below 00:35:02.040 --> 00:35:06.420 we've got William was a black man from Mexico, or from New York, sorry, and 00:35:06.420 --> 00:35:15.000 Jose Palio who was a laborer from Mexico so we've got people from Mexico, people from 00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:20.550 New York, half Mexican half European, and island Indians all living together 00:35:20.550 --> 00:35:28.940 in early Los Angeles and hopefully getting along or learning how to. And 00:35:28.940 --> 00:35:33.990 from our FAN research from looking at friends, associates, and neighbors 00:35:33.990 --> 00:35:37.830 particularly on census records but certainly on baptismal records we were 00:35:37.830 --> 00:35:43.430 able to figure out where all the Nicolanos or probable Nicolanos were living. 00:35:43.430 --> 00:35:48.450 Tomas of course was in the Johnson household, Juana was in the household of 00:35:48.450 --> 00:35:54.820 her godmother Nieves Guirado who was Carmen Johnson's sister. 00:35:54.820 --> 00:35:58.720 Maria Aleja as I mentioned was living in the household we believe her 00:35:58.720 --> 00:36:04.030 godmother Maria Ignacio Amador. Maria Magdalena was not living with her 00:36:04.030 --> 00:36:09.910 godparents she was living with Isaac Williams and Maria Luciana, newborn, and 00:36:09.910 --> 00:36:15.610 her Island Indian parents were likely living in an Indian locality called the 00:36:15.610 --> 00:36:20.530 Rancheria de los Pipimares. The island Indians in Los Angeles apparently 00:36:20.530 --> 00:36:28.360 had their own cluster of families that live together and we, from various sets 00:36:28.360 --> 00:36:33.220 of documents, figured out that it was at San Pedro and between 7th and 8th 00:36:33.220 --> 00:36:38.110 streets on the west side and the reason why we figured out she may have lived 00:36:38.110 --> 00:36:43.320 there her parents may have lived there: Maria Luciana's godmother was 00:36:43.320 --> 00:36:50.020 Incarnacion Reyes, her father was Jose Jesinto Reyes and he and his family 00:36:50.020 --> 00:36:56.590 were godparents to 10 island Indians: it's more than any other family in Los 00:36:56.590 --> 00:37:03.900 Angeles and the reason why we feel that is true or that is important is because 00:37:03.900 --> 00:37:12.400 the Reyes family owned property on either side of San Pedro at 7th Street so 00:37:12.400 --> 00:37:16.120 their property, their vineyards, actually bracketed the village of the 00:37:16.120 --> 00:37:20.950 island Indians and Maria Luciana and her parents probably lived there and 00:37:20.950 --> 00:37:25.150 probably worked for the Reyes family and this is Adalida Johnson, of course, 00:37:25.150 --> 00:37:30.880 Tomas's godmother and daughter of Carmen Johnson with her first husband 00:37:30.880 --> 00:37:35.830 Francis Melas who is a very prominent American businessman in early Los 00:37:35.830 --> 00:37:45.790 Angeles. This is a plan view map of the downtown section of Los Angeles from 00:37:45.790 --> 00:37:52.120 1849 E.O.C. Ord's map if anybody's familiar with this. The cross hatch in the middle 00:37:52.120 --> 00:37:58.840 is Ord's compass rose so north is pointing to the upper right. Number one 00:37:58.840 --> 00:38:03.640 is the Los Angeles Plaza Church it's in that locality right now and number two 00:38:03.640 --> 00:38:08.640 is the plaza Alvera Street is just to the right of number two, the plaza, I'm 00:38:08.640 --> 00:38:14.140 sure many of you visited Alvera street but you can see number three was where 00:38:14.140 --> 00:38:19.240 the Johnson family lived and Tomas lived in that locality probably from about 00:38:19.240 --> 00:38:25.120 1835 through 1859 when the house was sold. Number four is where Isaac Williams 00:38:25.120 --> 00:38:29.790 lived that was where his Adobe was and Maria Magdalena lived there so they were 00:38:29.790 --> 00:38:34.690 not quite shouting distance bu pretty close. Number five was where the 00:38:34.690 --> 00:38:42.070 Rancheria de los Poblanos was this is also locality of the Alvarado complex at 00:38:42.070 --> 00:38:46.510 First Street and Main and that's probably where Maria Aleja lived with 00:38:46.510 --> 00:38:54.120 Maria Ignacio Amador when she first came to town. The Rancheria de los Poblanos was 00:38:54.120 --> 00:39:00.040 kind of an encampment, not an Indian rancheria of any long-standing, but that 00:39:00.040 --> 00:39:06.910 was probably where the Indians from menga moved after the initial Pueblo 00:39:06.910 --> 00:39:16.930 moved the plaza. The early movies, here's let's see if I can do this with the arrow...the earliest a 00:39:16.930 --> 00:39:23.650 location of the Pueblo of Los Angeles was here it eventually moved here at 00:39:23.650 --> 00:39:30.820 particularly after the the massive flooding of 1815 so the Indians who 00:39:30.820 --> 00:39:36.640 lived in this area moved were forced to move south to a location that became 00:39:36.640 --> 00:39:40.260 known as the Rancheria de los Poblanos. 00:39:41.670 --> 00:39:48.790 This is the larger view of E.O.C. Ord's 1849 map, you can see number one and 00:39:48.790 --> 00:39:52.900 number two are on the raised river terrace. That was where most of the 00:39:52.900 --> 00:39:57.490 townspeople lived, it was a much better place to live because it was above the 00:39:57.490 --> 00:40:04.630 floodplain, everywhere else was in the floodplain. And this was an important 00:40:04.630 --> 00:40:08.290 site this was where we believe that where the Rancheria de los Pipimares 00:40:08.290 --> 00:40:15.070 was located that was near the property of the Reyes family. And there 00:40:15.070 --> 00:40:21.440 was also a very interesting interview, we read Cecaria Valenzuela de Lorenzana 00:40:21.440 --> 00:40:30.349 gave an interview to Charles J Prude- Home in 1913. She lived quite close to 00:40:30.349 --> 00:40:35.390 that area and she described in 1842 a morning ceremony that was being 00:40:35.390 --> 00:40:39.710 performed by the Pipimares Indians apparently it was a multi-day ceremony: 00:40:39.710 --> 00:40:46.099 they built a bonfire, they threw chia seeds, pinyon nuts and juniper berries on 00:40:46.099 --> 00:40:50.420 a fire as well as clothing and other items belonging to deceased relatives 00:40:50.420 --> 00:40:55.700 and then the ceremony was completed but that was another reason why we knew; 00:40:55.700 --> 00:40:59.420 we started putting different pieces of direct and indirect evidence together 00:40:59.420 --> 00:41:05.210 that the village of the island Indians was in this area of 7th Street and San 00:41:05.210 --> 00:41:10.400 Pedro and actually if we think about it Maria Luciana and her parents could 00:41:10.400 --> 00:41:18.230 easily have been part of that ceremony 1842. One thing I need to point out and 00:41:18.230 --> 00:41:23.089 this was certainly important to understand again the context of life in 00:41:23.089 --> 00:41:27.290 early Los Angeles for the Nicolanos: the native people were literally 00:41:27.290 --> 00:41:33.050 marginalized in their own territory they were first moved from Yaanga which was 00:41:33.050 --> 00:41:39.140 the original site number one there that was the site that the Portola Expedition members 00:41:39.140 --> 00:41:44.510 encountered in 1769. They were moved south once the people, the pueblo, 00:41:44.510 --> 00:41:50.720 decided to move their town to a more prime territory away from the flooding. 00:41:50.720 --> 00:41:56.150 Los Angeles River, by the way sorry I should point this out, this is Los Angeles River here 00:41:56.150 --> 00:42:02.390 this is East Los Angeles River also is up in this area north of town that's why 00:42:02.390 --> 00:42:10.280 the water was flooding that early town site so badly. People also wanted to 00:42:10.280 --> 00:42:16.490 move the island Indian village, somebody had a dispute with them and actually 00:42:16.490 --> 00:42:22.670 most of it was probably a naked land rib they really wanted the territory for 00:42:22.670 --> 00:42:27.680 vineyards and other agricultural purposes so everyone was moved to the 00:42:27.680 --> 00:42:34.040 Rancherias, number 4 there, the one on the right, was likely in place 00:42:34.040 --> 00:42:42.410 early on but then and that lasted about 10 years from 1836 to about 1845. Then 00:42:42.410 --> 00:42:47.450 everybody was moved to number five Pueblito, that was east of Los Angeles 00:42:47.450 --> 00:42:52.490 River, that site lasted about five years and then that rancheria was razed and 00:42:52.490 --> 00:42:57.170 the Indians again were forced to move in dispersed settlements or to live with 00:42:57.170 --> 00:43:00.620 their employers in town so this was another reason why the Nicolanos 00:43:00.620 --> 00:43:05.750 likely lived with their godparents, they saw the continuous movement of the 00:43:05.750 --> 00:43:10.370 Indians who were living in that area- continuous forced movement- and it made 00:43:10.370 --> 00:43:14.060 more sense for the Nicolanos to live with godparents room then try to make 00:43:14.060 --> 00:43:23.270 it on their own. In 1860 after Carmen Johnson sold the home, Tomas had to find 00:43:23.270 --> 00:43:29.860 another place to live. He ended up moving to work for Antonio Coronel, and Coronel 00:43:29.860 --> 00:43:34.490 was a very prominent member of the community, he was the first Latino mayor 00:43:34.490 --> 00:43:42.020 of Los Angeles, and yeah he was also an assessor and he was state treasurer for 00:43:42.020 --> 00:43:48.110 a while, but he owned a large vineyard on Alameda at the level of 7th Street. So 00:43:48.110 --> 00:43:56.840 Tomas shows up on his census enumeration and he also shows up as recently married. 00:43:56.840 --> 00:44:03.020 So the next person on that same list is a young girl/ woman Refugio 00:44:03.020 --> 00:44:07.970 Lopez was an Indian so we looked for the marriage record, sure enough we found the 00:44:07.970 --> 00:44:12.890 marriage record, and that was a gold mine because the witnesses on the marriage 00:44:12.890 --> 00:44:17.810 record told us that we had the correct Tomas. One of the witnesses was Soledad 00:44:17.810 --> 00:44:23.180 Coronel, that was Antonio Coronel's sister. The other witness was Maria de La Merced 00:44:23.180 --> 00:44:27.650 Valdez, and that was Tomas's former next-door neighbor on Spring 00:44:27.650 --> 00:44:35.090 Street, so that told us, yes, that this was the same Tomas. So this also showed 00:44:35.090 --> 00:44:40.610 us that he was alive in 1860 so he lived at least seven years beyond when the 00:44:40.610 --> 00:44:49.730 lone woman was in Santa Barbara in 1853. And this is a timeline we were able to 00:44:49.730 --> 00:44:54.950 construct for five individuals. That vertical columns represent the 00:44:54.950 --> 00:44:59.510 records we'd identified for five different people. As you can see we have 00:44:59.510 --> 00:45:06.500 the most records for young Tomas: six records in a row and several others. We 00:45:06.500 --> 00:45:13.330 have records going through 1850s so you know we're pretty certain many of these 00:45:13.330 --> 00:45:19.420 individuals lived beyond the early 1850s. It's been hard to find the records. 00:45:19.420 --> 00:45:24.170 One of the things that helped us a lot initially was using the early 00:45:24.170 --> 00:45:28.609 California Population Project Database which is published online by the 00:45:28.609 --> 00:45:34.359 Huntington Library, and anybody can access it, it's got records of over 200,000 00:45:34.359 --> 00:45:42.800 sacramental baptisms, marriages, or burials at the various Spanish missions 00:45:42.800 --> 00:45:48.859 and the Los Angeles Plaza Church. It runs only up to 1850 though so we're 00:45:48.859 --> 00:45:56.060 back to looking through year after year after year for deaths of different 00:45:56.060 --> 00:46:01.820 Nicolanos: Juana and Maria Maria Luciana and it's difficult unless 00:46:01.820 --> 00:46:08.060 you've got extra information on those burial records, if you've got a burial 00:46:08.060 --> 00:46:13.550 record for just someone by the name of Juana and no witness or notation 00:46:13.550 --> 00:46:19.010 where she was from, then you cannot identify it as Juana from San 00:46:19.010 --> 00:46:26.990 Nicolas Island so it's tough going but we're working on it. And actually there 00:46:26.990 --> 00:46:35.390 was a birth, Tomas and his wife Refugio Lopez did have a son, and I have to give 00:46:35.390 --> 00:46:39.560 credit where credit is due, this was found by Ted Gaston who's a professional 00:46:39.560 --> 00:46:44.570 genealogist who lives in Sherman Oaks. I had consulted with him, I asked him to 00:46:44.570 --> 00:46:50.240 look at my research plan to see if I'm making all the right choices looking and 00:46:50.240 --> 00:46:53.750 you know in all the right archives and he went over my research plan but he 00:46:53.750 --> 00:46:57.829 couldn't resist himself and he opened up his computer and looked at his database 00:46:57.829 --> 00:47:02.519 and within a matter of minutes it was almost embarrassing- that was, well it was 00:47:02.519 --> 00:47:07.829 wonderful- I was just amazed. It was great he found these two records and 00:47:07.829 --> 00:47:13.229 what I realized is I had to check my assumption. I was, I had been looking for 00:47:13.229 --> 00:47:20.339 records for Indian neophytes and this little boy was not indicated to be an 00:47:20.339 --> 00:47:25.380 Indian and neither were his parents so I had seen six records in a row for Tomas 00:47:25.380 --> 00:47:31.559 from San Nicolas Island as an Indian and all of a sudden, and if this is the same 00:47:31.559 --> 00:47:37.529 priest, Brast Rajo, father Rajo did not indicate that Tomas was an Indian 00:47:37.529 --> 00:47:43.109 although he did when he married Tomas and Refugio. Anyway little Estevan de los 00:47:43.109 --> 00:47:50.089 Reyes was born in 1861 and unfortunately the little guy passed away 00:47:50.089 --> 00:47:56.009 yeah less than 10 months later but what's intriguing about this is that he 00:47:56.009 --> 00:48:01.680 had a last name which was similar to Thomas's native name. Tomas and his 00:48:01.680 --> 00:48:07.759 marriage record used what appeared to be a surname Augri and we looked at that 00:48:07.759 --> 00:48:12.089 upside down and sideways and it didn't look like a Spanish name at all and 00:48:12.089 --> 00:48:18.949 finally we figured out it's likely his native name. But what happened with 00:48:18.949 --> 00:48:24.809 little Estevan's baptismal record, that name had started to change to become 00:48:24.809 --> 00:48:30.509 Hispanicized so from Augri it became Ereyes then in the burial record it was 00:48:30.509 --> 00:48:37.170 noted as Agres so we're seeing name change pretty rapidly from 1860, 00:48:37.170 --> 00:48:43.249 1861 in 1863 which is real intriguing. 00:48:43.519 --> 00:48:50.969 And this was the- it's not quite a family tree chart in the traditional sense but 00:48:50.969 --> 00:48:57.089 this is the closest thing that I could cobble up- Juana Maria was the name 00:48:57.089 --> 00:49:01.650 that the lone woman of San Nicolas Island was given upon her, baptismal, 00:49:01.650 --> 00:49:09.330 baptism on October 19, 1853 and Blackhawk of course was not his 00:49:09.330 --> 00:49:14.340 native name it was a name given to him by sailors, we've got approximate dates 00:49:14.340 --> 00:49:21.120 here where I wasn't certain I put Abt for about and for the death dates I put 00:49:21.120 --> 00:49:28.890 aft if I had a record and I wanted to indicate after this date so this shows 00:49:28.890 --> 00:49:34.710 you at least Tomas Augri and Refugio Lopez had a son Estevan de los Reyes Agres 00:49:34.710 --> 00:49:43.170 and the second tier represents the the probable or, well, two are highly 00:49:43.170 --> 00:49:48.360 likely to be Nicolanos, Juana and Maira Aleja, we're not so certain about 00:49:48.360 --> 00:49:53.970 the Indian father and island Indian mother of Maria Luciana but given the 00:49:53.970 --> 00:50:01.140 timing of her baptism it's certainly plausible. So as you can see where we've 00:50:01.140 --> 00:50:07.380 got a good start and we're still working on it the research continues. And this is 00:50:07.380 --> 00:50:11.820 a summary of what we've looked at and discovered to date: we've identified two 00:50:11.820 --> 00:50:16.380 Nicolanos, two probable Nicolanos, two possible Nicolanos and their 00:50:16.380 --> 00:50:21.270 daughter. We found the people who the Nicolanos lived with and the locations 00:50:21.270 --> 00:50:25.350 where they lived in Los Angeles, the status and occupation of at least Tomas 00:50:25.350 --> 00:50:30.600 and Juana, both were listed as, she was listed as a servant in 1836, he was 00:50:30.600 --> 00:50:37.130 listed as a servant in and she was in 1844 and Tomas was listed as a laborer- 00:50:37.130 --> 00:50:43.860 firm laborer- in 1860. Uh, location: the Rancheria de los Pipimares and the 00:50:43.860 --> 00:50:49.080 Rancheria de los Poblanos. They'd had been mentioned before but had not been 00:50:49.080 --> 00:50:54.750 pinpointed in any records, any published records, any scholarly records 00:50:54.750 --> 00:51:00.300 I should say, there is one newspaper account in 1894 Los Angeles Herald that 00:51:00.300 --> 00:51:04.950 helped to confirm the location of the Rancheria de los Pipimares at San 00:51:04.950 --> 00:51:11.940 Pedro and between 7th and 8th Streets. And of course we now know that Tomas 00:51:11.940 --> 00:51:17.490 at least was alive when the lone woman was in Santa Barbara but she died too 00:51:17.490 --> 00:51:22.910 soon for them to be able to locate him and she was not the last of her people, 00:51:22.910 --> 00:51:31.099 they had not all died out. This is of course a contemporary photograph Los 00:51:31.099 --> 00:51:38.089 Angeles Plaza Church, this is where Tomas, Juana, Maria Aleja, Maria Luciana and 00:51:38.089 --> 00:51:44.150 Estevan were baptized and this is also where Maria Magdalena was buried. She was 00:51:44.150 --> 00:51:49.849 likely buried to the left of the church, there was a South Side cemetery it's now 00:51:49.849 --> 00:51:55.220 a memorial garden and any of you can go and visit, pay your respects to Maria 00:51:55.220 --> 00:52:00.140 Magdalena and all the Indians, all the Island Indians, all the native peoples 00:52:00.140 --> 00:52:05.450 who came to Los Angeles to help to build the city. And I'd like to leave you with 00:52:05.450 --> 00:52:10.039 these names to the native people from the Los Angeles Plaza Church records. 00:52:10.039 --> 00:52:14.119 These are all Island Indians from San Clemente Island and Catalina Island 00:52:14.119 --> 00:52:19.490 as well as just the one from San Nicolas Island. Not all native names were 00:52:19.490 --> 00:52:25.760 recorded by the Spanish Padres but at least we have these names. We know the 00:52:25.760 --> 00:52:30.589 native people lost their land, they lost their life-way, their names were taken 00:52:30.589 --> 00:52:34.779 and replaced by Spanish names, but at least we can remember them and 00:52:34.779 --> 00:52:40.760 acknowledge that the descendants of more than 160 Island Indians baptized in Los 00:52:40.760 --> 00:52:53.820 Angeles are still with us today. Thank you very much. 00:52:53.820 --> 00:52:58.450 Now we have time for a quick question and answer period so we can take a few 00:52:58.450 --> 00:53:12.940 questions so we can begin that now. What does the name Peoras Nada mean? The schooner Peoras Nada 00:53:12.940 --> 00:53:19.480 it literally means 'better than nothing' it was kind of like they put the ship 00:53:19.480 --> 00:53:23.290 together with duct tape in it and you know really wasn't wasn't that well 00:53:23.290 --> 00:53:34.750 built but it it got out to the island and got back. Is there a relationship 00:53:34.750 --> 00:53:39.210 between the Nicolanos and the Chumash? 00:53:42.720 --> 00:53:49.359 Yes they both lived on the the Southern California coast but they had different 00:53:49.359 --> 00:53:57.160 languages, they had some similar customs, both had plank canoes but they were they 00:53:57.160 --> 00:54:02.170 were different linguistically and in other ways and of course the Chumash were 00:54:02.170 --> 00:54:05.530 living on the northern Channel Islands: San Miguel, Santa Rosa, 00:54:05.530 --> 00:54:12.400 Santa Cruz whereas the Nicolanos and the other- the Island Gabrielino were 00:54:12.400 --> 00:54:19.619 living on Catalina, San Clemente and San Nicolas. 00:54:24.640 --> 00:54:31.760 Just Peoras Nada means worse is nothing worse worst like it's the worst 00:54:31.760 --> 00:54:41.960 'worst is nothing'. We have time for one final question. Yeah you in your 00:54:41.960 --> 00:54:46.880 research you referred to the godparents over and over and at that time at that 00:54:46.880 --> 00:54:54.050 time and in the structure of the family and and and in the households what was 00:54:54.050 --> 00:55:00.950 the role of the importance of godparents and and and you know and as far as them 00:55:00.950 --> 00:55:09.020 being called godparents. Okay godparents from what I understand were to stand in 00:55:09.020 --> 00:55:15.520 for parents in case the parents were to pass. Godparents were to take care of 00:55:15.520 --> 00:55:20.840 their their godchild, to educate them, give them advice. We don't know what the the 00:55:20.840 --> 00:55:26.870 exact relationship was between the Nicolanos Indians and the jente terizon 00:55:26.870 --> 00:55:32.180 on the Mexican or American or European godparents but it was it was supposed to 00:55:32.180 --> 00:55:40.910 be respectful and and beneficial, particularly for the child. (indistinguishable murmuring) Uh not not 00:55:40.910 --> 00:55:47.870 not ostensibly exploitative but it could have been that way we just don't 00:55:47.870 --> 00:55:53.930 know in this case. All right well we would like to thank Susan Morris for 00:55:53.930 --> 00:55:57.879 today's lecture. 00:56:02.700 --> 00:56:04.760