A Chumash Indian from Santa Cruz Island, Aravio or Arabio (Talawiyashwit) reportedly explained the meaning of the words of the Lone Woman’s Toki Toki song to the Ventureño Chumash man Fernando Librado, an important consultant for J.P. Harrington. According to Harrington’s notes, Aravio traveled by tomol (plank canoe) from Santa Cruz Island to San Nicolas Island sometime before 1835, when the populations of both islands were removed to the mainland. Aravio, therefore, may have known some of the Nicoleño language. Aravio’s name derives from the Chumash pronunciation of his Spanish baptismal name.
DATE OF BIRTH: About 1782 (baptized as Braulio at Mission Santa Inés in 1816, age 34)
PLACE OF BIRTH: Santa Cruz Island (Limuw), Alta California, New Spain
DATE OF DEATH: 1864
PLACE OF BURIAL: Mission Santa Inés, California, USA
References
Hudson, Travis. “Recently Discovered Accounts Concerning the ‘Lone Woman’ of San Nicolas Island.” Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 3 (1981): 191.
Johnson, John R. “Ethnohistoric Reflections of Cruzeño Chumash Society,” in The Origins of a Pacific Coast Chiefdom: The Chumash of the Channel Islands, edited by Jeanne E. Arnold. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, 2002, p. 61.
Schwartz, Steven J., Susan L. Morris, John R. Johnson. The Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island: Her Story from Native American Sources. Presentation at the May 2018 meeting of the Santa Barbara County Archaeological Society, Santa Barbara, California.
DATE OF BIRTH: About 1782 (baptized as Braulio at Mission Santa Inés in 1816, age 34)
PLACE OF BIRTH: Santa Cruz Island (Limuw), Alta California, New Spain
DATE OF DEATH: 1864
PLACE OF BURIAL: Mission Santa Inés, California, USA
References
Hudson, Travis. “Recently Discovered Accounts Concerning the ‘Lone Woman’ of San Nicolas Island.” Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 3 (1981): 191.
Johnson, John R. “Ethnohistoric Reflections of Cruzeño Chumash Society,” in The Origins of a Pacific Coast Chiefdom: The Chumash of the Channel Islands, edited by Jeanne E. Arnold. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, 2002, p. 61.
Schwartz, Steven J., Susan L. Morris, John R. Johnson. The Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island: Her Story from Native American Sources. Presentation at the May 2018 meeting of the Santa Barbara County Archaeological Society, Santa Barbara, California.
Last updated: November 16, 2018