Dressed as a cormorant

I thought I knew everything there was to know about cormorants, having read extensively on their history, natural and cultural, their enormous geographical range, their semi-domestication as fishing assistants in Asia,  the hatred they inspire in anglers and fish-farmers, and the not inconsiderable literature concerning them. But I had missed the story of the woman who dressed in cormorant skins.

"Juana Maria"  (not her real name) spent 18 years as the sole resident of her native island of St Nicholas, a tiny fog-bound stretch of rock 60 miles off the coast of California. The rest of her dwindling tribe had been taken off the island in 1835 after sea-otter fishermen had almost wiped them out - only 20 were left of the former large population of people who lived on a maritime harvest of shellfish and seal blubber.

The woman left  behind had returned to the shore (possibly) to search for her baby -  only to discover it had been killed by wild dogs. She spent the next 18 years alone until in 1853 she was found living in apparent contentment "dressed in a gown made of bird skins. sleeveless and ankle-length, and tied at the waist. "
For shelter she used a cave or a hut made of whale bones and for food  took eggs from the nests of sea birds, foraged for shellfish and caught fish with bone hooks.  She made her clothes from cormorant skins sewn together with seal sinew and bone needles. In short she lived as her people had done for aeons.

When found she was healthy although her teeth were worn down to the gums. She was excited to have company and had much to say but she could not be understood - there was no one left who could speak her language. She was taken off the island and put into the care of a Catholic mission where she was baptised in the name Juana Maria. After only a month there she died of over-eating unfamiliar food, although more likely she fell victim to an infection to which she had no immunity. 

The cormorant skin dress was reportedly sent to the Vatican but no trace of it has ever been recorded there. Other relics were lost in the San Francisco earthquake disaster. More recently archaeologists believed they had discovered her cave but permission to excavate has been denied by tribal elders in the region who may or may not be related to Juana Maria's ancestors.

Now I can't help associating these mysterious birds with the solitary woman gazing out to sea in the reticulated plumage of her cormorant-skin dress. Alone for 18 years, yet unable to survive in the company she sought. Like most island people, and animals,  isolation is their only protection yet it renders them so vulnerable.

For more on this see here,  here, and here