San Miguel Island "Crookery

suggest that prehistoric man inhabited the Northern Channel Islands as long ago as 10,700 years (San Miguel Island). It has also been suggested that man may have occupied Santarosae as long ago as 30,000 years.

The Spanish era on the Northern Channel Islands began in 1542 with the voyage of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo. Reports from the expedition, recorded many years later, contain the first written mention of these islands, collectively called Islas San Lucas. This marked the beginning of recorded contact with island Indians. For the remainder of the 16th and all of the

17th century, less than a handful of expeditions are known to have left a record of visits to the Northern Channel Islands. It

was not until 1769 that the sea going portion of Portolas expedition was to claim the islands for the King of Spain under the Law of Indies. Twenty four years later (1793) the islands' names as we know them today were finalized by the English explorer Vancouver. The Indians who had occupied the islands throughout the Spanish era greatly decreased in number until the early 19th century when the last of them were removed to the mainland for "missionization." Sea otter

hunting around the islands began in the late 1700s and continued into the mid-1800s. Russians, Aleuts, Spanish, English, French and Portuguese all participated in the trade until the animals were hunted to extinction on the islands.

The Mexican era began in 1821 with Mexico's successful revolt against Spain, and ended with the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo when California passed to the United States. During the Mexican era, the two northern islands of Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa were granted by the Governor of Mexico to private individuals. Anacapa and San Miguel Islands were left ungranted to pass to the new American government. In 1850 California became a state, and thus began the American era which continues today.

Marla Daily September 14,1989

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