Page "Aleut people" Paragraph 6

In 1811, in order to obtain more of the now commercially valuable otter pelts, a party of Aleut hunters traveled to the coastal island of San Nicolas, near the Alta California-Baja California border.

The locally resident Nicoleño nation sought a payment from the Aleut hunters for the large number of otters being killed in the area.

Disagreement arose, turning violent ; in the ensuing battle nearly all Nicoleño men were killed.

This, along with European diseases, so impacted the Nicoleños, that by 1853, only one living Nicoleña person remained.

( See Juana Maria, The Lone Woman of San Nicolasa, also known as Karana )