Norberto was a shoemaker and saddlemaker who lived in Santa Barbara as an adult. He was born at Mission San Fernando to parents who were from rancherias, or villages, in the San Fernando Valley. According to J.P. Harrington’s Chumash consultant Fernando Librado, Norberto was the only person who could speak freely with the Lone Woman after her arrival in Santa Barbara in 1853. Norberto spoke Fernandeño, a dialect of the Gabrielino language.
DATE OF BIRTH: 1818
PLACE OF BIRTH: Mission San Fernando, Alta California, New Spain
DATE OF DEATH: 1855
PLACE OF BURIAL: Santa Barbara, California, USA
References
1852 California State census, Santa Barbara County, California, population schedule, Santa Barbara, p. 11 penned, line 40, Nolberto, digital image. Ancestry.com. (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed December 30, 2015), citing California State Library repository collection C144, roll 5.
Hudson, Travis. Breath of the Sun: Life in Early California as told by Chumash Indian, Fernando Librado to John P. Harrington. Banning: Malki Museum Press, 1980: 150.
Travis Hudson. “Recently Discovered Accounts Concerning the ‘Lone Woman’ of San Nicolas Island.” Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 3 (1981): 190, 194.
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: 1818
PLACE OF BIRTH: Mission San Fernando, Alta California, New Spain
DATE OF DEATH: 1855
PLACE OF BURIAL: Santa Barbara, California, USA
References
1852 California State census, Santa Barbara County, California, population schedule, Santa Barbara, p. 11 penned, line 40, Nolberto, digital image. Ancestry.com. (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed December 30, 2015), citing California State Library repository collection C144, roll 5.
Hudson, Travis. Breath of the Sun: Life in Early California as told by Chumash Indian, Fernando Librado to John P. Harrington. Banning: Malki Museum Press, 1980: 150.
Travis Hudson. “Recently Discovered Accounts Concerning the ‘Lone Woman’ of San Nicolas Island.” Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 3 (1981): 190, 194.
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