The last hundred years of Catalina Island are well documented.
In two city museums.
On plaques, in hotels, along piers.
In the botanical garden, Wrigley Memorial.
William Wrigley, Jr. sailing the island into the twentieth century.
Making it a premier place for relaxation.
Filming movies.
Manufacturing tiles.
But eight thousand years before, the island drew inhabitants.
To fish, grow crops, trade, pray to their own deities.
Using plants to make houses, baskets.
Quarrying soapstone, bartering it.
Turning it into bowls, cooking planks, effigies.
Supplying it all across the southwest mainland.
The islanders, Pimuvit, thrived until the eighteenth century.
When the Spanish arrived.
Transmitting European diseases.
Transporting them to work at San Gabriel Mission.
Decimating the population.
Over time they disappeared.
Descendants few, traces tossed
into the jaws of history,
swallowed bit by bit, till lost.
Lynn Benjamin
March 29, 2024
