Island of the Blue Dolphins Characters

Karana is a female, environmentally-friendly version of great adventure heroes like Robinson Crusoe. She has some warlike tendencies of her culture (weapon-making, anyone?), but in the end, she's j...

Ramo is Karana's younger brother. When the white men come to the island to evacuate the natives, he returns to the village for his fishing spear and actually misses the boat. Always the caring olde...

Ulape is the girly sister of Karana. She's the one who notices the Aleut girl in the first group of hunters who visit the island. At the beginning of the book, she's Karana's best friend. She repre...

Rontu is the former pet of the Aleutian hunters. "He was a much larger dog than any of ours," Karana tells us, "which besides have short hair and brown eyes. I was sure that he was an Aleut dog" (1...

Tutok is the young Aleutian girl who becomes friends with Karana when the Russian hunters return to the island a second time. She's also the former owner of Rontu, as it turns out. The two girls me...

Chief Chowig is the father of Karana, Ulape, and Ramo, and the leader of the people of Ghalas-at. Chowig represents the male leadership (patriarchal order) of the village. He negotiates for his peo...

Captain Orlov is the leader of the Russian hunters who come to the Island of the Blue Dolphins to hunt for otters. He's a shifty guy who promises that he has come in peace, but in the end, he betra...

Karana saves an otter from the kelp bed in Chapter 23 after the Aleutian hunters leave. Instead of killing the otter as the Aleuts would have done, she heals him and names him Mon-a-nee. Their rela...

Kimki becomes chief of the village of Ghalas-at after the Aleuts kill Chief Chowig . He is a part of the village's patriarchal order (that means he is one of the male rulers of the village). He's o...

Nanko is the man who brings the news that the ship that has landed on the island is not the Aleuts'. Instead, the ship has come to bring the people of Ghalas-at to the mainland (woo!). In the book,...

Nanko is the man who brings the news that the ship that has landed on the island is not the Aleuts'. Rather, the ship has arrived to carry the people of Ghalas-at to the mainland (woo!). His role i...

Tainor and Lurai are the two birds Karana tames in Chapter 18. Tainor is male and named after a young man killed by the Aleuts. The female bird is named Lurai, a name Karana wishes she had been given.

Tumaiyowit and Mukat are the two quarreling gods who ruled the island at the beginning of the world. They're a part of the island's mythology. According to Karana, "Tumaiyowit wished people to die....