Wiyot people have inhabited California’s northern shores for thousands of years. This area has long been renowned for its majestic redwood forests and thick salmon runs. Before the coming of white settlers, Wiyot people around Humboldt Bay and on Indian Island hunted the area’s wildlife, fished for salmon and gathered roots for medicine, food and basketry.

Indian Island is the center of the Wiyot world and a sacred place. Each year, Tuluwat Village on the island hosted the World Renewal Ceremony to ask the creator’s blessings for all people and the land for the coming year.

The brutal 1860 massacre of Indian Island’s inhabitants and visitors abruptly ended centuries of ceremonial dancing and celebration. Most of the men among the Wiyot celebrants had traveled to the mainland during the night in order to replenish supplies. As a result, mostly women, children, and elders were killed. Only one newborn child survived. Several other Wiyot village sites on the mainland were also attacked on that night. It is estimated that approximately 200 people were murdered.

Following the massacres, the vitality of our people suffered greatly. U.S. troops collected the surviving Wiyot people from other villages ranging between the Mad and Eel Rivers, confining them to the Klamath River Reservation. After a disastrous flood on the Klamath, our people were taken to the Smith River Reservation, and later to the Hoopa and Round Valley Reservations.

When we attempted to return to our homeland, we often found our homes destroyed and our land taken. But still we returned and found new places to live. We ceased to perform our ceremonies and speak our language, hoping to be spared from the anger and weapons of the settlers. Our culture was almost completely forgotten. Only in recent years have we begun to recover and rebuild our lost heritage.

Some of our remaining Wiyot people reside on 88 acres of land called Table Bluff Reservation, 16 miles south of the City of Eureka. Currently we have over 300 enrolled members who continue to struggle for the survival of our culture.