HISTORY AND CULTURE
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.
Wiyot Leader,
Ki-we-lat-tah, circa 1882 by S.W. Shaw
Wiyot territory starts at Little River and continues down the coast to Bear River, then inland to the first set of mountains. Towns that are within the traditional Wiyot territory are McKinleyville, Blue Lake, Arcata, Eureka, Kneeland, Loleta, Fortuna, Ferndale, and Rohnerville. Rivers within this territory are Mad River (Batwat), Elk River, Eel River and the Van Duzen River.
Pre 1850, there were approximately 1500 to 2000 Wiyot people living within this area. After 1860 there were an estimated population of 200 people left. By 1910 there was an estimate of less than 100 full blood Wiyot people living within Wiyot territory. This rapid decline in population was due to disease, slavery, target practice, "protection," and being herded from place to place, and of course, massacres.
Wiyot Woman and Child, circa 1800s, Smithsonian Collection.
Indian Island is the center of the Wiyot People's world. It is home to the ancient village of Tuluwat, and a traditional site of the World Renewal Ceremony. Once a year, the Wiyot people would get together for the World Renewal Ceremony. During this ceremony, all people were welcomed, no one was turned away. The leader of the Humboldt Bay Wiyot People was a man named Captain Jim. He was the man who would organize and lead the ceremony to start the new year. The ceremony would continue for at least seven to ten days. It was held at the village site of Tuluwat on the northern part of the island. Traditionally, the men would leave the island and return the next day with the days supplies. The elders, women and children were left to rest on the island along with a few men.
1860 Massacre
Early on the cool winter morning of February 26, 1860, a group of settlers armed with hatchets, clubs and knives (they left their guns behind so that their presence on the Island would not be know to the nearby neighbors in Eureka) paddled to what is now known as Indian Island. There, sleeping Wiyot men, women and children, exhausted from a week of ceremonial dance were caught unaware and brutally slain.
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. This was not the only massacre that took place that night. Two other village sites were raided. One on the Eel River and another on the South Spit. Eighty to one hundred people or more were slain that night. A baby, Jerry James (Captain Jim's son), was the only infant that survived the massacre on the Island.
Only one newborn child survived the Massacre. That child was Jerry James (above, circa Sept. 1910), son of Captain Jim.
Indian Island Candlelight Vigil
An Indian Island Candlelight Vigil is held every February to remember those who lost their lives in the Massacre. The memorial was also set up to help heal the community. The first vigil was held on the last Saturday of February in 1992. A vigil has been held each year since that time. With each year, the number of participants has grown. The first year there were 75 participants; in 1996, there were more than 300 people. It is the intention of the Wiyot to hold the vigil at some point on Indian Island, which at the present time is inaccessible to the Tribe.
This Vigil may be the first memorial for the lives lost where the Wiyot, other Indian nations, and the non-Indian communities have come together. This process helps heal the whole community. A fire is lit. A Wiyot elder lights their candle from the fire and from that candle all candles are lighted. A moment of silence is observed, a prayer is given remembering all who have gone before us, songs are sung, poems are read, and one leaves with a feeling of accomplishment.
Photo: Left to Right, Leona Seidner Wilkinson, Marian L. Seidner, Loreta Brown, Cheryl A. Seidner. Candlelight Vigil on February 24th, 1996.
Listen to our Tribal Chairwoman, Cheryl Seidner,
talk about the meaning of the Annual Vigil via Video
Clips.
**Taken from the "Gale Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes, Vol.
IV"**
After the Massacre
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.
After the massacres of 1860 nearly all Wiyot people were removed from their homelands, but some returned. In the early 1900’s, a church group purchased 20 acres, in the Eel River estuary, for homeless Wiyot people. The Federal Government later transferred this land into trust status in 1908. This land became known as the Table Bluff Rancheria of Wiyot Indians, now referred to as “the old Reservation”.
Wiyot Tribe recovers from termination
In 1958, the Federal Government passed the California Rancheria Act that terminated the Tribe in 1961. In 1975, the Tribe filed suit against the Federal Government for unlawful termination, and in 1981, in Table Bluff Band of Indians v. Lujan (United States), it was determined the Tribe’s termination was unlawful and trust status was reinstated. In 1991, during another lawsuit regarding drinking water contamination and other sanitation issues on the old Reservation, the court mandated new land be purchased and the Tribe moved to another location. This location was approximately 1 mile away up on the bluff, and serves as the present Table Bluff Reservation. The original 20 acres were put into fee simple under the individual families, but deemed to be under the Tribe’s jurisdiction as long as held in Indian hands.
Some Wiyot people reside on 88 acres of land called Table Bluff Reservation, 16 miles south of the City of Eureka. Currently there are over 550 enrolled members who continue to struggle for the survival of our culture.
Read
Cheryl Seidner's interview regarding the history of the Wiyot people and
the Indian Island Massacre.
One hundred and forty years later the Wiyot Tribe is working to dance once more on Indian Island. Recently, the Tribe purchased a portion of the Island. There are plans to restore the cultural heritage and protect ecological resources. If you wish to help support this undertaking of reclaiming the village of Tuluwat for the Wiyot people, please visit our Wiyot Sacred Sites Fund web page.
Protection of a Sacred Burial Ground
The ground beneath Tuluwat village is an enormous clamshell mound
(or midden). This mound, measuring over six acres in size and estimated to
be over 1,000 years old, is an irreplaceable physical history of the Wiyot
way of life. Contained within it are remnants of meals, tools, and
ceremonies, as well as many burial sites.
At the end of the 19th century, settlers built dikes and channels on the island. These modifications changed tidal action along the shore, resulting in erosion of the edge of the mound. Between 1913 and 1985, an estimated 2000 cubic yards of the shell mound were lost to erosion, which continues and seems to even be accelerating. In addition, the shell mound was the site of uncontrolled digging in the early part of the 20th century. One amateur archeologist was said to have looted as many as 500 of our gravesites. In addition, structures of the Tuluwat village that were still visible in 1913 are now gone, having been destroyed or carried away by wind and waves.
It is imperative to prevent further destruction of the mound. The planned restoration will eliminate continued erosion and looting while creating and enhancing wildlife habitat.
Portions of Indian Island Returned to Tribe
As part of the survival of the Wiyot culture the Wiyot Tribe established the Wiyot Sacred Site Fund to purchase back portions of Indian Island as they become available and other site of religious and/or cultural significance for future generations and for those of today. The Wiyot people who have gone before us and those who are to come would like to invite you to contribute generously to the Wiyot Sacred Site Fund and help heal the past to make a dance for future generations to come.
Through grassroots fundraising with the help of the community and individual donors the Wiyot Tribe was able to purchase back 1.5 acres of Indian Island in 2001. Around 1870 a shipyard repair facility was built on the property now owned by the tribe. This shipyard repair facility operated until the 1980's. Creosote, solvents and other chemicals used to maintain ships remain. Dilapidated buildings and tons of scattered metal and wood debris still letter the area. Remains of dikes and drains built by settlers to control tidal flow across the island still impact the land the land, continuing to degrade valuable habitat. The Wiyot Tribe is in the process of cleaning up the debris and pollutants left on the village site. We are also exploring ways to restore the natural waterways of the area to allow the bay to interact more naturally with the tidal march area, increasing native plant and fish populations. The result will be a cleaner place for people surrounded by more productive and diverse habitats for wildlife.
The Eureka City Council made history
May 18, 2006 as they unanimously approved a resolution to return 60 acres,
comprising the northeastern tip, of Indian
Eureka City Council pictured with Wiyot Tribal leaders immediately following historic meeting.
Photo taken by Michelle Vassel.
We
know of no other city in
