The People of the Lost Coast
The Wiyot and Yurok are the westernmost people to speak an Algic language. Their languages, Wiyot and Yurok, are distantly related to the Algonquian languages. The Wiyot people's traditional homeland ranged from Mad River through Humboldt Bay (including the present cities of Eureka and Arcata) to the lower Eel River basin. Inland, their territory was heavily forested in ancient redwood. Their stretch of shoreland was mostly sandy, composed of dunes and tidal marsh.[4]
The Wiyots were among the last natives in California to encounter white settlers. Spanish missions extended only as far north as San Francisco Bay. Following a brief visit in 1806,[5] Russian fur traders, whose 18th-century invasion in search of the sea otter had devastated the Pomo, and they were uninterested in the area, which was not a sea-otter habitat. The way of life of the Wiyot people, after many centuries of isolated development, was forever changed, if not completely destroyed, as a result of settlement by Europeans. The Josiah Gregg exploring party spent the turn of the years 1849-1850 at Humboldt Bay; subsequent to their return to San Francisco several ships set out to settle the bay.[6] The crew of seafarer Douglass Ottinger became, in 1850, the first Americans to enter Humboldt Bay.[6] White settlement followed swiftly.
Fort Humboldt was established on January 30, 1853, by the Army as a buffer between Native Americans, gold-seekers and settlers under the command of Brevet Lieutenant Colonel Robert C. Buchanan of the U.S. 4th Infantry Regiment.[7] Among the miners, farmers, ranchers and loggers pouring into California, many settled at what is now Eureka. Relationships between the Indians and the outsiders became hostile, marked by raids and vigilante justice.
On February 26, 1860, the Wiyot experienced a massacre which devastated their numbers and has remained a pervasive part of their cultural heritage and identity.
Three days before the massacre, on Washington's birthday, a logging mill engineer from Germany named Robert Gunther bought property on "Indian Island".[9] The day before the massacre, 25 February, the Weekly Humboldt Times wrote: "The Indians are still killing stock of the settlers in the back country and will continue to do so until they are driven from that section, or exterminated"; meanwhile prominent local residents had already formed a vigilante committee to deal with the problem, and were sworn to never reveal their membership.[9]
For several days before the massacre, World Renewal ceremonies were being held at the village of Tuluwat,[10] on Indian Island[8]:220[11] less than a mile offshore from Eureka in Humboldt Bay. Up to 250 Wiyot participated in the ceremonies.[9] The leader of the Humboldt Bay Wiyots was Captain Jim. He organized and led the ceremony to start a new year.
A group of white men came to the island in the early morning after the last ceremony was completed and most of the Indian men had left the island, leaving only women and children. The whites were armed with hatchets, clubs and knives[8]:220 and had left their guns behind so the noise of the slaughter would be only screams rather than gunshots. This was not the only massacre that took place that night. Two other village sites were raided, on the Eel River and on the South Spit. Reports of the number of Wiyots killed that night vary from 80 to 200; they were mostly women and children, who were apart from the men conducting ceremonies. There was one survivor of the massacred group on Tutulwat, an infant named Jerry James.[12]
Gunther had been asleep on the mainland across Humboldt Bay from the Island and had woken up to what he thought were screams, but went back to sleep. The next morning he was awakened by the Justice of the Peace who went with Gunther to inspect the Island following reports that Indians had been killed. He was appalled by what he saw, recalling “ …what a sight presented itself to our eyes. Corpses lying all around, and all women and children, but two. Most of them had their skulls split. One old Indian, who looked to be a hundred years old, had his skull split, and still he sat there shivering”.[13] Gunther initially desired to bring the guilty to justice, but learned "We soon found that we had better keep our mouths shut."[9]
Three other attacks on Indian settlements took place within two days: at the South Spit (Eureka), at South Fork Eel River (Rohnerville), and at Eagle Prairie (Rio Dell). Gunther said, "It was never publicly known who did the killing, yet secretly the parties were pointed out."[9]
The 1860 massacre was well documented historically and was reported in San Francisco and New York by the young American writer Bret Harte. Harte was working as a printer's helper and assistant editor at a local newspaper at the time, and his boss was temporarily absent, leaving Harte in charge of the paper. Harte published a detailed account condemning the event, writing, "a more shocking and revolting spectacle never was exhibited to the eyes of a Christian and civilized people. Old women wrinkled and decrepit lay weltering in blood, their brains dashed out and dabbled with their long grey hair. Infants scarcely a span along, with their faces cloven with hatchets and their bodies ghastly with wounds."[14]
Major Gabriel J. Rains (sometimes spelled "Raines"), commander of Fort Humboldt, reported on the massacre to his superiors that "Captain Wright's Company [of vigilantes] held a meeting at Eel River and resolved to kill every peaceable Indian - man, woman, and child."[15] The vigilantes were also known as the "Humboldt Volunteers, Second Brigade," reported to have organized at Hydesville while the town called "Eel River" by Major Rains is now named Rohnerville.[16] Gaines reported that around five men had formed a volunteer squad to murder the sleeping women and children on the island. In his army reports, appalled at the massacres and at the openly discussed aims of the local white settlers to kill the Wiyot, he stated there were 55 killed at Indian Island, 40 on South Fork Eel River, and 35 at Eagle Prairie.[17] South Fork Eel River became Rohnerville and was later annexed by Fortuna; Eagle Prairie is now the site of the town of Rio Dell.[16][18]
Meanwhile, the Humboldt Times newspaper editorialized, "For the past four years we have advocated two—and only two—alternatives for ridding our country of Indians: either remove them to some reservation or kill them. The loss of life and destruction of property by the Indians for ten years past has not failed to convince every sensitive man that the two races cannot live together, and the recent desperate and bloody demonstrations on Indian Island and elsewhere is proof that the time has arrived that either the pale face or the savage must yield the ground."[19]
The Times apparently represented the mainstream opinion in the area at the time. An investigation failed to identify a single perpetrator, although those who did the killing were rumored to be well known. The grand jury summoned witnesses and held hearings, no one was indicted.[9] Harte was threatened and in danger of mob violence.[14] He quit his job and left Union in March 1860 by the steamer Columbia for San Francisco,[14] where an anonymous letter published in a city paper is attributed to him, describing widespread community approval of the massacre.
The Wiyot people were decimated. They were corralled at Fort Humboldt for protection. Survivors were herded mostly to Round Valley, established as an Indian reservation within California. They kept escaping and returning to their homeland.
By 1850, there were about 2000 Wiyot and Karok people living within this area. After 1860, there was an estimated 200 people left. By 1910 there were fewer than 100 full blood Wiyot people living within Wiyot territory. This rapid decline in population was from disease, slavery, target practice, protection, being herded from place to place (survivors' descendants describe this as "death marches"), and massacres.
Memorials have been held annually at Tuluwat village, on what is now known as Indian Island, since 1992; and a major cultural and environmental restoration project is underway there.[11]
Tuluwat Project
Indian Island was home to two ancient villages; Tuluwat (" Toulouwat ") and Etpidolh ("Etpidalh Watpuroulh "). At Tuluwat, Wiyot held the annual "world renewal ceremony", a dance lasting seven to ten days.
The ground beneath Tuluwat, the Wiyot 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.
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 became available and other sites 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, and with the help of the community and individual donors, the Wiyot Tribe was able to purchase back 1.5 acres of the historic village site of Tuluwat on Indian Island in 2001.
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 Island to the Wiyot Tribe. Indian Island will be protected from inappropriate development because all zoning and land use restrictions will be in place. In the return of the 60 acres that the City Council passed, there are measures that assure that this will remain the case by prohibiting a change in status or transfer to anyone else, except back to the City of Eureka.
We know of no other city in California that has taken an action as bold as this, and that has a tribute to its indigenous people so prominently in its midst. We wish to express our profound gratitude to the Eureka City Council, and staff, for their visionary and courageous action, and commitment to an enriched inclusive community.
The goal of the Tuluwat project is to restore the cultural heritage and ecological resources of the site and surrounding salt marsh, to construct a cultural center open to the public, and to restore the site to once again perform Tribal ceremonies there. But in order to realize these goals, the Tribe first had to clean up the site, which was the site of a ship repair facility from approximately 1870 to 1990. Tons of scattered metal, wood debris, and hazardous materials littered the area, along with several dilapidated structures and contaminated soil. The Tribe has been in the process of cleaning up the debris and pollutants left on the village site since its purchase. A vast majority of the metal and wood debris has been removed, all but three of the structures were demolished, and the most contaminated soil was excavated. The next steps are to finish the sheet piling for erosion control, rebuild the dock and bulkhead, and install a geotextile and soil cap over the site.
Indian Island Cultural and Environmental Restoration Project
The Natural Resources Department has spearheaded several ongoing restoration activities at the Wiyot village site of Tuluwat on Indian Island in Humboldt Bay. The overarching project, the Indian Island Cultural and Environmental Restoration Project (IICERP), is very complex because of the multiple cultural and environmental conditions that exist at the site: historic injustice, insensitive ecosystem and manipulation, archeological & cultural significance, environmental contamination, and physical isolation all play a part in the project execution.
The Natural Resources Department collaborates with the Wiyot Cultural Department and tribal community, along with a large number of state, federal, and local community agencies and consultants in the ongoing program of improving the environmental and cultural quality of the Tuluwat site. Specifically, the environmental department has acquired funding from the National Park Service Historic Preservation Fund, US EPA Brownfields Program, California Integrated Waste Management Board, the Center for Creative Land Recycling, the Lannan Foundation, California Cultural and Historical Endowmentand others to move the project forward.
These funds, as well as the Tribe's Sacred Sites fund, have allowed the Natural Resources Department to realize the removal of contaminated material, over 60 tons of scrap metal, and many tons of garbage; completion of a brownfields assessment and remediation plan; erosion control achieved through installation of 450 feet of composite sheetpiling backfilled with 300 cubic yards of imported fill; and native plant landscaping over portions of the site. Still ahead, of course, are brownfields project completion (including in-site contaminant remediation) and site re-development, as well as restoration of the salt marsh surrounding the Tuluwat site.
January 2009 Update on the Tuluwat Restoration Project
This fall saw the excavation of the most contaminated material, removal of the solid waste debris, and the demolition of all but three buildings. The only task that remains from that work is the removal of the drums containing the hazardous material. The results of the random sampling of the drums concerned our intended disposal facility, which required us to find a new disposal site. The new site is in Utah, through a company called Safe Harbors. Because of the delay, we requested and received an extension from the US EPA of the deadline for removal of the hazardous material. We are currently coordinating schedules with the barge operator, transfer facility (to unload from the barge onto the truck), and the disposal facility that will also ship the material. It looks as though the drums will be removed from the site in February, then loaded onto the truck for shipping.
The California Cultural and Historical Endowment grant agreement was finalized and signed on December 15, 2008. This grant will mostly pay for the drum removal/disposal, bulkhead restoration, sheet pile completion, and the beginning of the geotextile and soil cap. Unfortunately, the funds are frozen until after the California budget is finalized.
Brush is slowly being cleared from the developed portion of the site and the remaining small debris is being gathered in preparation for the installation of the cap and to control the spread of the more invasive plant species.
The Wiyots were among the last natives in California to encounter white settlers. Spanish missions extended only as far north as San Francisco Bay. Following a brief visit in 1806,[5] Russian fur traders, whose 18th-century invasion in search of the sea otter had devastated the Pomo, and they were uninterested in the area, which was not a sea-otter habitat. The way of life of the Wiyot people, after many centuries of isolated development, was forever changed, if not completely destroyed, as a result of settlement by Europeans. The Josiah Gregg exploring party spent the turn of the years 1849-1850 at Humboldt Bay; subsequent to their return to San Francisco several ships set out to settle the bay.[6] The crew of seafarer Douglass Ottinger became, in 1850, the first Americans to enter Humboldt Bay.[6] White settlement followed swiftly.
Fort Humboldt was established on January 30, 1853, by the Army as a buffer between Native Americans, gold-seekers and settlers under the command of Brevet Lieutenant Colonel Robert C. Buchanan of the U.S. 4th Infantry Regiment.[7] Among the miners, farmers, ranchers and loggers pouring into California, many settled at what is now Eureka. Relationships between the Indians and the outsiders became hostile, marked by raids and vigilante justice.
On February 26, 1860, the Wiyot experienced a massacre which devastated their numbers and has remained a pervasive part of their cultural heritage and identity.
Three days before the massacre, on Washington's birthday, a logging mill engineer from Germany named Robert Gunther bought property on "Indian Island".[9] The day before the massacre, 25 February, the Weekly Humboldt Times wrote: "The Indians are still killing stock of the settlers in the back country and will continue to do so until they are driven from that section, or exterminated"; meanwhile prominent local residents had already formed a vigilante committee to deal with the problem, and were sworn to never reveal their membership.[9]
For several days before the massacre, World Renewal ceremonies were being held at the village of Tuluwat,[10] on Indian Island[8]:220[11] less than a mile offshore from Eureka in Humboldt Bay. Up to 250 Wiyot participated in the ceremonies.[9] The leader of the Humboldt Bay Wiyots was Captain Jim. He organized and led the ceremony to start a new year.
A group of white men came to the island in the early morning after the last ceremony was completed and most of the Indian men had left the island, leaving only women and children. The whites were armed with hatchets, clubs and knives[8]:220 and had left their guns behind so the noise of the slaughter would be only screams rather than gunshots. This was not the only massacre that took place that night. Two other village sites were raided, on the Eel River and on the South Spit. Reports of the number of Wiyots killed that night vary from 80 to 200; they were mostly women and children, who were apart from the men conducting ceremonies. There was one survivor of the massacred group on Tutulwat, an infant named Jerry James.[12]
Gunther had been asleep on the mainland across Humboldt Bay from the Island and had woken up to what he thought were screams, but went back to sleep. The next morning he was awakened by the Justice of the Peace who went with Gunther to inspect the Island following reports that Indians had been killed. He was appalled by what he saw, recalling “ …what a sight presented itself to our eyes. Corpses lying all around, and all women and children, but two. Most of them had their skulls split. One old Indian, who looked to be a hundred years old, had his skull split, and still he sat there shivering”.[13] Gunther initially desired to bring the guilty to justice, but learned "We soon found that we had better keep our mouths shut."[9]
Three other attacks on Indian settlements took place within two days: at the South Spit (Eureka), at South Fork Eel River (Rohnerville), and at Eagle Prairie (Rio Dell). Gunther said, "It was never publicly known who did the killing, yet secretly the parties were pointed out."[9]
The 1860 massacre was well documented historically and was reported in San Francisco and New York by the young American writer Bret Harte. Harte was working as a printer's helper and assistant editor at a local newspaper at the time, and his boss was temporarily absent, leaving Harte in charge of the paper. Harte published a detailed account condemning the event, writing, "a more shocking and revolting spectacle never was exhibited to the eyes of a Christian and civilized people. Old women wrinkled and decrepit lay weltering in blood, their brains dashed out and dabbled with their long grey hair. Infants scarcely a span along, with their faces cloven with hatchets and their bodies ghastly with wounds."[14]
Major Gabriel J. Rains (sometimes spelled "Raines"), commander of Fort Humboldt, reported on the massacre to his superiors that "Captain Wright's Company [of vigilantes] held a meeting at Eel River and resolved to kill every peaceable Indian - man, woman, and child."[15] The vigilantes were also known as the "Humboldt Volunteers, Second Brigade," reported to have organized at Hydesville while the town called "Eel River" by Major Rains is now named Rohnerville.[16] Gaines reported that around five men had formed a volunteer squad to murder the sleeping women and children on the island. In his army reports, appalled at the massacres and at the openly discussed aims of the local white settlers to kill the Wiyot, he stated there were 55 killed at Indian Island, 40 on South Fork Eel River, and 35 at Eagle Prairie.[17] South Fork Eel River became Rohnerville and was later annexed by Fortuna; Eagle Prairie is now the site of the town of Rio Dell.[16][18]
Meanwhile, the Humboldt Times newspaper editorialized, "For the past four years we have advocated two—and only two—alternatives for ridding our country of Indians: either remove them to some reservation or kill them. The loss of life and destruction of property by the Indians for ten years past has not failed to convince every sensitive man that the two races cannot live together, and the recent desperate and bloody demonstrations on Indian Island and elsewhere is proof that the time has arrived that either the pale face or the savage must yield the ground."[19]
The Times apparently represented the mainstream opinion in the area at the time. An investigation failed to identify a single perpetrator, although those who did the killing were rumored to be well known. The grand jury summoned witnesses and held hearings, no one was indicted.[9] Harte was threatened and in danger of mob violence.[14] He quit his job and left Union in March 1860 by the steamer Columbia for San Francisco,[14] where an anonymous letter published in a city paper is attributed to him, describing widespread community approval of the massacre.
The Wiyot people were decimated. They were corralled at Fort Humboldt for protection. Survivors were herded mostly to Round Valley, established as an Indian reservation within California. They kept escaping and returning to their homeland.
By 1850, there were about 2000 Wiyot and Karok people living within this area. After 1860, there was an estimated 200 people left. By 1910 there were fewer than 100 full blood Wiyot people living within Wiyot territory. This rapid decline in population was from disease, slavery, target practice, protection, being herded from place to place (survivors' descendants describe this as "death marches"), and massacres.
Memorials have been held annually at Tuluwat village, on what is now known as Indian Island, since 1992; and a major cultural and environmental restoration project is underway there.[11]
Tuluwat Project
Indian Island was home to two ancient villages; Tuluwat (" Toulouwat ") and Etpidolh ("Etpidalh Watpuroulh "). At Tuluwat, Wiyot held the annual "world renewal ceremony", a dance lasting seven to ten days.
The ground beneath Tuluwat, the Wiyot 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.
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 became available and other sites 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, and with the help of the community and individual donors, the Wiyot Tribe was able to purchase back 1.5 acres of the historic village site of Tuluwat on Indian Island in 2001.
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 Island to the Wiyot Tribe. Indian Island will be protected from inappropriate development because all zoning and land use restrictions will be in place. In the return of the 60 acres that the City Council passed, there are measures that assure that this will remain the case by prohibiting a change in status or transfer to anyone else, except back to the City of Eureka.
We know of no other city in California that has taken an action as bold as this, and that has a tribute to its indigenous people so prominently in its midst. We wish to express our profound gratitude to the Eureka City Council, and staff, for their visionary and courageous action, and commitment to an enriched inclusive community.
The goal of the Tuluwat project is to restore the cultural heritage and ecological resources of the site and surrounding salt marsh, to construct a cultural center open to the public, and to restore the site to once again perform Tribal ceremonies there. But in order to realize these goals, the Tribe first had to clean up the site, which was the site of a ship repair facility from approximately 1870 to 1990. Tons of scattered metal, wood debris, and hazardous materials littered the area, along with several dilapidated structures and contaminated soil. The Tribe has been in the process of cleaning up the debris and pollutants left on the village site since its purchase. A vast majority of the metal and wood debris has been removed, all but three of the structures were demolished, and the most contaminated soil was excavated. The next steps are to finish the sheet piling for erosion control, rebuild the dock and bulkhead, and install a geotextile and soil cap over the site.
Indian Island Cultural and Environmental Restoration Project
The Natural Resources Department has spearheaded several ongoing restoration activities at the Wiyot village site of Tuluwat on Indian Island in Humboldt Bay. The overarching project, the Indian Island Cultural and Environmental Restoration Project (IICERP), is very complex because of the multiple cultural and environmental conditions that exist at the site: historic injustice, insensitive ecosystem and manipulation, archeological & cultural significance, environmental contamination, and physical isolation all play a part in the project execution.
The Natural Resources Department collaborates with the Wiyot Cultural Department and tribal community, along with a large number of state, federal, and local community agencies and consultants in the ongoing program of improving the environmental and cultural quality of the Tuluwat site. Specifically, the environmental department has acquired funding from the National Park Service Historic Preservation Fund, US EPA Brownfields Program, California Integrated Waste Management Board, the Center for Creative Land Recycling, the Lannan Foundation, California Cultural and Historical Endowmentand others to move the project forward.
These funds, as well as the Tribe's Sacred Sites fund, have allowed the Natural Resources Department to realize the removal of contaminated material, over 60 tons of scrap metal, and many tons of garbage; completion of a brownfields assessment and remediation plan; erosion control achieved through installation of 450 feet of composite sheetpiling backfilled with 300 cubic yards of imported fill; and native plant landscaping over portions of the site. Still ahead, of course, are brownfields project completion (including in-site contaminant remediation) and site re-development, as well as restoration of the salt marsh surrounding the Tuluwat site.
January 2009 Update on the Tuluwat Restoration Project
This fall saw the excavation of the most contaminated material, removal of the solid waste debris, and the demolition of all but three buildings. The only task that remains from that work is the removal of the drums containing the hazardous material. The results of the random sampling of the drums concerned our intended disposal facility, which required us to find a new disposal site. The new site is in Utah, through a company called Safe Harbors. Because of the delay, we requested and received an extension from the US EPA of the deadline for removal of the hazardous material. We are currently coordinating schedules with the barge operator, transfer facility (to unload from the barge onto the truck), and the disposal facility that will also ship the material. It looks as though the drums will be removed from the site in February, then loaded onto the truck for shipping.
The California Cultural and Historical Endowment grant agreement was finalized and signed on December 15, 2008. This grant will mostly pay for the drum removal/disposal, bulkhead restoration, sheet pile completion, and the beginning of the geotextile and soil cap. Unfortunately, the funds are frozen until after the California budget is finalized.
Brush is slowly being cleared from the developed portion of the site and the remaining small debris is being gathered in preparation for the installation of the cap and to control the spread of the more invasive plant species.