“Cousins Matilda and Nancy were up tending Nancy’s two year old son Stephen Hitchcock, who was ill… they gathered up their children (George Spear, William Sykes, Andrew Hitchcock) and ran to hide on the west side of the island. After the militia left, they returned ... and found seven children. They gathered the children together, put them in the only remaining canoe and swam the canoe across the bay to Freshwater Creek and then walked to Matilda’s husbands homestead in Freshwater … later … soldiers found another child had survived under his dead mother. This child was Jerry James”. [Dept of the Interior Letter to Jan Silva, 13 March 1987; info given to dept by William James Sykes]The Blue Lake Rancheria is holding a 20th anniversary memorial and library rededication in Sylvia Daniels’ honor on Sunday at 11:30 a.m. The ceremony, at 428 Chartin Road in Blue Lake, is open to the public.