Comment / By from Arcata/Eureka / Feb. 27, 2010, 1:17 p.m.

I heard this story when i was very young, from a neighbor born in Eureka in the 1870’s. She had picked up beads and baskets from the ground on Indian Island. She had walked about there as a young girl, and said they were “all just lying there, on the ground” many years after what had happened. She looked down and shook her head quietly when she said this, and said the killings were supposed to be because of raids in the hills by Indians, but like your story says, that they weren’t even the same tribe, and that the men from the island were mostly gone in a hunting party, and all the women and children were brutally killed. She told me the story, but people didn’t talk about it here then. “…a great bleakness of spirit settled over the land.” That was the feeling. There was a mournfulness here, on First and Second street, along the bay, in the abandoned Victorians and patches of woods.

Thanks for this, Mr. Rohde. Good job, you guys, it’s great how you keep telling the stories of all the people, not just from then, but about Native people now. It’s just if you don’t understand the Native people a little, and the ranchers, the dairymen, the millworkers and loggers, the fishermen, and also the labor movement, you might not really know Humboldt County as well as you could.

Comment / By patrick / Feb. 28, 2010, 9:47 p.m.

Very nicely done and well written and footnoted. Would comment that one point seemed purplish prose:”…it appears that a great bleakness of the spirit settled over the land.” It seems in many ways these massacres cleared the way for business as usual in ranching of the day. It is only in retrospect that we feel the bleakness?

Very interesting research and helps in some ways to ‘explain’ the inexplicable that have long bewildered. If there were only some way to bring these folks to justice, grew up near Larrabee Valley (the @#&^%@!). It seems far too late for a truth and reconciliation committee …

Comment / By Jay Capachi / March 2, 2010, 10:43 a.m.

Thank you for the valuable article. These shameful acts cannot be swept under the carpet.

Comment / By Jon B. McBride / March 3, 2010, 12:39 p.m.

I hope all this information and references are assembled in one place where the public and other interested people have access it!

Comment / By Coreen Wright / March 23, 2010, 1:05 a.m.

I’m a direct descendant of Capt. Semen Wright. I would like to see copies of your info and references, this is not the true story nor all the facts..share your info and I’ll share mine plus some photos thanks

Comment / By Coreen Wright / March 23, 2010, 1:05 a.m.

I’m a direct descendant of Capt. Semen Wright. I would like to see copies of your info and references, this is not the true story nor all the facts..share your info and I’ll share mine plus some photos thanks

Comment / By Gerri GrosVenor / March 28, 2010, 9:31 p.m.

I very thankful for this history to finally be opened up to the people of California. I come from the Wailaki People and the Nomlaki. There are horror stories of the US Army to exterminate the Wailaki. We are still here even though in 1890’s there were about 30,000 thousand California Indians left compared to the 300,000 in 1790. What happened to the Wiyot People shows the genocide of California Indians.

Sincerely, Gerri GrosVenor

Comment / By Irma / Aug. 12, 2010, 12:46 p.m.

I am sad to read the stories of all Native Americans, for the injustice that was done to their people. My heart is heavy, every time I read about what happened in different parts of the USA, to these Native people’s. I know that I am only one voice among million’s, but to all Native American Indians, I say–I am sorry for what has happened throughout history to your people. I am 1/16th Cherokee, from Western North Carolina, and I know what our people suffered on The Trail of Tear’s, along with the other different tribes that were run from their land.