Launching Nigilax̂
A traditional vessel of the Unangan people touches water for the first time in centuries By Ruby Cayenne
Cover Story
Launching Nigilax̂
The air was wet with mist and the crashing waves created a rhythm as the traditional vessel of the Unangan people from Unalaska touched the waters of Sandy Cove. The vessel is a large open-skin boat called a nigilax̂ and was launched at the Alaska Native Day celebration in Metini, or Fort Ross in the…
Music Tonight: Friday, June 16
The Outer Space is hosting a triad of off-kilter “dark was the night, cold was the ground” noisemakers at 7 p.m. Come check out Setlist favs Blackplate as they share the stage with Vulture Feather and Monkey Business, both of whom have been given the thumbs up from this writer. This all-ages event has a…
Music Tonight: Thursday, June 15
Guitarist and composer Oryan Peterson-Jones is kicking off his June tour with a free evening at the Humboldt Bay Social Club at 6 p.m. If you’re in the mood for the goods — very well- played Americana, folk, world music and flamenco-style guitar — tonight’s the night, until he returns at the end of the…
Photos: Oyster Fest’s Return to the Plaza
The crowds, vendors and bands were back in their old stomping grounds for the Arcata Bay Oyster Festival. The official count of attendees hasn’t been released yet but by noon, the masses lining up for oysters and other festival eats resembled pre-pandemic crowds. Photographer Mark Larson was on the scene for the oyster calling and…
Music Tonight: Wednesday, June 14
Growing up, most of my favorite summer memories oscillated between being weird and wild out in the coastal woods of North-Central Humboldt, where I created a vast and often chaotic fantasy world with my friends, and going to the library, where I got the tools (for free) to feed the engines of that world. This…
After Nearly a Year Of Vandalism, Centro Del Pueblo Calls for City Council to Protect Arcata Sanctuary Garden
UPDATE: After publication of this article, APD released a statement responding to the attacks on El Jardin Santuario, which it has classified as hate crimes. APD requests anyone with information about the theft and series of hate crimes contact its Investigations Unit at (707) 822-2428 or its anonymous tip line at (707) 825-2588. Additionally, images…
Sheriff’s Office Investigating Fatal Shooting Near Swain’s Flat
The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a June 9 shooting at a residence on the 19100 block of Highway 36 near Swain’s Flat that left one dead. According to a news release, a 46-year-old man told investigators that when he went to check on his friend, identified as 51-year-old Rico Johnson, because he had…
Music Tonight: Monday, June 12
While many other venues are quieting down for the summer off-season, Savage Henry Comedy Club still has the goods, and Metal Mondays is still alive and kicking. Tonight’s offering at 7 p.m. trends toward the stoner metal/doom sound, with touring bands Gray Goo and Twin Void offering the former, while local(ish) Insomnia Syndrome offers the…
Music Tonight: Sunday, June 11
Local traveler and world musical encyclopedia Oryan Peterson-Jones is gearing up to hit the road this summer and he will be playing some farewell gigs on the way out of the gate toward foreign destinations. Today is one such gig, and even better, it’s free. Come to Humboldt Cider Co. at 3 p.m. to see…
BYO Cup to Oyster Fest
Shucks. The reusable and recyclable aluminum cups the Arcata Bay Oyster Festival planned to pour libations into have hit a snag. According to a press release from Arcata Main Street, “supply chain issues” mean the planned zero-waste event will have to use plastic. If you’ve got a non-glass pint cup or an aluminum one from…
Sunday in the Park with Wine
Uncork a picture-perfect Sunday in the park with friends at this year’s Art and Wine in the Park, happening Sunday, June 11, from noon to 6 p.m. at Rohner Park (free admission, $35 for commemorative glass, art ticket and 10 tasting tickets). Enjoy wine samples from Northern California wine makers, food, live music, an arts…
Music Tonight: Saturday, June 10
Oyster Fest is back in its vintage form, and there will be beaucoup happy daytime spoils for any and all comers to the Arcata Plaza, fingers crossed. If you are looking for an afterparty, well, that’s my beat. I suggest you head to the Miniplex at 9 p.m., where Black Humboldt is throwing a party.…
Indigenous Boats, Fish Stories and Oyster Fest Plans
This week we’re looking at the launch of an Alaskan Indigenous boat built here in Humboldt, as well as a story about how a fight for Native fishing rights grew into a major step toward Yurok sovereignty. Finally, we’re priming for Oyster Fest’s return to the Arcata Plaza. Hit subscribe for weekly updates on Humboldt…
California Ranchers Intentionally Violated an Emergency Water Order. Now Lawmakers Want to Triple the Fines
When ranchers violated an emergency order to stop pumping water from the drought-plagued Shasta River last year, state officials fined them $4,000, or roughly $50 each. Now California legislators are weighing a bill that would triple fines for such infractions — and could allow the penalty to climb higher than a million dollars. Authored by…
Celebrate Pride in Eureka on Saturday
Show your pride and support for the LGBTQIA2S+ community at Redwood Pride Summer Pride Celebration, happening Saturday, June 10 with multiple events in Eureka. The all-ages main event will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Jefferson Community Center, where you’ll find food, vendors, performers, a raffle, a silent auction, fun and strength in…
Music Tonight: Friday, June 9
With Oyster Fest looming on the horizon, it might seem premature to offer my trademarked “Show of the Week,” especially this early on, but here we are. The date is 6/9 and The Sturgeons have decided to celebrate one of the most egalitarian and mutually beneficial bedroom maneuvers with a show at the Jam (insert…
Oyster Fest this Saturday
Hey, shooting stars, follow your noses to the Arcata Plaza on Saturday, June 10 for the 33rd annual Arcata Bay Oyster Festival happening from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (free admission). Arcata’s biggest festival is a full day of (fingers crossed) sunshine, shucking, seafood and suds, plus music, revelry and long, long lines leading to…
Oyster Fest Hopes to Pack the Plaza Again
The last time revelers swarmed the Arcata Plaza for Oyster Fest was 2019, the pre-pandemic Before Times, when long lines, sunburn and a hangover were the looming fears. Following two years of virtual events and a ticketed in-person event in the Creamery District last June, the annual bivalve bacchanalia is set to take over the…
‘To Celebrate Our Sovereignty’
To hear former Yurok Tribe General Counsel Amy Cordalis tell it, her tribe’s path to reclaiming its full sovereignty and right to self-governance began with one woman’s simple desire for fish cheeks, a Yurok delicacy. Geneva Brooks Mattz loved to eat fish, Cordalis says, and the whole family’s way of life revolved around catching, preparing…
Lynn M. Jones Carves Out Her Niche
Looking through the window at Just My Type Letterpress Paperie’s new location on Second Street, you see a humming scene: a miniature letterpress, with delicate fair-trade Himalayan paper rosettes hanging above. Behind are displays of cards, prints and stickers. In keeping with the shop’s theme, it has an old-timey feel. Shops all over the country…
Bee Loud
June has arrived, which means summer is basically here. It certainly was for me last weekend but more on that later. Before industrial societies overtook the global paradigm, summer started when nature felt like it, which, for classical and middle period Europeans, usually meant sometime in May, and certainly well before the summer solstice. The…
Kinky Boots Walks Tall at FRT
The musical Kinky Boots, written by Harvey Fierstein (music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper), is about the journey of self-expression fraught with internal and external barriers. And, yes, it’s about boots. The 2005 British movie from which the musical is adapted is inspired by the real-life story of a declining family-owned shoe business that makes…
Wind Relents and Boats Get Back on the Water
It’s been a quiet week for offshore anglers along the North Coast. The wind and seas finally relented Wednesday, allowing the Eureka-based fleet of boats to get back on the water. It’s been a long time coming as most charter and private boats haven’t fished since early last week. And it looks like we have…
Nonbinary Runners Find Their Lane
Eureka local Madison MacGregor made a promise to themself to one day run in the Avenue of the Giants half Marathon again. It had been seven years and two hip surgeries since they last attempted the race. Following the lead of other major marathons, Avenue of the Giants hosted its first nonbinary category, and MacGregor…
You Hurt My Feelings ‘ White Lies
YOU HURT MY FEELINGS. Sometime in the future, a forensic anthropologist trying to understand human society in the year 2023 will wonder how it felt to identify as “bougie” in a world on the brink of collapse. How did people dance on the edge of that abyss? Did they really sublimate the pervasive sense of…
CA Taxpayers on the Hook
The Klamath River begins in Oregon, draining the eastern slope of the Cascade Mountains, and slices through the northwestern corner of California before flowing into the Pacific Ocean. The Colorado River begins in Colorado, at the Continental Divide in the Rocky Mountains, before meandering southwesterly and emptying into Mexico’s Sea of Cortez — if there’s…
‘Keep the Cars Out’
Editor: I rode my trike up to the Arcata Plaza to enjoy the Kinetic Sculpture Race and I even was able to take a lap around the course myself before the official race started (“The Road to Glory,” June 1). So refreshing to see creative art vehicles with no internal combustion engines parked in the…
I Am Concerned’
Editor: As a lifelong liberal, born in San Francisco and raised in California, I don’t fit the “right wing” characterization of those concerned about drag shows for kids that is expressed in the article “Drag For The Next Generation” (May 18). But I am concerned. I found the suggestion that I don’t know my own…
Multi-messenger Astronomy and Gold Rings
Astronomers glean information about distant objects from four types of energetic signals: electromagnetic radiation (such as visible light, radio waves and gamma waves); gravitational waves (subtle “ripples’ in spacetime, first detected in 2015); neutrinos (electrically neutral elementary particles having almost no mass); and cosmic rays (high energy particles, mostly protons, that, like neutrinos, travel at…
Empty Hours
No cat hair where you slept on the chair next to me. My milk glass – safe from your eager sips, or cereal stolen before I could sit down to eat. Or sitting on the window sill watching busy birds at the feeder, while you waited for me to scoop the last bite of breakfast…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): “Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves,” said psychologist Carl Jung. What was he implying? That we may sometimes engage in the same behavior that bothers us about others? And we should examine whether we are similarly annoying? That’s one possible explanation, and I…
