Tales of Subversion
How native peoples and some whites sabotaged federal efforts to kill a culture
Cover Story
Tales of Subversion
The school buildings were falling apart. Old and heavily worn, first in military service for Fort Gaston and then as the campus for the Hoopa Valley Indian Boarding School, they required enormous upkeep. That burden fell on the shoulders of Sherman Norton, a Hupa man hired in 1912 as a carpenter for the federal Indian…
Walmart, Jesus and Books Without Borders
Over the weekend, the Times-Standard broke the story that a new business is planning to move into the former Gottschalks location at the Bayshore Mall and that circumstantial evidence suggests it could be a Walmart, the big box mega-retailer that Eureka voters rejected a dozen years back.* Three days later, a South Carolina couple finds the…
Mason Jar Cocktails
“I hear you’ve got mojitos in there,” a friend said, looking down at my tote bag. We were in Blue Lake waiting in line for Mary Jane: The Musical. “Shhhh. Don’t say that so loud, or everybody will want one.” I had more than mojitos in my bag. I had three mason jars filled with…
Late Spring Poems
1. the grass is as tallas the horses’ …
Silent Reading
When [Ambrose] read, his eyes scanned the page and his voice was silent and his tongue was still. — Saint Augustine: Confessions, 397 CE The fact that a scholar like Augustine would express surprise on finding Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, reading silently tells us something about how readers approached books in the ancient world. For…
Hoping for a Splash
Editor:As a volunteer treasurer for the Scotia Swim Team, I am truly heartened to hear that such a plan is in the works (“The Deep End,” June 30). We do not have an Olympic-size pool in this area for teams to qualify for meets. In the last five years, we have lost many of our…
That Danged Ol’ Rodeo!
This week is why Fortuna was invented. ‘Tis once again that time of year, cowboys and cowgirls, to dust off your hat, shine your spurs and paint on your Wrangler’s for the 90th Annual Fortuna Rodeo, July 11-17, taking place mostly in Rohner Park’s rodeo grounds. Can I get a “Yee-haw?” Now, we at the…
Killin’ Time
Reviews HORRIBLE BOSSES. So why do I find myself at the latest dick flick? There are several possible answers. For one thing, my constant movie-going companion expressed some interest in the film when I said I was considering calling the Journal to beg off reviewing it. This was on Wednesday and when she discovered what the…
Mixed Messages
Last Friday the federal government ruled that marijuana has no accepted medical use and should remain classified as one of the most dangerous drugs in existence. It took the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency nearly nine years to reach this conclusion. Medical marijuana advocates had asked that cannabis be removed from the list of schedule one…
Life with the Folks
The Humboldt Folklife Festival begins a full week of folky and not-so-folky music events with the Annie and Mary Day Fiddle Festival Sunday afternoon in Blue Lake’s Perigot Park. What was once a fiddle contest of sorts shifted in years past into a showcase for fiddle students and a local band or two. This year…
The Case Files
As a longtime fan of the early ’80s rock outfit The Plimsouls, a band that delivered high-fueled power pop sprinkled with ’60s references, I was initially baffled by the frontman’s decision in 1983 to throw in the towel after only two terrific Plimsouls recordings. Instead, Peter Case returned to his folk-based roots. When T-Bone Burnett…
The Noble Fish Taco
There is no middle of the road with fish tacos. People who haven’t tried one furrow their collective brow at the idea. “Fish? In a taco?” Those who have tasted the truth revel in the delight that is the perfect fish taco. They tend to be gloriously dogmatic in their conviction that we should all…
Reggae on the River: The New Incarnation
It’s time. The Mateel crew is putting the finishing touches on Benbow Recreation Area, getting everything ready for this weekend’s 27th annual Reggae On The River. The Reggae War is finally over and no matter how you slice it, the Mateel came out on top. And as that chapter closes and a new one opens,…
2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America
In the ’70s, Albert Brooks helped pioneer a deconstructive style of stand-up comedy that permeates the culture today. In his early short films on the first season of Saturday Night Live he played a version of himself as a pompous, self-involved narcissist, a persona that was a clear precursor to the kind of comedy of…
Jersey Safari
Healthy families are all alike, but every dysfunctional family is dysfunctional in its own way. Which for playwrights from the Greeks to Eugene O’Neill onwards has been money in the bank. David Lindsay-Abaire studied playwriting at Julliard with Christopher Durang and Marsha (‘Night, Mother) Norman. He wrote the dysfunctional family of Kimberly Akimbo as if…
Still Protesting
Brian Willson’s red polyester biking shorts ended partway up his thighs, revealing knees covered in leopard-print fabric tubes. Below that, matching leopard-print sockets connected to the metal poles where his calves should have been. As Willson spoke, the setting sun shone through the windows of the Mateel Community Center in Redway, illuminating a small circle…
