If you grew up with 20/30 Park, you’ll hardly recognize it now. What was once mostly a field of grass and concrete has been transformed into Da’Yas Park (Wiyot for “Where the Cypress Are,” named by public vote after the trees found in the park), a colorful wonderland complete with a giant heron slide, crab […]
Wiyot
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Signs of Soulatluk Revival
As you look out over the water along Eureka’s boardwalk at the foot of F Street, a small placard at your elbow might catch your eye, reading “DA’GURR, Known in English as Sea Otter,” above the illustration of a mustachioed specimen drifting on his back and waving a paw. Just a few inches below its […]
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Youth Housing, Ramen and a Newsroom Farewell
This week we’re looking at what the Wiyot Tribe is doing to help youth and seniors in need of housing as the Dishgamu Community Land Trust breaks ground on a new project. We’ve also got the details on Kokoro Ramen, recently opened in Old Town. And we’re saying a fond farewell to Thadeus Greenson, Journal […]
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‘Our Food is Our Medicine’
Marion Frye is cutting sea anemones, or sa’roh, gelatinous looking fists pulled from rocks at low tide. She’s let them rest a couple days in water so they won’t sting her hands. “Yeah, ‘horse’s ass,’” she says with a chuckle, explaining the nickname of the creatures whose flowery tendrils retract when touched. She cuts into […]
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Despite Coastal Commission Appeal, Schneider Mansion Demolition, Restoration Could be Complete by July
It’s been more than six months since the Humboldt County Planning Commission voted unanimously to approve the permits and permit modifications necessary for local developer Travis Schneider to tear down his partially constructed family mansion overlooking the Fay Slough Wildlife Area. The deal ratified by the commission in July would have seen Schneider avoid up […]
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Humboldt Bay Timeline
Humboldt Bay (Wigi, to the Wiyot people) is actually a lagoon, the largest protected large body of water between San Francisco and Puget Sound. It’s about 14 miles long and varies in width between a few hundred yards and 5 miles, with an area between 11 (low tide) and 24 (high tide) square miles. What […]
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The Island Yacht Club
Following the “shocking and revolting,” in Bret Harte’s words, massacre at the Wiyot village on the former Indian Island, now Tuluwat, in February of 1860, the few survivors were removed to, or sought refuge at, Fort Humboldt. They were subsequently relocated to the Smith River and Klamath reservations, while German immigrant Robert Gunther, then 29, […]
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Bongio Steps Down as PlanCo Chair, Commission Approves Letter of Apology to Tribes
Humboldt County Planning Commission Alan Bongio officially stepped down as the commission’s chair before last night’s meeting, at which he and fellow commissioners voted unanimously to send a letter of apology to three Wiyot area tribes stemming from his conduct at a meeting last month. Bongio did not speak at the meeting about stepping down […]
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The Tuluwat Island Massacre in its Time
Archeologists have determined that Wiyot people occupied Indian Island for at least 1,000 years — possibly much longer — including the village of Tuluwat, one of the several locations where the tribe held annual World Renewal ceremonies. During one of these ceremonies, the night of Feb. 26, 1860, Tuluwat was one of about a dozen […]
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NCJ Preview: Planning Commission Blow-up, Fair Food Throw-down
This week we’re looking into the conflict that began with a developer violating the terms of his land use permits and bubbled over at a Humboldt County Planning Commission meeting with accusations of lying, “offensive” comments and a damaged relationship between the commission and local Native tribes. Then we’ll swing over to the Humboldt County […]
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Wet and Wild on Woodley
Oh, how I love paddling on Humboldt Bay. When the tide is right, I might visit Indian Slough, where the narrow wandering passageways remind me of tiny lanes I’ve cycled in Wales, my husband Barry’s homeland. In spring, I spot nesting egrets clustered high in the cypresses and schools of sandpipers resting on the mud […]
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The Mystery of the Wiyot and Yurok Languages
Take a look at the accompanying map, which shows the extent of the so-called “Algic” superfamily of Indigenous languages. (Algic from Allegheny + Atlantic.) Most of these belong to the Algonquian family of about 30 languages, all descended from the Proto-Algonquian that was spoken about 3,000 years ago and whose speakers are now found from […]