Last week on Facebook I came across a post from the Wiyot Tribe in which it tagged my friend Rachel Sundberg. The tribe was thanking her for helping members learn about cultural protocols, dance regalia and continuing ceremonial practices. The Wiyot children in the photos were happy and in one photo a young girl was […]
Wiyot
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Community Gathers to Mourn Slain HSU Student
Katauri Thompson, a member of Humboldt State University’s Brothers United and close friend of David Josiah Lawson, asked all of the club’s members to join him on stage during a Thursday vigil for the slain 19 year old. Fighting back tears and holding one another, the group made their way up from the second row […]
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Bolman to Sue HSU
Jacquelyn Bolman, former director of Humboldt State University’s Indian Natural Resources Science and Engineering Program, has filed suit against the university in Humboldt Superior Court, according to an article in Indian Country Today. Bolman alleges that her free speech, right to due process and civil rights were violated after she was fired in October 2014. […]
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Controversial Place Names in Humboldt County
Last week we ran a story which dipped briefly into the history of Larabee Creek — named for a participant in the Indian Island massacre. Local historian, author and Journal contributor Jerry Rohde was inspired to send us a list of other places in Humboldt County with ignominious eponymy. Below are the results of his search. […]
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Racism Behind the Redwood Curtain Part III: Sorry, Not Sorry
Although Confederate flags do appear on the occasional barn wall, truck bumper or window, Humboldt County had no real role in the Southern cause. But the War of the States did have a marked effect on the Redwood Coast, according to Humboldt State University history professor Thomas Mays. “During the war, Humboldt was like a […]
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#Buhneisback
If your pooch falls ill after devouring a bowl of imported chicken strips, don’t go blaming North Coast State Sen. Noreen Evans (D-Santa Rosa). A bid to allow “negligible” amounts of China-sourced chicken to grace Fido’s chompers recently suffered committee crib-death under Evans’s cold, unblinking gaze. “I’ve spent a lot of time researching this,” Evans […]
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Respect, Please
Beginning tomorrow, the Wiyot Tribe will hold its first World Renewal Ceremony in 154 years. And the tribe is asking for the public’s respect: “While it is customary not to turn away anyone who wishes to participate with an open heart, free of anger toward anyone, we ask that the community respect the sacredness of […]
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Renewal
The clear winter sky deepens as night creeps upon Woodley Island, that marina-festooned dab of land in Humboldt Bay closest to Eureka’s mainland. The calm water, catching the last light, grows stripes of gold, blue and orange. Against distant spits the ocean thrums. A pair of Canada geese honks by, a gull swoops with a […]
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As Wiyot Prepare to Dance Again, Eureka Fumbles With Contrition
On the cusp of the Wiyot Tribe’s first World Renewal Ceremony since the last one, in February 1860, was cut short after white settlers massacred as many as 100 tribe members as they slept on Indian Island, the City of Eureka has voted to send the tribe an official letter of … well, it started […]
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Wiyot Casino Haul In Jeopardy
Opponents to off-reservation casinos submitted enough signatures yesterday to qualify their initiative for the 2014 ballot — and if they succeed in their mission, our very own Wiyot Tribe will be out some significant winnings. “Keep Vegas-Style Casinos Out of Neighborhoods, a project of Stand Up for California,” wants specifically to stop a 200-room, 2,000-slot […]
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‘Let’s Have Intercourse’ – An Etymological Mystery
In this week’s cover story on the not-so-sleepy town of Loleta, Heidi Walters recalls the town’s late-19th century days as a railroad depot known as Swauger’s Station. “The townspeople,” reports Walters, “changed the name in 1897 to Loleta — a Wiyot term, lo-le-tah, meaning “pleasant place at the end of the water.” Ah, how sweet and […]
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The Light on the Bluff
The young man stands at the edge of Table Bluff, gazing west into one of the greatest of romances: Rumpled ocean kissing moody sky, wind-embraced, fog-enswirled, sun–glinted. His head, too, is aswirl, with passionate thought. Beside him is a giant cross. Behind, beyond the path he has just wandered, are decrepit white-washed buildings, a […]