She’d been struck down, and her body lay in a ditch, but the child still lived.

The handful of survivors included the baby found cradled in his mother’s arms. Women and children were killed when they lay asleep.” All the property belonging to the dead that was not taken was destroyed by burning. “These white men took all things such as beads, baskets, fur, hide, bows, and arrows. “You can hear a shot for miles, but you can’t hear anybody being clubbed to death.”Ī young woman named Jane Sam, who survived the massacre by hiding in a trash pile, later recounted the events of that night. “To my knowledge, they did not bring any guns because they didn’t want anybody to hear,” Seidner said.

Using hatchets and clubs, they massacred the sleeping Wiyot women, children and elders. They were white men - some of the settlers who’d flooded into Humboldt during the gold rush - who called themselves the Humboldt Cavalry. Meanwhile, Captain Jim and the rest of the Wiyot men climbed into dugouts and paddled through rough currents to the coast to gather food and supplies for the final ceremony the next day.īut once they’d left, another group of men arrived on the island. (Izzy Bloom/KQED)īy nightfall, the winter winds grew so strong that the women, children and elderly people at the ceremony hunkered down to spend the night. The island is the spiritual center of the Wiyot universe. Tuluwat Island in the middle of Humboldt Bay on July 11, 2023. The singing and dancing continued through sunset. “ is trying to bring balance to our world, which is out of balance.” “They would jump on the ground and shake the ground so the bad spirits would go away and leave the good spirits,” Seidner said. The baby’s father, a Wiyot leader known as Captain Jim, likely led the ceremony that day, starting with a dance to heal and balance out the world. Their skirts sang as the abalone and clam shells adorning them rattled together. They put on deer hides and headbands decorated with porcupine quills and eagle feathers. 25, the sixth day of the ceremony, Wiyot dancers woke up before sunrise.

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