Indian (Duluwat) Island is located within Eureka, California on Humboldt Bay. Duluwat Island (original Wiyot name) was the site of the spiritual if not political center of the Wiyot people and is where an 1860 massacre of Wiyot Indians by European settlers took place. The site is a National Historic Landmark. Previously the island has also been known as Bloody Island or Gunther Island.
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Geography
The island is the largest of three islands located between the Samoa and Eureka Channels within Humboldt Bay and primarily consists of tidal marsh. Over time, human habitation on the island changed its topography, in part due to a process known as shell mounding, which increased the elevation of the island as the Wiyot continually placed shells remaining from subsistence fishery management in the same location over a period of centuries.[1]
History
Early history
The indigenous population of Wiyot people lived on Duluwat Island in a village called Tutulwat. The Wiyot lived on this island for long enough to alter the topography, by the accumulation of shell fragments midden, and the island became tall enough to be visible on the horizon from several miles away.[2] L. L. Loud's 1918 archaeological excavation of the island showed evidence of inhabitation since around 900 AD. Loud's description of salient artifacts, (projectile points, burial accompaniments, etc.) would later become known as the Gunther Pattern or Gunther Phase. The term is used to describe the final phase of native dominance lasting until historic times.[3]
1860 massacre
On February 26, 1860, about one hundred Wiyot men, women and children were massacred during a World Renewal Ceremony on February 26, 1860. The massacre was carried out by European immigrants who had settled in the area since 1850 as part of the California Gold Rush. The massacre was particularly grisly because the men who paddled over to the island only used hatchets, clubs and knives to murder their victims. They purposefully avoided using their guns so that local residents in the nearby town of Eureka (several hundred yards away across Humboldt Bay) could not hear the slaughter. Only one person, an infant named Jerry James, survived the event. The island was known as Bloody Island for a significant period of time because of the massacre.
European settlement
Robert Gunther acquired the island in 1860, the same year of the massacre, giving it it the name it had for much of recent history.[4] After nearby European settlement, the island was diked.[5] In the 1870s a shipyard repair facility was constructed. The shipyard operated until the 1980s.[6]
Modern era
The island was designated National Historic Landmark 67 (National Register Number 66000208) on July 19, 1964. In 1971 Caltrans built a series of bridges (known collectively as the Samoa Bridge), which cross Humboldt Bay and now directly connect the City of Eureka with the peninsula. Two of these bridges have footings in Indian Island. Every year, since 1992, the Wiyot people and supporters come to the island on the last Saturday in February to heal the community, and remember the human lives lost at the time of the Massacre. Every year participation has increased at the vigil on a nearby island. In June of 2004, 67 acres of land was repatriated back into Wiyot hands. The City of Eureka, California transferred the area towards the Wiyot's goal to see the Wiyot dance the World Renewal ceremony again on the island.[7] The City of Eureka and the Wiyot Tribe have installed temporary erosion control system to mitigate erosion on the site.[8] Contamination from the shipyard activities will need to be cleaned up prior to the development of a new Wiyot dance facility.[9]
See also
- Wiyot - the article on the Wiyot People
