continued from previous page Sherman Jr. Lopez is Wiyot, Hupa, Tolowa and Bear River. He was going to dance in the ceremony. “It’s going to be big,” he said. Sherman Jr, who was still on the fence about whether he’d dance, said he never did any of this cultural stuff with his elders. “Except my grandpa, Hanson Sherman, who made eel hooks in the back yard,” he said. “He was fullblooded Wiyot.”
Before white
IF YOU’RE GOING TO DANCE IN A CEREMONY, YOUR REGALIA MUST HAVE SOME KIND OF SHELL, SAYS MICHELLE HERNANDEZ, WHO WAS WORKING ON THIS NECKLACE ONE RECENT EVENING. SHELLS MAKE NOISE, WHICH THE WIYOT CALL SINGING. PHOTO BY HEIDI WALTERS
MICHELLE HERNANDEZ, LEFT, TEACHES NECKLACE-MAKING FOR CEREMONIAL DANCE REGALIA. HER SISTER JOYCE, RIGHT, IS HELPING MAKING REGALIA FOR THE WORLD RENEWAL CEREMONY AND ALSO GETTING STARTED ON REGALIA FOR HER COMING-OF-AGE CEREMONY IN TWO YEARS. PHOTO BY HEIDI WALTERS
settlers arrived, beginning in 1850, as many as 3,000 Wiyot people lived in about 20 villages sprinkled Valley and finally south to Round Valthroughout the Humboldt Bay region, ley. Many died. By 1910, there were only from the ocean to the front range of the about 100 full-blooded Wiyot left. coastal mountains and including the Mad Their confiscated land, meanwhile, and Eel River valleys. Their ancestral terwould endure more than a century of ritory was bounded on the north by the abuse. Indian Island, the center of the Little River (at Moonstone Beach), on the Wiyot world, was diked to drain the south by Bear River Ridge (which oversaltmarsh for agriculture. Later there were looks the Eel River Valley) and on the east lumber mills. At Tuluwat village, on the (inland) by Chalk Mountain in the south northeast tip of the island, a dry dock (near Carlotta) and Berry Summit in the boat-repair shop went in and, north (just past Blue Lake). for 120 years, deposited toxic There were (and are) numerous tribes chemicals and waste. Collecin the region. The Wiyot are related by tors seeking Wiyot bones and language (rooted in Algonquian) to the artifacts ravaged burial grounds, Yurok (north of Little River and along the digging holes in the 6-acre shell lower Klamath River), and their dances and ceremonies were similar to those of the Yurok, Karuk (along the upper Klamath), Hoopa Valley (along the Trinity River) and Tolowa (in present-day Del Norte County). They all were impacted by the settlers’ arrival, some more than others. The Chilula Tribe, for instance, ceased to be a tribe. And the Wiyot almost did, suffering deeply from the settlers’ concerted effort to exterminate indigenous people. Wiyot were shot randomly and slaughtered en mass throughout the territory. After the 1860 massacres, survivors were herded into Fort Humboldt, presumably for their protection. Then, according to Seidner, who is one of the last three-quarterblood Wiyot, the people were relocated to different territories and under hard conditions: to the ABOVE ROSIE AND BRIAN MEAD TAKE A BREAK North Spit, then north to Smith FROM EELING AT THE MOUTH OF THE EEL RIVER River, then east to the Hoopa ONE RECENT SATURDAY. PHOTO BY HEIDI WALTERS
12 NORTH COAST JOURNAL • THURSDAY, MARCH 20, 2014 • northcoastjournal.com
mound at Tuluwat that had built up over the thousand years Wiyot lived there. Today, there are around 620 Wiyot people. Some live as far away as Germany. Many still live in their ancestral home and are enrolled in the Table Bluff Wiyot Tribe, the Bear River Band of Rohnerville Rancheria nearby, the Blue Lake Rancheria and the Cher-Ae Heights Indian Community of the Trinidad Rancheria. There
MAKING DANCE FEATHERS: LIOBARDO LOPEZ (LEFT) AND TEACHER GEORGE BLAKE. PHOTO BY HEIDI WALTERS
are no fluent Wiyot speakers; the last one documented was Della Prince, who died in 1962, according to Wiyot Language Program Manager Lynnika Butler. “However,” said Butler, “in 1925, the linguist Gladys Reichard wrote that she was only able to find a few Wiyot speakers to interview, and that young people were not learning the language.” Reichard further reported that many
ABOVE A CROWD GATHERS NEAR THE MOUTH OF THE EEL RIVER TO HOOK EEL (PACIFIC LAMPREY). LEFT ROSIE MEAD CARVED THIS EEL HOOK OUT OF A PEPPERWOOD BRANCH SHE FOUND NEAR WEITCHPEC. A VINE HAD GROWN AROUND THE BRANCH, CREATING THE TWIRLED DESIGN. PHOTOS BY HEIDI WALTERS