The Wiyot Tribe is a federally recognized tribe of Wiyot people. They are the aboriginal people of Humboldt Bay, Mad River and lower Eel River. Other Wiyot people are enrolled in the Blue Lake Rancheria, Rohnerville Rancheria and Trinidad Rancherias. The Wiyot Tribe’s land base includes two Reservations Table Bluff Reservation and the Old Table Bluff Reservation are located 16 miles southwest of Eureka, California. The new Table Bluff Reservation is reservation is 88-acres large. The Old Table Bluff Reservation was established in 1908, when a church donated 20 acres of land to the Wiyot Tribe. The land was allotted to individuals. The Reservation was formally recognized by the government in 1981 and 102 acres was purchased for the tribe. The Reservation is located on Table Bluff in Humboldt County, California. It lies at an elevation of 236 feet (72 m). The land is also known as the “Old Reservation” for the Wiyot. As of the 2010 Census the population was 103.
Wiyot Tribe
1000 Wiyot Drive
Loleta, California 95551
Phone: 707-733-5055
Fax: 707-733-5601
Contact Us
Wiyot ancestral territory extended from Little River near Trinidad to Bear River Ridge near Scotia, and east to Berry Summit and Chalk Mountain. The region supported in a pre contact Wiyot population estimated at between 1500 and 2000. However this population declined to approximately 200 after 1860, the 100 by 1910, the result of disease, resource depletion, slavery, displacement, and genocide. The first recorded “discovery” of Humboldt Bay by Europeans was in 1806 by Captain Jonathan Winship. Sustained contact began in 1849 when Josiah Gregg journeyed overland to Humboldt Bay. His party of expolorers was met by Wiyot headman Ki-we-lat-tah on the day following their arrival at Humboldt Bay. According to L. K. Wood, Ki-we-lat-tah and his family rowed across the bay to greet the party of explorers, welcoming them with a feast of clams and providing them with “every means of comfort in his power.”
CONSTITUTION OF THE WIYOT TRIBE
Wiyot, southernmost of the Northwest Coast Indians of North America, who lived along the lower Mad River, Humboldt Bay, and lower Eel River of what is now California and spoke Wiyot, a Macro-Algonquian language. They were culturally and linguistically related to the Yurok and had some cultural elements typical of the California Indians to their immediate south. Traditional Wiyot settlements were located on streams or bays, fairly close to the ocean. The Wiyot rarely ventured onto the ocean for subsistence or for travel, preferring still water. Villages consisted of 4 to 12 plank houses; there were also scattered hamlets of one or two houses. In addition, there were men’s sweathouses, used for sleeping, working, and leisure as well as for regular sweat baths and purification. Before colonization the Wiyot were mainly fishers, catching salmon and other fish. They also collected mollusks, especially clams, and trapped land mammals. Houses and canoes were made of coast redwood. The Wiyot economy used dentalium shells, long obsidian knives, woodpecker scalps, and white deerskins as symbols of wealth. There were no formal chiefs or individuals vested with significant political authority, but wealthy men were influential as advisers. Disputes, and even murder, were settled by the payment of dentalium shells as blood money.
Wiyot Tribe Celebrates the Return of Coastal Land
The most vulnerable members of the Wiyot Tribe were asleep the morning of 26 February 1860, when a band of white men slipped into their northern California villages under darkness and slaughtered them. Many of the children, women and elderly slain in what became known as the Indian Island Massacre, had their eternal rest disturbed when their graves were dug up and their skeletons and the artifacts buried with them placed in a museum. After nearly 70 years of separation from their tribe, the remains of at least 20 of those believed to have been killed have been returned home. “They’re going to be at peace and at rest with our other ancestors,” Ted Hernandez, the Wiyot Tribe’s historic preservation officer, said this week after the repatriation was announced. “They’ll be able to reunite with their families.” The return is part of an effort by some institutions to do a better job complying with federal law that requires giving tribes back items looted from sacred burial sites.
The Wiyot Reclaim Their Land and Culture from a Dark Past
Wiyot Legends:
Collection of Wiyot Indian legends and folktales.
Wiyot Tribe
Official website of the Wiyot Tribe
Wiyot Indian Table Bluff Tribe and Community
News, events, and information about the Wiyot Tribe.
Wiyot Language
Information and language learning materials from the Wiyot Indian language.
Wiyot Facts for Kids
Questions and answers about Wiyot culture.
Wiyot Legends
Collection of Wiyot Indian legends and folktales.
Wiyot
Information and links about the Wiyot people from the Four Directions Institute.
The Wiyot
Curtis’ early 20th-century ethnography of the Wiyot Indians.
Indian Hairstyles
Wiyot and other California Indian clothes.
Wiyot Will Dance Again on Indian Island
The Wiyot tribe’s return to Indian Island.
Wiyot Tribal History
Brief history by a Wiyot tribal member.
Wiyot Massacre of 1860
Cheryl Seidner, chairperson of the Wiyot tribe, tells the story of her people’s massacre.
Wiyot Bibliography
Listing of off-line materials about the Wiyot Indians.
Pueblo Wiyot
Historia y lengua wiyot
Information about the Wiyot tribe in Spanish.
Wiyot Tribe
Wiyot Resources
Wiyot links.
Eureka returns an island to a tribe nearly 160 years after a massacre
THE HEALING WORK OF RETURNING STOLEN LANDS
THE WIYOT TRIBE REGAINED ITS SACRED ISLAND HOME AFTER DECADES OF UNRELENTING PRAYER AND RELATIONSHIP-BUILDING.
City of Eureka Transfers Island Back to Wiyot Tribe
Indigenous Peoples Literature 