Andres Gonzalez- Duluwat Island. The home to the Wiyot people and the effects of the European shipyard.



    The Duluwat Island is a sacred home to the Wiyot people. Ceremonies are held at the burial grounds to celebrate the deceased. Not only is sacred due to the traditions of the Wiyot people, but the land is rich with nature such as plants, minerals, nutrients, and majestic redwood trees that tower over the island. Surrounding the island is Humboldt Bay, this bay has salmon that practically ask to be caught. Needless to say, the Wiyot people secured a fruitful island that also holds their meaningful cultural traditions. 

    In 1860 this land was savagely stolen by the gold-hungry European immigrants. A complete massacre. The immigrants murdered over 200 Wiyot men, women and children for this land. Absolute nonsense took place on this peaceful land due to their greed. Why would these European immigrants commit such an act for an island? Could they have possibly known something that others did not? The history of this land goes beyond their knowledge. They simply wanted to land to mine for gold. Furthermore, these immigrants built a shipyard on a shore and dug straight into the burial grounds of the Wiyot people. The shipyard caused erosion in the soil and had an overall negative effect to the land around it. 

    Not only was the shipyard detrimental to the land, but there is what the Wiyot people call a "clamshell mound," that held the burial sites and many other artifacts that were dear to the Wiyot people. The immigrants dug into this mound and created dikes and channels throughout this mound. This changed the tide of the water along the shore and also created erosion. The land was given back to the Wiyot people in 2019 and they immediately began to control the erosion so they can go back to their traditional way of life. 

Comments

  1. Gabriella ShefflerFebruary 9, 2021 at 3:57 PM

    I think this is a very interesting topic and a nice start to your research project. I can very clearly see the historical argument, that the land was wrongfully stolen and misused by European immigrants. You bring up some critical questions that will help with the historical aspect of your research such as the reasoning behind stealing the land. Although the historical argument is clear, I am having trouble identifying the environmental argument. There seems to be a disconnect between the historical side- the land being stolen, and the environmental side- the erosion that occured as a result of the misuse of land. In order to clarify the argument and connect the two, I believe it would be beneficial to focus less on the motives and actions of the European immigrants in stealing the land, and more so on the effects of the shipyard and what the wiyot people are doing today to combat this. Perhaps it would be helpful to explore the history of how the Wiyot people previously took care of the land, how the shipyard affected that environment, and how the Wiyot people are taking action to control erosion. I don't see a bibliography on here so I am unable to give feedback on your sources. However, I can give feedback for what sources you can look into. This first source is helpful in reviewing the history of duluwat island: O'Neill, C. J. “Glass Points of the California Indians.” Central States Archaeological Journal, vol. 55, no. 3, 2008, pp. 128–129. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43142849. Accessed 9 Feb. 2021. This next source is all about the Wiyot people and their relationship with the marine life protection act to preserve natural resources in the area: Berkey, Curtis G., and Scott W. Williams. “CALIFORNIA INDIAN TRIBES AND THE MARINE LIFE PROTECTION ACT: THE SEEDS OF A PARTNERSHIP TO PRESERVE NATURAL RESOURCES.” American Indian Law Review, vol. 43, no. 2, 2018, pp. 307–351. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/26789483. Accessed 9 Feb. 2021.

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  2. Michael GodwinFebruary 9, 2021 at 4:26 PM

    This topic looks really interesting and important to address. It seems like you are really interested and devoted to this topic and terrible, inhumane treatment of the Wiyot people by European immigrants. I think this topic has a clear, focused, and strong argument which will serve you well as you further develop your project and get into the sources. Also the ways that these European immigrants completely disrupted the natural resources and landscapes of the island definitely had a major effect on the environment, wildlife, and natural resources for the years that followed. This topic is also very historical as it focuses on a specific location within time and how a certain time period and people destroyed what seemed to be a peaceful and beautiful natural island and native people.

    It doesn't look like you provided any specific sources yet but I assume that you are working hard on finding some great sources. This topic might be more difficult than others to find historical sources since it is a topic that American history has historically ignored, but given how strong and focused your topic is and how it touches on many aspects of the environment, I think that finding sources can be done.

    I looked through JSTOR for possible sources and this is onen of the only ones I could find which mentions the massacre of the Wiyot people. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43142849?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchText=Duluwat+island&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3DDuluwat%2Bisland&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_aggregated%2Ftest&refreqid=fastly-default%3A4b32a8dbb4822773190f56da59834c66&seq=2#metadata_info_tab_contents

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  3. Hailey RoweFebruary 9, 2021 at 7:20 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. Hailey RoweFebruary 9, 2021 at 7:26 PM

    This is a very interesting topic you chose and I have personally never heard of this but it does remind me of how other lands were taken and there was a massacre after. I really like how you made the historical focus very clear and concise, you did a good job on focusing on one time period and how the people were affected as well as what happened in their community during this time. You have a direct idea of what you are looking into as well as the environmental aspect. The main environmental idea or focus that I got from this was the shipyard and how it had affected the land and how it will effect the future as well. Something really interesting I liked that you had put into the piece is that the shipyard became the burial site for many.

    I don't see any sources on here yet and I hope that search is going well, I found something you may be interested in. This article I found talks about how the Wiyot tribe had reclaimed sacred land in Humboldt Bay, the link is : https://activenorcal.com/wiyot-tribe-reclaims-sacred-indian-island-in-humboldt-bay/

    I hope this helps and Goodluck with your research!

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