Summary
The story of modern-day North America begins with the systematic genocide and displacement of indigenous peoples. The social and ecological consequences of this founding trauma have become clearer over time, but so far relatively little has been done to address this at the federal, state, and provincial levels. In this episode, we zero in on two violently displaced tribes in California - the Wiyot and the Amah Mutsun - and tell the stories of their respective journeys to return to the spiritual centers of their worlds. Along the way, we ask a simple question: can the wrongs of the past be addressed, at least in part, by the return of stolen lands?
Show Notes
This episode features, in order of appearance: Ted Hernandez, Tribal Chair of the Wiyot Tribe; Michelle Vassel, Tribal Administrator for the Wiyot Tribe; Valentin Lopez, Tribal Chair of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band; Tim Nelson, Natural Resources Director for the Wiyot Tribe; Eddie Koch, Natural Resources Specialist for the Wiyot Tribe; and Ana María Ruiz, General Manager for the Midpeninsula Regional Open Spaces District.
If you want to help protect Amah Mutsun sacred sites, go to http://www.protectjuristac.org/. Learn more about the Tuluwat Project and the Wiyot Sacred Sites Fund at http://wiyot.us/tuluwat-project.
Special thanks to Nicole Jahraus for her wheels. Thanks also to Sarah Sax and Ilana Fonariov for their ears. Thanks to Kirsty Johnstone Munro Cameron for her voice.
Music for this episode was produced by kmathz, PORTBOU, and Sunfish Moon Light. The poem ‘The Sun Set Twice on the People That Day’ was written and performed by Brian D. Tripp.
This season of Future Ecologies is supported in part by the Vancouver Foundation. Learn more at https://vancouverfoundationsmallarts.ca/.
A lot of research goes into each episode of Future Ecologies, including great journalism from a variety of media outlets, and we like to cite our sources:
Cresswell, H. (2017, July 19). Eureka City Council approves agreement with Wiyot Tribe. Retrieved July 16, 2018, from http://www.times-standard.com/article/NJ/20170718/NEWS/170719813
EPA. (2018, March). Environmental Stewardship and Cultural Preservation on California’s Coast: The Tuluwat Village Site on Indian Island in Humboldt County, CA. Retrieved July 16, 2018, from https://semspub.epa.gov/work/HQ/100001200.pdf
Green, J. (2017, December 15). Mount Umunhum: Agency grants property rights to tribe. Retrieved July 16, 2018, from https://www.mercurynews.com/2017/12/13/mount-umunhum-agency-grants-property-rights-to-indian-tribe/
Papstein, B. (Host). (2017, July 31). Talkshop 0731130 - Rob Arkley [Radio series episode]. In Talkshop. Eureka, California: KINS. Retrieved July 16, 2018, from https://www.kins1063.com/talkshop-073117-rob-arkley/
Rohde, J. (2010, February 05). Genocide and Extortion. Retrieved July 16, 2018, from https://www.northcoastjournal.com/humboldt/genocide-and-extortion/Content?oid=2130748
This episode includes music from the Project Gutenberg Library. It also includes audio recorded by dmooney, dobroide, gadzooks, gezortenplotz, uzbazur, zabuhailo, ondrosik, sailor55, daroc, benjaminharveydesign, YLEArkisto, ChromeLibrarian, and RTB45, protected by Creative Commons attribution licenses, and accessed through the Freesound Project.
You can subscribe to and download Future Ecologies wherever you find podcasts - please share, rate, and review us. Our website is futureecologies.net. We’re also on Facebook, Instagram, iNaturalist, and Youtube. We’re an independent production, and you can support us on Patreon - our supporters have access to cool supporter-only mini-episodes and other perks.
Future Ecologies is recorded on the unceded territories of the Musqueam (xwməθkwəy̓əm) Squamish (Skwxwú7mesh), and Tsleil- Waututh (Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh) Nations - otherwise known as Vancouver, British Columbia.
Transcription
Mendel Skulski 00:00
Hey, just a heads up before we get started. This episode contains descriptions of violence.
[Audio montage of singing and news]
Adam Huggins 00:29
There are many places to begin a story. But for us here in North America, there's a single point, constellation of encounters, at which many stories end, many others begin. We can't move on until we give this point a cold, hard look.
Mendel Skulski 00:53
On February 26, 1860 in the middle of the night, a small group of settlers set out across Humboldt Bay towards Indian island where several hundred elders, women and children of the tribe were sleeping. They had just finished the first day of their annual 10 day world renewal ceremony.
Ted Hernandez 01:10
And you know, they- they knew not to do it when the men were here because the men did know how to fight. But they waited until the men were out gathering for the next day's ceremony. And they snuck across in canoes and waited until the women and the elders and the children were sleeping and pretty much clubbed them to death, stabbed them to death, beat them to death.
Female Voice 01:16
Quite instrument.
Ted Hernandez 01:33
Quiet Instrument where nobody on the other side of the bay can hear. And then in the morning, people were surprised because the bay was so red with individual's blood. And the gentleman who purchased the island, Gunther, supposedly didn't know what was going on. But you know, other stories says that he did know what was going on. The Wiyot wasn't a warring tribe. We weren't a fighting tribe, you know, we were a peaceful tribe. We got along with everybody. And we wanted to live besides everybody, well, you know, not with everybody, but you know... People saw more greed into it and one of the natural resources that we possessed. And the only way to get to our natural resources was to pretty much massacre us and get rid of us. And basically take what was ours for free and it was theirs to take. You know it's sometimes hard to talk about, but it's quite interesting when you hear younger generations talking about it, you know, it's getting the whole story out there and the truth out there.
Adam Huggins 02:45
It's a hard truth to look at.
Ted Hernandez 02:46
It is.
Adam Huggins 02:47
Yeah.
Ted Hernandez 02:47
You know, I can say, you know, some of my ancestor's blood was in this bay. You know, my friends ancestor's blood was in this bay. I heard stories, you know, that women swam across this bay- and that bay is pretty cold- with their children and with stab wounds on their side and they swam to the other side just to survive. Also I heard stories where they would hide underneath the dead bodies just to stay alive. And the one touching story is where they found the baby stuck to his mother's breast still suckling on it. And that was baby Albert. You know, that's how this whole story becomes a bond. You know, it's your little baby. But I also want to remember that there's other people that survived here that swam across that whole water just to save their children.
Adam Huggins 03:38
This was only one of several coordinated massacres that took place within a few days, about a mile south that same day 58 Wiyot were killed later that week, almost 80 Wiyot were killed on the South Fork of the Eel river than later at Eagle Prairie. Not a single man was brought to trial in the Gold Rush town of Eureka on the rugged northern coast of California.
Mendel Skulski 04:06
Eureka is still a bit of a frontier town. But as we'll see, a lot has changed there since the 1860s.
Adam Huggins 04:10
A small frontier outpost has grown into a small city of 27,000. It's still really isolated, out there on its own, surrounded by a seemingly endless sea of towering redwood forests and mountains. It's a port city, situated at the south end of a shallow Bay, with only small islands and sand dunes between it and the punishing weather of the Pacific Ocean. So yeah, it's changed a lot. Although some things really do stick around. Like irony, where people who have no sense for it.
Media Clip 04:42
[Rob Arkley] They want to give away Indian Island to the Wiyots. Well, I use Indian Island. I like it, my kids do. I see people there all the time when I'm over there. I don't get how they can take one of our assets and give it. So I'm going to be offering over the appraised value for the property. And if I get it, they're giving it away as surplus property. Well, that's fine. But at the same time, that's an asset that is gone from the public forever that we opt to make no commitment to allow us to use it. And the city's giving it away. What is this city council thinking?
Mendel Skulski 05:25
That was Rob Arkley, millionaire real estate magnate, CEO of security national Corporation, high profile right-wing political donor and Eureka resident. Thankfully, that's the last we're gonna hear from him, because most of the rest of the city of Eureka is on a whole other wavelength.
Adam Huggins 05:42
Now, you might be wondering why, as a podcast with the word ecology in it, we're kicking off our first season with a series of stories about the ways that Indigenous People on the Pacific coast of North America are starting to take control of their traditional territories once again. Here's the deal: once you start to examine how our ecosystems have changed (and are changing over time), where they are now, and what trajectory they might take in the future depending on what we do, perhaps the single most important thing that you will realize is that none of this is possible to understand without understanding the role that Indigenous people have played in shaping these ecosystems, which is something Western science is only recently woken up to.
Mendel Skulski 06:23
And the truth is: their track record is a lot better than the settlers who came afterwards.
Adam Huggins 06:27
So since this is also a podcast about design and where design and ecology intersect, we thought we'd explore one of the simplest possible solutions to a legacy of ecological and social problems that dates back centuries, when that might not work in all contexts, but sure is working in Eureka.
Mendel Skulski 06:44
Why not just give the land back.
Introduction voiceover 06:51
Broadcasting from Vancouver, British Columbia, on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Peoples, this is Future Ecologies. Where your hosts, Adam Huggins and Mendel Skulski, explore the future of human habitation on planet earth through ecology, design, and sound.
Mendel Skulski 07:31
We're going to return to the Wiyot. But before we do, we're going to head south to the land of tech Bros, John Steinbeck, artichokes, unnecessary software updates, and you guessed it, unseeded Indigenous territories.
Valentin Lopez 07:44
My name is Valentin Lopez and I'm the chairman of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band. Our tribe is comprised of the descendants of the Indigenous Peoples that were taken to missions San Juan Bautista and Santa Cruz.
Adam Huggins 07:56
Amah Mutsun territory extends from the fragrant Chaparral and Redwood Forests of the Santa Cruz Mountains in the north, down through the fertile Salinas River Valley to Pinnacles National Monument in the south. It's land I know well, having played in tide pools with my family around Monterey Bay when I was a kid. Beautiful, wild beaches, endless fields of strawberries, brussel sprouts, garlic, and lettuce, all surrounded by densely forested coastal mountains. And then of course, there's Silicon Valley right next door. The Amah Mutsun in themselves, however, don't live here anymore.
Valentin Lopez 08:30
Majority of our people no longer live in our traditional tribal territory. Growing up, I spent a lot of time during my first five years living in tents, and I lived along creeks and streams and rivers in the Gilroy, Hollister, Tres Pinos area. And it's hard to believe that in the 1950's people were still living in tents that way, our tribe was very isolated. We did not deal with the outside world. And another important factor there is that many of our members did not read or write. When they would sign their name, they would sign their name with an x and such. So, you know, when Silicon Valley in San Jose started to just really grow and develop, I mean, the orchards and fields that we worked in and stuff like that were being gobbled up and turned into factories and homes and housing and freeways, etc. And we were squeezed out of here because we didn't read or write. We didn't have the skills to survive in Silicon Valley. And our people were forced to move.
Mendel Skulski 09:44
Most of the Amah Mutsun now live in the heavily agricultural Central Valley of California. Several hours drive away.
Adam Huggins 09:51
Depending on traffic.
Mendel Skulski 09:52
But honestly, it's an incredible feat of resiliency, that they're still here at all.
Adam Huggins 09:56
Like many Indigenous Californians, the Amah Mutsun's troubles began late in the 1770s with the establishment of Spanish missions in their territory. I hope you can bear with us here for a minute, because this gets pretty dark.
Valentin Lopez 10:09
During the mission period... That was brutal times. The way they would capture the Indians to bring them to the mission is they would have the soldiers do an early morning raid on a village that had been scattered out beforehand. And then what they would do is they would target the women and capture the women. And then they would tie the women together thumb by thumb, and form a human chain. And once they captured all the women, they would start marching back. Once they started marching them back, they knew that the children would naturally follow their mothers and they knew that it was just a very short time after that, before the fathers and men would come in to be with their families. And that's how the Indians were taken to the missions. Then when they got to the mission, a lot of people think that the Indians were taken to the mission, you know, to save their soul, and to follow- and that we are evangelized in the name of Jesus and they're following the footsteps of Jesus- the missionaries and stuff like that. But if you look at the papal bulls of 1453 and the subsequent ones after that: the papal bull said that all Indigenous People that were not Christians were heathens, pagans, and savages; that we were the enemies of Christ; that we were to be put into perpetual slavery; that our property and our possessions were to be taken from us. And that's what happened. And that's what the missions were designed to do- to fulfill the directives of the papal bull. When the missions were closing, the last Padre Presidente in the California mission system, he wrote to his superiors in Mexico City and says, "We have to find a way to explain what we've done here.", he says, "All that we have done was baptize, administer a few sacraments, and bury the Indians.", He says, "There's no Indians left along the coast of California. We are going to be judged harshly and with scorn. We need to explain what happened here." And that's when the mission started. The Franciscans started developing the story that the Indians came to the mission voluntarily, that they came to find a better life that they came to learn agriculture, that they came to find God. And nothing could be further from the truth.
Mendel Skulski 12:43
But the decline of the missions in the early 1800's just brought new hardships, as California was partitioned into ranchos by the Mexican government, and then later annexed by the United States.
Valentin Lopez 12:53
That was followed by the Mexican period where we had the continuation of slavery, brutality, rape, etc. And that's followed by the American period.
Valentin Lopez 13:07
The American period was just horrific. And again, just genocide and massacres during that time, but it was state sponsored sanctions and massacres. The very first State of the Union by the very first governor of California, Peter J. Burnett, said that there will be a war of extermination against the California Indians that is to be expected. One of the very first treasury bonds passed by the state of California, was passed to pay for the extermination of California Indians. And with that money, they paid bounties normally 25 cents to $5 bounty for every dead Indian. They also paid for military excursions to go up into the hills where the gold was, and to kill the Indians to clear the land for all the white settlers who are moving in to state their claims up there.
Adam Huggins 13:59
It was In fact, a militia just like the ones Val is describing, that committed the Wiyot massacres on the North Coast in 1860. Afterwards, it appears that the men involved were actually attempting to secure payment for their service, or at the very least, extort it with the implied threat of further such massacres from the state government.
Valentin Lopez 14:18
And there was horrendous other laws passed as well, the legalized kidnapping of Indians, mostly children, and they were sold as slaves- into slavery. And there is a law of indentured servitude, which is slavery. And California Indians were indentured in California into the 1930's. So that's a brutal history. At the turn of the century, in 1900, over 96% of the Indigenous population, had been exterminated, had died. We believe the way our ancestors survived is whenever they came to collect their bounty money, or anything like that, our ancestors would say, you know, "don't insult us by calling us Indians, we're Mexicans. We speak Spanish" (that was taught to them at the missions). And they had Spanish surnames that were their slave names given to them by the missions: Sanchez, Moreno, Lopez.
Adam Huggins 15:21
Having grown up partly-
Mendel Skulski 15:23
Like you're only partly grown up?
Adam Huggins 15:24
No, like went to high school on the northern edge of Mutsun territory.
Mendel Skulski 15:27
Uh huh.
Adam Huggins 15:28
This is particularly difficult history to come to terms with. And it's worth sitting with for a minute. So we're going to take a quick break.
Mendel Skulski 15:36
What did you want to do in the break?
Adam Huggins 15:39
I'm just putting breaks in there.
[Soulful acoustic guitar]
Adam Huggins 15:42
So we have these two tribes in California: the Wiyot and the Amah Mutsun. They've both survived the genocides of the mission, Mexican and American periods, but are essentially in hiding late into the 20th century.
Valentin Lopez 15:54
In the year 2000 the tribal Elders came and asked me to run for chair. I was one of the few tribal members that went to college and they asked me to run for chair. And what they told me is that I need to, they would like me to start speaking up for our tribe to let the people know who we are, who our territory is, and that we are the ones that should be speaking for our lands. And then in 2006, the tribal lands elders, came to the tribal meeting, and told tribal council that our creation story tells us that creator put us here to take care of Mother Earth, and all living things, and that we must find a way to do that. And that was, that was incredible. You know, there are people who are in poverty, we have no land we have no... How are we going to take care of land that we don't own any land and stuff like that? And so we just started looking for opportunity.
Adam Huggins 16:49
This wasn't quite so simple as it might seem from the outset.
Valentin Lopez 16:52
Traditionally, our people did not look at themselves as owning the land. We had a responsibility to steward and to take care of the land. But ownership was- no one owns the land. And we still believe that today, you know, all these land ownership laws are just artificial. You know, the Creator owns the land and its Creator's land. And, you know, we're just- people who think otherwise are just fooling themselves.
Mendel Skulski 17:21
So instead of calling a realtor or a bank, they took a different approach.
Valentin Lopez 17:26
To help us fulfill our obligation as the Elders asked us to though, you know, what we did first is we started praying and asking Creators to show us the way, a path, so that we can get back on the path of our ancestors and fulfill our obligation to Creator. With that, you know, with our prayers and stuff like that we received a call from Pinnacles National Park and we got invited to come on in and become part of the park.
Mendel Skulski 17:55
Bingo.
Adam Huggins 17:58
So we're gonna leave Val for a moment at this fateful call and head north to Wiyot territory.
[Sound of birds and field recording]
Adam Huggins 18:15
Are you Michelle?
Michelle Vassel 18:16
Yes, Michelle.
Adam Huggins 18:17
It's nice to meet you,
Mendel Skulski 18:18
Mendel.
Michelle Vassel 18:19
Hi, Mendel.
Adam Huggins 18:19
I'm Adam.
Michelle Vassel 18:20
Hi, Adam.
Tim Nelson 18:20
Want to go first Michelle or Ted?
Michelle Vassel 18:23
I guess I'll go first. My name is Michelle Vassel. And I'm the Tribal Administrator currently, but I've worked for the tribe over the past 15 years in various capacities.
Ted Hernandez 18:36
I'm Ted Hernandez. Of course, I'm the Tribal Chair for the Wiyot tribe and the cultural director as well as a Ceremonial Leader for the tribe.
Tim Nelson 18:45
I'm Tim Nelson, Natural Resources Director. I've had the pleasure of working in every capacity within the Natural Resources Department from tech specialists and director been employed with the tribe for 11 years.
Eddie Koch 18:57
Well, I wasn't gonna talk but my name is Eddie Koch, I'm a Natural Resources Specialist with the Wiyot Tribe...
[Interview fades out]
Mendel Skulski 19:04
As you can hear, we met Michelle, Ted, Tim and Eddie out at the wharf in Eureka. It turns out that right around the year 2000, when Val became the chair for the Amah Mutsun, the Wiyot were making their own plans.
Michelle Vassel 19:16
The charge was Cheryl Seidner, who is our Tribal Chair at that time, and I think her sister Leona, too and they brought it to Council and said, "Hey, Council, there's this piece of land out here and we would really like to pursue going after it." And the council voted yes on it. And that meant that we had to do some fundraising. We did a lot of fundraising, and that involved everything from- in the early days it was taco sales, we did a lot of tabling, looking for donations, but we sold t-shirts, we sold sweatshirts, we sold watches and pins. Then we start having larger fundraisers. We did a number of art auctions, we had a lot of benefit concerts, which were really music festivals because we'd have a series of like four or five Native artists come. A lot of people put in for that and a lot of people donated a lot of people bought things a lot of people supported it in however way they could by volunteering at the taco sale, or donating flour or to make the tacos or something like that, you know, we had lots of help in a variety of ways.
Adam Huggins 20:31
Were you at the taco sale?
Michelle Vassel 20:39
Some people eat the tacos! They all have their various ways of participating eating the tacos, making the tacos.
Adam Huggins 20:51
With the money from these efforts the Wiyot were able to purchase the 1.5 acre village site on Indian Island, known as Tuluwat, the sight of the 1860 massacre.
Mendel Skulski 21:02
And when we came to visit, that's exactly where they took us.
[Field recording fades in]
Ted Hernandez 21:24
Welcome guys to Tuluwat this is our home. This is where we did our Jump Dance, our World Renewal Ceremony. It's brought balance to the earth.
Adam Huggins 21:35
The island is beautiful. It's right across a small channel from the city of Eureka, but it still feels really wild. It's mostly salt marsh surrounded by eelgrass and with only a few areas of raised land. The Old Village site is on one of these areas. Now, it's a nice open lawn, perfect for dancing with a painted shed and native plantings around struggling to establish the weather conditions can clearly be harsh. It's pretty much always cloudy every time I visit Eureka, and the few non-native cypresses that have managed to establish are windblown and rugged looking. All in all, though, it looks great.
Mendel Skulski 22:11
But when the we returned in 2000 after buying the land, the situation was completely different.
Tim Nelson 22:16
Where you are standing is kind of right where boats would be pulled in at low tides and then there were some way runners- or some metal rails- that went down into the mud flat. And right behind me used to be a diesel generator. They used to lower a cart on these metal way runners down into the mud flat. Boats would pull up and they would hook up to this cart and then the diesel generator would pull the boats back up onto the land. So it was a drydock facility from 1870 to about about 100 years, 1970, the Duff Drydock. Everything from wood preservatives to pesticides and this stuff to get the critters off the bottom of your boat, were applied to the bottom of these boats. And so this whole area was super contaminated. It was pentachlorophenol and dioxin were the main contaminants and when I heard recently that dioxin is just about as close to nuclear waste that you can get, as far as on the bad chemicals, that was just allowed to leach right into Humboldt Bay. And this was the hotspot of Humboldt Bay, the contaminant levels were off the charts. But then right over here, they actually had a metal foundry as well. And you had arsenic, copper, lead, that again, were also off the charts. The main retention wall that was being used was marine batteries that were holding back the soil from eroding; the sediment from eroding. And so all the all the marine batteries which were leaching lead and other nasty chemicals acids into Humboldt Bay...
Mendel Skulski 24:09
A retaining wall made of batteries.
[Lively archival music]
Tim Nelson 24:15
And so when the Tribe acquired this property in 2000, they also inherited the liability, the cost of cleaning all this up. And to the Tribe, it was, that wasn't anything. They wanted the land back and we were going to do the cleanup as well.
Adam Huggins 24:35
Tim and his crew had their work cut out for them. The reason Tuluwat sits kind of above the salt marsh is that it's actually on an enormous six acre shell midden.
Mendel Skulski 24:45
Which for those of you who haven't heard of them before, is essentially the aggregated remains of centuries of Wiyot life: oyster and clam shells, fish bones, ashes, detritus; generations of accumulated material that eventually forms stable, fertile land.
Michelle Vassel 24:59
The Island is Wiyot people, like it is made by and is a place very deeply connected to our people.
Adam Huggins 25:07
There are shell middens, or mounds, like this all along the Pacific coast. And we'll probably do an episode on them one day. But for now, the midden presented its own complexities like how to clean up the site without disturbing or damaging literally hundreds of years of Wiyot life and history.
Tim Nelson 25:23
In this spot here, because of the sensitive nature of the cleanup, we had to go about it without heavy equipment. We had to have, I believe it was eight, trained archaeologists HAZWOPER trained archaeologist to screen every shovel full of dirt that came out. It was approximately 23 cubic yards of material which equated to about 26 tons of soil. It actually was eighty-eight 55 gallon drums. And we did that for a week straight. And then once we had that we then had to bring in a barge which basically took the eighty-eight 55 gallon drums off and then we shipped them off to a facility I believe in Utah for incineration and disposal. We were then able to do in situ contamination removal which using an oxidation treatment called cool-ox, they were able to come in and essentially inject the soil with an oxidizer to neutralize the remaining 5% of the dioxin and pentachlorophenols. And then we had some monitoring wells that were installed. And once we got it to acceptable levels, then it was time to cap the site. And that's when our EPA folks came in and paid for the capping of the site and then brought in I believe it was 2500 tons of soil. And Coast Seafoods, a local oyster company, had worked with us to bring in some oyster shells because we wanted- we knew it was artificial soil, but they wanted to get that that feel of a midden. And so Coast Seafood donated tons and tons of oyster shells, crushed oyster shells, that were added into the soil. And then once we had that done, we came through and hydro seeded it with the natural seed mix.
Mendel Skulski 27:44
This project would take years, but as you can hear the Wiyot were great at forming partnerships and taking advantage of available funding and expertise, especially from the EPA. But in the early days when they were just getting started, they attracted the attention of a critical ally, the City of Eureka. In 2004 the city council voted, unanimously, to return the 40 acres of salt marsh surrounding the Tuluwat village site to the Wiyot
Michelle Vassel 28:07
I know of at least since the 70's talk between the Tribe and the City of Eureka about this island and transferring lands back. Wiyot People have been talking forever about coming back to the island. But I think once talk started happening with Eureka and people stopped being adversarial towards each other and looking at solving a problem and solving the issues that were here and, and returning Wiyot people to this place, that's where, I think, the real change happened. And that, like, a lot of that has to do with the candlelight vigils that we held for, you know, how many candlelight vigils did we have?
Ted Hernandez 28:42
Too many to count.
Michelle Vassel 28:43
Yeah, but those were, you know, the people of Eureka were coming to those so it wasn't just like the Wiyot people it was Wiyot People and the people of Eureka coming together at those vigils and saying, "Hey, we want to support this or we want to try to be back on the island." So I think it was all healing of the community and getting to know each other as neighbors.
Ted Hernandez 29:07
I think Michelle had it that key is the healing. The community came back and wanted to heal. And you know, they made their talks from the tribe and we got the album back with the help of the city. And that city was the first to ever give back sacred lands. And, you know, that's a big accomplishment for the community. It's all because people want to heal. I mean, there's so much going on in today's world, today's society, the healing process needs to be in it. And where else to begin the healing process? Right here in Wiyot center of the world right here, Tuluwat. This is where it begins.
[Phone dialing]
Adam Huggins 29:48
Speaking of where the world begins, when we left off with Val Lopez, he in the Amah Mutsun had just received a call from Pinnacles National Monument and they entered into a relationship with the park, helping to restore culturally sensitive areas with important plants for basketry as well as to help with the restoration of California condor populations.
Valentin Lopez 30:07
Other people started hearing of our relationship with Pinnacles and they started contacting us and inviting us to become part of that. And that included state parks, Bureau of Land Management...
Adam Huggins 30:20
New doors were opening, and they were thrilled to be caring for their territory again, at least on public lands, but the center of their world was still a long ways away.
Valentin Lopez 30:30
To understand our ancestors, you have to understand our creation story. Our creation story takes place at Mount Umunhum, which is on the tallest peak in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Our creation story tells us it created very specifically picked our people to live within our traditional tribal territory. And Creator gave us the responsibilities to take care of Mother Earth and all living things. That's a sacred covenant that our Tribe has with Creator,
Mendel Skulski 30:59
That covenant was returning the Amah Mutsun to their lands, but Mount Umunhum itself was inaccessible to them. The defunct facilities of the Cold War era Almaden Air Force Station set squarely on top of their sacred mountain.
Soundscape 31:12
Air force radar station, established in 1954. By Air Defense Command, precursor to NORAD it was intended to give early warning of an impending Soviet aerial attack.
Adam Huggins 31:21
What is it with Californians and building industrial facilities on sacred sites and then just leaving them to decay?
Mendel Skulski 31:27
Yeah, the parallels between these two stories were actually quite striking. Like what happened next.
Ana Ruiz 31:33
So I am Ana Ruiz, acting General Manager for the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District. Back in about 2009. We started to think about the opportunity to restore the mountain top we had acquired it in 1986. But there were a lot of issues with that, that mountain top. It was a site of a former Air Force Base, there were over 80 buildings on the mountain, and contamination issues as well related to Air Force bases. And during that work in our research, we knew that this was a site that was important to native cultures. And we knew that Umunhum itself the word comes from the root word for resting place of the hummingbird, which is Ohlone- comes from the Ohlone language. So we knew there was a deep connection there. And so during our research, we reached out and were able to make a really deep connection with the Amah Mutsun tribal band who have participated with us from the start in in planning the site along with many, many other stakeholders. They were one of many and we have forged really deep relationships with them.
Valentin Lopez 32:55
We got a call from Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District. They were going to be redesigning the mountain top as unobtrusively as they could. But they are also recognizing our tribe as a stakeholder, a long term stakeholder at Mount Umunhum. And they asked us to come on in so that we can talk about what our answers would be for Mount Umunhum. Before the meeting, we met at Tribal Council and we talked about it. And what we said is that Mount Umunhum has always been a place for prayer for our people, our ancestors, and it needed to be restored as a place for prayer. So we wanted access to the summit. And we wanted a area where we could pray to the north to the south to the east to the west, to help us ensure balance in our life.
Ana Ruiz 34:00
It was a very long process and it started in 2011. With the 3.2 million appropriation for the from the federal government, the Army Corps of Engineers came in and did the first phase of work, which was the abatement and remediation of the buildings. Once that was done, we came in and did the demolition work and removed all the buildings, except for the one notable building that can be seen from the valley, which is the radar tower.
Adam Huggins 34:38
Which is a monolithic rectangle that stands out on the mountain range. When I was in high school in the valley, it always kind of creeped me out. The kids would tell lots of strange stories about it, which I will not repeat here.
Ana Ruiz 34:49
When the military came in, you know, in order to be able to put all of these buildings on the mountaintop, they had to pretty much blaze the hilltop and so we were able to come in and bring back a lot of those soils to return the contours return the swales and help restore that mountain top. It was really important for us to bring in native plants to that location. And so we collected the seed and worked with partners to propagate those, and are now in the process of restoring the site with new seedlings over 2000 that we're going to be planting on the site. And that work has already begun and it will continue. And I think one of the interesting things for the public to be able to see is the gradual progression of those plants coming back to the hilltop and seeing the whole site revegetate and regenerate and restore.
Adam Huggins 35:48
And then of course, there's the prayer and ceremonial circle, which I got to see when I visited the site this past spring.
Valentin Lopez 35:54
They develop the spiritual circle-that rock wall is in circles. I can tell you that right there far exceeded our expectations, we thought we were going to get a little six foot by six foot ring, you know laid around and that was going to be at but they sure made up a wall that will allow people to recognize how important the spirituality is and to understand our spiritual practices.
Mendel Skulski 36:22
And then Midpen took it one step further, the Amah Mutsun had started their own Land Trust in 2012, to allow them to enter into formal agreements, not to own, but to steward the land.
Ana Ruiz 36:34
The more we worked with them, the more we realized, we share such strong values about, about land, about stewardship, about conservation. And so there were conversations that were had with them about whether this would be something that would be of interest, and then we brought the idea to our board as well. It just seemed like the right the right fit. And well you know, cultural conservation easements, they are in place. Well conservation easements in general are in place to protect conservation values of a particular property or a piece of land in perpetuity. And in this case, it's it's specifically for the cultural resources and the cultural values of the landscape. And so working with them on this cultural conservation easement has been an opportunity to ensure that those conservation values are protected in perpetuity. We as Midpen Open Space are here for the long term. You know, that is our goal is to stay here in perpetuity so it can protect these properties and these lands for generations to come. And that's the same philosophy for the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band.
Adam Huggins 37:54
This cultural conservation easement grants the Amah Mutsun permanent rights to help steward the mountain top for natural resource conservation, cultural relearning, and public education in partnership with Midpen. After centuries of abuse, Mount Umunhum and the Amah Mutsun have been returned to one another.
Valentin Lopez 38:13
We've experienced brutal attempts of colonization in three different eras. And in each of those eras they wanted to destroy and dominate, eliminate, exterminate our culture, our environment, our spirituality, our humanity. And they almost succeeded. So our people have not been at Mount Umunhum for well over 200 years. Before we did that, here's an important point. Is that our tribe, due to our history, our tribe lost a lot of it's indigenous knowledge. And that was an embarrassing thing to admit, because people would say, want to know, how do you say this in the mu two language? How do you say that? We didn't know, tell us, you know, tell us a bear story. Or tell us this story or that story- we didn't know. Or how did our people traditionally do this or that in our ceremonies? We lost a lot of that knowledge. And it was embarrassing to admit that. But then as we thought about it as a tribe, we realized that's not our fault. But that doesn't excuse us either- we have an obligation to relearn that knowledge so that we can get back on the pathway, continue the path of our ancestors.
Mendel Skulski 39:42
Back on Tuluwat on the North Coast, the Wiyot were facing a similar dilemma as they completed the physical restoration of the center of their world.
Ted Hernandez 39:50
And then when we started our ceremonies, you know, we lost our ceremonies when the massacre happened, even though we have Elders out still know us, but during the day through the boarding schools, they really don't talk about the stories because, you know, that's something that they still are afraid of being beat for. And you know, you can't talk your stories you can't tell you traditional dances, you can't speak your language that still traumatizes them. And it wasn't it wasn't for our sister tribes like the Yuroks and the Hupas to come in and help us bring back what we lost, you know, we wouldn't be here today. And I have to give credit to them because they helped bring back our dances. I must say if we got our feet settled in then they told us go with it and create what you create now, and we create our own now. So they gave us the protocols for it. You can't beat that. Where else would you get another tribe helping bring back another tribe his culture and his tradition? We're here today because of them.
Adam Huggins 40:53
With help from their fellow tribes in the region, the Wiyot finally able to dance their World Renewal Ceremony.
[Contemplative ambient music]
Ted Hernandez 41:00
Last time the World Renewal Ceremony was taken was in 1860- February 1860. And then we completed the ceremony because it was never completed in 1860. We completed that ceremony in 2014. So next year's ceremony will be a whole brand new ceremony. It is not a completion when there's a whole new ceremony started. We just had to complete that ceremony that our ancestors couldn't complete back then. Because when we started- when we got the young men together to do a ceremony we went up to the Botanical Gardens and that's where we had our first camp. And the next morning the boys woke up saying, Hey, this doesn't feel right. We don't- we're not supposed to be here. And me in a couple of hours said, So where we supposed to be? And they all say we're supposed to be on the island. And, you know, I call them as a resource. The time it was to say, hey, Stan, we need the boat. We're going out to the island. And for the next 10 days that's where we were- we're here. The boys they said it felt right and they started making their traditional stools here by hand. They were carving them by hand. They felt at home they felt at peace. And they were- they're comfortable here, not like at first camp. And to see them riding in the bay and the dugouts- because we have the traditional dugouts out here as well- for them to ride in the bay, you know, just going out in the dugout and paddling away. They said they felt like they're back in the early days. And they even said that while they were here that they felt some of the ancestors here with them. That is a tremendous feeling. And then they worked on renovating here. We worked on renovating that building, and when it rained, we all stayed in that building. And they were you know, we started getting drops in and then the young man got up the next day and they started patching up the tin on the roof. And you know, it was home to him for the next 10 days. So they started taking care of that. We start practicing our dances and doing the ceremony. And to see them do the actual moves was even more magical. It just came natural to them for them to do it because they haven't done it in so many years. You know, we had a Yurok Elder out here that was helping them with it. But it just came natural with the flow, the wind the way they moved. I mean, there are some that move like birds, hummingbirds and, you know, was an amazing feeling. And when the girls came over, that's where you felt it was connected. It was united. And to have the girls here and to dance and sing with us was the completion of it. The connection of it. To hear them dancing with their dresses and you know, the dresses, when they dance, they make music. They talk- the dresses talk. You can hear the music and just hear their dance with the men was, like, nothing you can think of. I mean, we've been to other dances, but that one dance just like puts peace in your heart and puts peaceful thoughts in your way. And that last dance that we do here. Creator made it possible so we can do the finishing last dance here. And once we can do that last dance it started pouring down rain. And so we understood that, okay, we were able to do that one last dancing completed here on that day. And so we were able to get everybody back to the other side while the men stayed here to make sure everything was taken care of. You know, we got our Elders and our women, our children back to the other side and when everyone was gone, we just sat down talking and said, "It's complete, we completed it."
Mendel Skulski 45:02
In March of 2014, the Wiyot completed a World Renewal Ceremony that had been left unfinished for over 150 years. In September of 2017, the Amah Mutsun held their first ceremony in over 200 years on Mount Umunhum. And that same month, the Eureka City Council voted unanimously to return the rest of Indian Island to the Wiyot.
Adam Huggins 45:25
There's a lot of soul searching going on right now in both the US and Canada, about how best to acknowledge and provide restitution for the mistakes of the past. But for many indigenous groups, returning to the land is at the heart of this process. And most settler communities have historically been unwilling to do what is asked of them- to return at least some of the land. Eureka and the Wiyot, Midpen and the Amah Mutsun, they prove that at least in some cases, it really can be that simple. Both groups show a sensitivity to how they might be perceived by the broader public.
Ana Ruiz 46:05
Wiyot people were displaced, like already we won't continue that practice. We're just looking to, you know, buy properties as they become available, restore the lands that we can get keep the island for public use and for ceremonial use and restore it to what it used to be.
Adam Huggins 46:24
And Val echoes this this.
Valentin Lopez 46:26
The only thing that we asked Midpen is it that be a place for prayer, not only for the Amah Mutsun, not only for the other tribes of their area, or California, but it'd be a place for prayer for all people. So, regardless of their background, or their religious beliefs or anything like that. That's a place for people to go so that they can have a quiet time to reflect and to pray and ask for healing, to ask for vision, to ask for help, to ask that the families or taking care of.
Ana Ruiz 46:59
Oh, it blows me away. Every time I go up there, it's breathtaking. And it really gives you a sense of place in the landscape. And that ability to kind of reflect who you are, where you are, and, and a sense of time and, and a connection to everything around you. And, you know, my hope is that as people come up, they're able to connect as well and, and also be able to understand who they are, where they come from, and that they're connected to every living thing on this planet.
Mendel Skulski 47:49
If you're still a bit fuzzy on the connection to ecology, you should go visit these places. Mount Umunhum is now open to the public year round, and that Wiyot, who just became the first tribe to receive given excellence in Site Reuse Award from the EPA still welcome the public to the lot. Although access is complicated by its remote location, both of these places were seriously trashed. And through collaboration between the tribes, government agencies, nonprofits and the community, they can once again support a human presence. Not to mention the wildlife.
Tim Nelson 48:19
This is Humboldt Bay Owls Clover, a rare plant species that we're hoping to- you can kind of see it all kind of coming back and some of the spartina tree, the treated areas, salt marsh restoration project. This Humboldt Bay Owls Clover is coming back so this is one of the main stopover points for Pacific flyway. So for Black Brant coming up and down the Pacific Flyway, that is a major stopover point and especially given the recent decline of eelgrass in some of the bays or across California. Our the eelgrass population here is so robust.
Adam Huggins 48:59
And of course, Humboldt Bay oysters are going to taste that much sweeter,
Mendel Skulski 49:04
or saltier,
Adam Huggins 49:05
depending on how you like it. And as for Mount Umunhum:
Ana Ruiz 49:08
It's home to an incredible array of serpentine thriving plants, which are unique and rare to our region. I love rocks. I'm a big rock hound and now my old collection here in my office and at home. Just like plants and animals, rocks also provide a story of the landscape. And what's occurred here for millennia.
Valentin Lopez 49:34
Ore answers to started taking care of Mother Earth and all living things. They develop bear clan, deer clan, fish clan, etc. And our ancestors were responsible for taking care of the habitat and the wildlife of their namesake. So they learned what foods they needed. You know, but we are hope in the future is that we can have enough funding to keep our stewards working full time, and working on the lands of the parks, of the open space district, of the land trust, and even private lands as well. That's what our people needed to do to take care of the lands and that's what we'll work on.
[Birds and acoustic theme song]
Adam Huggins 50:23
Returning land, whether through cultural conservation easements, or title and deed can have a huge social and ecological impact.
Mendel Skulski 50:31
It's a good place to start.
Adam Huggins 50:33
Where else but where the world began. And begins again. Thanks for listening to our very first full length episode of future ecologies. We'll be back in a few weeks. Please tell everybody that you know, subscribe, rate and review our show wherever podcasts can be found.
Mendel Skulski 50:54
In this episode, you heard Ted Hernandez, Michelle Vassal Valentin Lopez, Tim Nelson, Edie Koch, and Ana Ruiz.
Adam Huggins 51:04
This has been an independent production of Future Ecologies. Our first season is supported in part by the Vancouver Foundation. If you'd like to help us make the show, you can support us on Patreon at patreon.com/futureecologies. To say thanks, we'll be releasing exclusive mini episodes every other week.
Mendel Skulski 51:21
You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and naturalist. The handle is always Future Ecologies.
Adam Huggins 51:29
The Amah Mutsun are currently trying to prevent one of their sacred sites from being transformed into a gravel query. Find out more at protectyourstock.org, we'll include a link in the show notes
Mendel Skulski 51:39
Special thanks to Nicole Jahraus, Kirsty Cameron, Erica Terrance and Sarah Sax.
Adam Huggins 51:44
Music in this episode was produced by Sunfish Moonlight, kmathz, PORTBOU. You can find a full list of musical credits, show notes, and links on our website: futureecologies.net.
Mendel Skulski 51:55
The song you heard at the opening of the episode is part of a poem by Brian D. Tripp about the Wiyot massacre. It's called "The Sun Set Twice On The People That Day". Here it is in full:
Brian Tripp 53:06
[Speaking/Singing Mutsun]
Brian Tripp 53:39
Out on the island in the middle of the bay, the sun set twice on the people that day. The world they were making someone else was taking, saying Eureka. I found it, claiming it's mine to own. Out on the island in the middle of the bay, surrounded by greed that had come in planted it's seed, the sun set twice on the people that day. Then came muffled silence, sneaking up out of the dark. Something so evil. The dogs couldn't even bark. Not a word was spoken until the silence was broken. By the sound of dying and so much crying. It seemed like the end of the world. Out on the island in the middle of the bay, the sun set twice on the people that day. Fine lines, bloodlines spilled splashed and splattered bodies, broken, beaten, battered, faith, torn, tested, tattered, shattered to the core.
Brian Tripp 54:56
Not giving up breath, not giving any to death. Survivors scattered into their darkest night. Out on the island in the middle of the bay, the sun set twice on the people that day. We know it's not over. We know it's not done. We know for us, our fights just begun. Meanwhile, we must take time to regroup. We must take time and rest. Because we know daylight's coming and we have to give it our best. Out on the island in the middle of the bay, the sun set twice on the people that day. Then came cold morning, revealing light all brand new and shiny and bright. making promises of a brand new day with a brand new way for the island out in the middle of the bay.
Brian Tripp 56:06
[Speaking/Singing Mutsun]
Transcribed by https://otter.ai, and edited by Andrea Garcia Vasquez