All aboard! The Madaket in Eureka, California is the oldest passenger carrying vessel in continuing service in the United States; and boasts the smallest licensed bar in California. A 75 minute cruise on the Madaket through Humboldt Bay tells a very sad history of the Wiyot Indians.
The Wiyots were believed to have lived on the sacred Tuluwat Village on Indian Island since 500 BC. In 1860, a dairy farmer purchased the island without the tribe’s consent. Three days later, residents from Eureka massacred the tribe pushing the Wiyots to the brink of extinction from homelessness, starvation and discouragement from practice of language and culture. The tribe had been in the process of holding a World Renewal ceremony when the massacre took place and never got a chance to finish the ceremony.
Today, there is an estimated 600 descendants of massacre survivors. In an act of contrition, Eureka bought back Indian Island and, in 2014, returned the land to its rightful owners with a formal apology for the massacre. Henceforth, a World Renewal ceremony, a celebratory “healing of the Earth”, is held on the island annually to commemorate the massacre.
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