#wiyot

“With five words, it became official — Duluwat Island is being returned to the Wiyot people, for whom it is the physical and cultural center of the universe, a sacred piece of land with the power to bring balance to all else. “Unanimous yes vote. Motion carries,” said Eureka City Clerk Pam Powell, drawing a standing ovation from the hundreds of people who had filled the Adorni Center this morning to watch the city take the unprecedented step of returning 200 acres of land stolen generations ago to the Wiyot Tribe, which has called the North Coast home since time immemorial. 

This morning’s vote, which was years in the making and captured international headlines, paved the way for, about 90 minutes later, Eureka Mayor Susan Seaman and Wiyot Tribal Chair Ted Hernandez signing a deed of trust, formally transferring ownership of the largest island in Humboldt Bay. The emotional ceremony saw multiple generations of local residents gathered in the Adorni Center to witness the historic vote, many wiping tears from their eyes.”

Monday Motivation Owl

Today we bring you a tale of two kinds of motivation: the selfish kind, and the kind that acts for the benefit of the community, from The Girl Who Helped Thunder and Other Native American Folktales as retold by the prolific Abenaki writer, editor, and folklorist Joseph Bruchac and his son James Bruchac, with illustrations by the Italian-American artist and illustrator Stefano Vitale. The book, part of our Native American Literature Collection, was published in 2008 by Sterling Publishing Co. 

The tale, “Why Owl Lives Away from the People,” is a story from the Wiyot, a Northern California people. It concerns a family of starving owls. No matter how often father owl would go out in search of food, he always returned empty-handed (so to speak). Mother owl noticed two suspicious things, however. While the family starved, her husband seemed to get fatter and fatter. Also, when she woke each morning she had little burns on her legs.

One evening mother pretended to sleep. Father owl called to her, but she kept her eyes closed. He pulled a stick from the fire and touched it to her leg to see if she would start, but she did not. Confident the she was in a deep sleep, father owl devoured some of the food he had hidden only for himself, but mother spied it all. The next day, while father was out hunting, mother fed herself and all her children from the hidden cache. When father returned again with no food, mother confronted him with the evidence of his selfishness. He became greatly ashamed. “Go away,” Owl’s wife said. “Go and live in the dark away from the people. Go now and do not come back.”

Owl went outside, spread his arms, and flew off into the darkness. Just as his wife told him to do, he stays away from the people. He is still ashamed of the way he behaved long ago. Sometimes at night you can hear him far off in the distance. “Oooh,” he calls, “Oooh. I am soooo ashamed.”