(singing in foreign language) - [DR.Cheryl] If it were not for that baby found on the island, we, today, as we know ourselves, wouldn't be here.

- When the whites first came into Humboldt County, in 1850, California wasn't even a state yet.

That happened later in the year.

There was no infrastructure up here.

There was no law enforcement.

You had people coming up here who took advantage of that.

The predators who always come and I think other people who maybe wouldn't normally have done things the way they did but they found it very easy to do so.

A group formed in the Hydesville area which is about 20 miles in from the coast and about 20 miles southeast of Eureka and they formed the volunteer unit, they called themselves the Humboldt calvary.

And they went out, rode around and killed some Indians and then they asked the Governor to make them official, as a part of the state militia.

Because if they did that, they'd get paid and they'd get paid a lot.

But the Governor wasn't doing that.

So a group of these people, including the members of the Humboldt calvary and ranchers who were upset and other people who wanted more power, planned a series of attacks against the most vulnerable Indians they could find which were the Wiyots.

- There was between three and five thousand Wiyot people living all over.

We went down to Bear River, we went up to Little River up to Chalk Mountain, to Berry Summit, that was our domain.

- And so starting in late February 1860, they launched a series of attacks where at least a dozen Wiyot villages were attacked that night and as many of the Indians as possible killed and the village was burned.

And the one that we know the most about and that's always been publicized, was the one on Indian Island, the Tolowot Village.

It appears to me that probably more than half the Wiyots were killed.

- [Narrator] On the night of the Indian Island attack, the Wiyot tribe was in the midst of its world renewal ceremony, an annual event that bounced out the competing forces of the universe and ensured humanities well-being on earth.

- There was a baby, which was my great-grandfather and there was two toddlers, or two young children and there was a couple of young teenagers that survived that night on the island and an old woman who was quagmired in the mud.

When the citizens of Eureka came out, she was singing a song and so we come to understand the song probably was a song of mourning, mourning the death of everyone there.

It was a really sad event.

We lost everything, the land, which we knew was ours.

And then they brought us to Fort Humboldt in deplorable conditions.

Then they moved us to Smith River.

We came home, they moved us to Hoopa area.

We came home.

Then they thought they would take us hours and hours away, down to Covelo, Round Valley.

But we were like salmon, we'd come home.

- [Narrator] Through years of perseverance and hard work, a portion of the island was returned to the tribe in 2004.

(crowd clapping) - City of Eureka and Table Bluff Reservation Wiyot tribe, in commemoration of the Indian Island 40 acre land transfer June 25, 2004.

(crowd clapping) - [Narrator] After years of industrial pollution and misuse, however, it took the tribe 10 years to clean the island up enough to hold another World Renewal ceremony.

If the tribe could not rest until the bulk of the island was returned to Wiyot hands and the dance could be held again on an ongoing and regular basis.

- Shortly after my election, I went to a Wiyot Tribal Council meeting.

I asked them, the tribal members at the time, if there was anything that Eureka could do as a city to improve the relationship with the Wiyot Tribe.

The very first thing that everyone said was, "We would like the remainder of Indian Island that belongs to the tribe to be returned".

- [Narrator] In December 2018, the Eureka City Council took the historical vote to return the island, minus a few privately owned parcels, back to the tribe.

- This is something hard for me to do tonight.

You know, hearing the stories from our elders, that talk about the island, to talk about the massacre, to talk about how it was taken from us.

To see today, you as a council, doing the right thing and returning it back to us, that's a tremendous thing.

- [Narrator] On the 21st of October 2019, the ceremony to formally return the remainder of the city and proportion of the island to the tribe, was held on the Eureka waterfront.

- We're here today.

- [Narrator] Hundreds attended and festivities featured a long sided apology from current and former city leaders for the 1860 attacks.

- As a former mayor of Eureka and on behalf of the City Council and the people of Eureka we would like to offer a formal apology to the Wiyot people for the actions of our people in 1860.

Nothing that we say or do can make up for what occurred on that night.

It will forever be a scar on our history.

We can however, with the present and future actions of support for the Wiyot people, work to remove the prejudice and bigotry that still exists in our society today.

(crowd clapping) - Thank you.

(crowd cheering) - [Narrator] The details on future plans are few.

The returning of the land has opened up an opportunity in Humboldt County for healing and renewal.

Its impact, tribal members believe, will transcend racial divisions.

- After the dance of March of 2014, this lady came up to me and she says, "You're Cheryl, right?

", and I said "Yes".

"I want you to know, I was out there on the island when you had your first day of dancing.

I've felt the most I've ever felt alive and accepted in this community."

Because the ceremony is not just for the Wiyot people, the ceremony is for everyone.

(singing in foreign language) - [Narrator] By acknowledging and addressing crimes of history, city leaders hope to learn the difficult lessons of the past and provide a new example of how community spirit should be exemplified.

- I think understanding the history of the place and how, you know, people's impact has changed over time and how people have connected differently or not connected, is critically important.

- We're always searching for the truth and in cases like this, the truth has been very hard to find.

The whites wanted to suppress the truth, they wanted to ignore what really happened.

- What that is now, is water under the bridge.

It has gone out to sea and it's gone.

No, you don't forget, you forgive and you still love that person.

You may not like what you do today but maybe tomorrow will be different.

(singing in foreign language)