40°48′54″N 124°09′40″W / 40.815°N 124.161°W / 40.815; -124.161 The 1860 Indian Island Massacre refers to the incidents on February 26, 1860, at Tuluwat on what is now known as Indian Island, near Eureka, California.

Based upon Wiyot Tribe estimates, 80 to 250 Wiyot men, women, and children were murdered by white settlers who had settled in the area within the previous 10 years as part of the California Gold Rush. To avoid drawing attention from nearby Eureka residents, some of whom may not have condoned the genocidal killings, the attackers primarily used hatchets, clubs and knives. Contrary to a commonly held view, guns were used to murder Indians, according to Professor Jack Norton Sr.'s seminal book titled "Genocide in Northwestern California: When Our Worlds Cried." In fact, in that book, Norton said that some Eureka residents reported hearing several shots that night but knowledge of the genocidal acts were not widely known at the time.

Because most of the adult able-bodied men were away gathering supplies as part of continuing preparation for the World Renewal Ceremony, nearly all the Wiyot men murdered are believed to have been older men, which is one reason why the Wiyot were largely defenseless. It is untrue to say the Wiyot were killed with ease because they were "exhausted from the annual celebration." The celebration usually lasted seven to 10 days, and the men traditionally left at night for the supplies while the elders, women and children slept. That is why most victims were children, women and elder men.

The Tuluwat/Indian Island massacre was part of a coordinated simultaneous attack that targeted other Wiyot sites around Humboldt Bay, including an encampment on the Eel River. Though the attack was widely condemned in newspapers outside of Humboldt County, no one was ever prosecuted for the murders. One writer in nearby Union (now Arcata, California), the then-uncelebrated Bret Harte, wrote against the killers and would soon need to leave the area due to the threats against his life.

Motive for the attacks was never clearly established. The local sheriff, Barrant Van Ness, stated in a newspaper editorial published in the San Francisco Bulletin a few days after the massacre that the motive was revenge for cattle rustling. Ranchers in the inland valleys claimed as much as one-eighth of their cattle had been stolen or slaughtered by Indians over the previous year, and one rancher, James C. Ellison, was killed while pursing suspected rustlers in May of 1859. However, the area where the ranches were located was occupied by the Nongatl tribe, not the Wiyot, so the victims of the massacre would not have been responsible for any rustling.

Van Ness closed his written statement by saying "I state these facts, not as an apology for the bloody deed, but to serve to modify somewhat the censure which should be cast upon the perpetrators of this terrible massacre on Humboldt bay."

The Wiyot Tribe said the Wiyot were not allowed to return to the island or their other land, and they often found their land stolen and/or destroyed. Recently, the Wiyot have been repurchasing the land in order to perform their annual World Renewal Ceremony.^[1]

• New York Times article, April 12, 1860