CLARKE HISTORICAL MUSEUM
  • Home
    • Land Acknowledgement
    • How to find us
  • About the Clarke
    • Annual Report 2023
    • Staff & Board
  • Exhibits
    • Native Plant Garden
    • Main Hall >
      • History of McKinleyville
      • Emmerson Room >
        • Arsenic and Old Lace: A Victorian Cookbook
        • The Carolyn Burns Foundation
      • Historic Firearms
      • Clarke Bird Collection
      • Clarke Gem & Mineral Collection
    • Nealis Hall >
      • About Nealis Hall
      • History of Nealis Hall
      • Florence Harrie (1889–1981, Karuk)
      • Traditional Tastes
      • Shounarr Gaplhouyit! Let’s Eat!
      • Hover Collection
      • Wiyot People, Places, and Practices
      • Traditional Legacy: Baskets from the 1800's
      • Past Mini-Exhibits
    • Community Case
    • Opera Alley Mural >
      • Past Opera Alley Exhibits
    • WWII Memorial Exhibit at the Humboldt County Airport
    • Virtual Tours
    • Online Exhibits >
      • Historic Homicide: The Kjer Family Tragedy
      • Historic Homicide: Northern Humboldt’s Mysterious Murderer: The Unsolved Cases of Bert Porter and Joseph Vierra
      • MPH
      • Immigration, Expulsion, Homecoming
    • Exhibit Archive >
      • Membership
      • Fall Harvest
      • Stitched in Time: Humboldt County's Quilted History
      • Weaving Wonders: Exceptional Design
      • Nellie McGraw
      • Ecological Management
      • Hailstone Collection
      • Maritime History
      • Notable Women of Humboldt County
      • Bigfoot Quilt Raffle
  • Events
    • Second Annual Night At The Museum Gala 2025
    • Arts Alive
    • Saturday Speaker Series
    • Members Only Preview
    • Humboldt Marble Weekend 2025
  • Membership
  • Support
    • Admission
    • Volunteer
    • Donations & Fundraisers
    • Sponsorships
    • Internships
  • Blog
  • Education
    • Untitled
    • TikTok Videos
    • Teacher Resources
    • Additional Resources
    • Research >
      • Humboldt History
      • Local History Links
  • Tours
    • School Tours >
      • Donate & Schedule Your Tour
    • Chinatown Walking Tours
  • NCMA

Land Acknowledgement by the Clarke Museum

The Clarke Historical Museum sits on Wiyot land in Eureka on the shores of Humboldt Bay, the traditional homeland of the Wiyot peoples of the Wiyot tribe, Blue Lake Rancheria, and Bear River Rancheria. The land that Eureka sits on is known in the Wiyot language as Jaroujiji, where you sit and rest, while Humboldt Bay is known as Wigi, after a story of how the bay became a saltwater bay. Despite actions sanctioned by the local, State and Federal governments designed specifically to remove the Wiyot (and other indigenous peoples) from the land and destroy their cultural practices, Wiyot people remain on these lands and practice ceremonies central to the maintenance of their traditions, culture, and landscape. They continue to shape the history and knowledge of this place and are actively working to restore the land stolen from them.

In response to this, the Clarke Museum pledges to continue working towards a more socially just museum through educating the public on the past, present, and future of the museum’s Native collections and related programming, and returning stolen items that are found in the museum’s collections. We encourage the public to educate themselves about whose lands they live on and the cultural heritage of the people who have been forcibly removed (see https://native-land.ca/), along with the original place names in local languages.
  • Learn more about Land Acknowledgements here.
  • Learn more about Wiyot place names here, and access the Wiyot language database via UC Berkeley here.​​

Interested in writing a land acknowledgement?
​
Click here for a video on what makes a good land acknowledgement courtesy of Dr. Cutcha Risling-Baldy with the Native American Studies Program at Humboldt State University. 

Clarke Historical Museum
240 E Street
​Eureka, California 95501
[email protected]
(707) 443-1947
Open Wednesday - Sunday
11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Closed Monday and Tuesday

​Open until 8:30 p.m. during Friday Night Markets
Open until 9 p.m. during Eureka Arts Alive
Copyright © 2018. All Rights Reserved.