The Wiyot Tribe of California needs about $350,000 to finish a cleanup project on Indian Island.

The tribe has spent $2 million so far to remove lead batteries, contaminated soil and other debris from the island. The project was expected to be complete this summer but more money is needed.

”Every shovelful needed to be sifted and gone through by hazardous waste-trained archeologists,” Stephen Kullmann, the tribe's environmental director, told The Eureka Times-Standard . “That's someone that doesn't come cheap. The tribe wanted to disturb as little as possible.”

The island is considered the center of the tribe's universe. It's the site of the annual World Renewal Ceremony, which hasn't been completed since a massacre nearly wiped out the tribe on February 26, 1860.

Get the Story:
Indian Island cleanup nearly finished; Wiyot Tribe searching for additional project funding (The Eureka Times-Standard 6/13)

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