vassel: the efforts to return to the island started in the 1970s, buin the late nineties, eryl seidner--who was, at the time, our travel chair--came to the council meeting one day and said, "hey, there's this 1.5 acres that's for sale on the island, and i think the tribe should try to buy it." seidner: in less than 12 months, we got enough money to buy the 1.5 acres, which was the massacre site, and when they gothe new yor of eureka, i called him up and said, "would you like to give us the island back?" and he said, "what?"--ha ha ha!--and so we got to talking about that, and he brought it to his city council and to his staff, who worked with the wiyot tribal staff, and we negotiated a land transf--40-plus acres. this transfer is the first one of its kind in the united states of america that any city has ever given back any land that was in their coffers, and then they says, "are we going to ask for the rest of the island that the city owns?" the negotiation on that was considerably longer, but they finally came through. they unanimously voted to return the island back, and it was sati

vassel: the efforts to return to the island started in the 1970s, t in the late nineties, eryl seidner--who was, at the time, our travel chair--came to the council meeting one day and said, "hey, there's this 1.5 acres that's for sale on the island, and i think the tribe should try to buy it." seidner: in less than 12 months, we got enough money to buy the 1.5 acres, which was the massacre site, and when they gothe new yor of eureka, i called him up and said, "would you like to give us the island back?" and he said, "what?"--ha ha ha!--and so we got to talking about that, and he brought it to his city council and to his staff, who worked with the wiyot tribal staff, and we negotiated a land traner--40-plus acres. this transfer is the first one of its kind in the united states of america that any city has ever given back any land that was in their coffers, and then they says, "are we going to ask for the rest of the island that the city owns?" the negotiation on that was considerably longer, but they finally came through. they unanimously voted to return the island back, and it was sati