Humboldt County Historical Society

This photograph of Kaquaish, also known as Josephine Beach, who was born prior to the arrival of Euro-Americans, connects us to a former world, a world in which native peoples thrived in the rich biosphere of the North Coast, living for thousands of years in balance with nature's abundant offerings.

In 1857, when she was seventeen years old, Kaquaish married a white settler, Charley Beach. Hence, she was not present on Indian Island the night her mother, family, and approximately 100 fellow tribespeople were slain in the infamous massacre which occurred in the wee hours of February 26, 1860-147 years ago today.

Born in about 1840, Kaquaish spent her childhood in the last decade in which the Wiyot civilization flourished; the arrival of Euro-Americans in 1850 quickly brought their way of life to an end. As the daughter of Kiwelata, a Wiyot chief, Kaquaish must have enjoyed a pleasant childhood. Early ethnographer Edward S. Curtis tells us that the chief of each Wiyot village was the richest man in his community; therefore, Kaquaish must have enjoyed a certain social standing, and probably possessed such treasures as necklaces and ear pendants of valuable dentalia and clam shell beads, which were also traded as currency.

As chief, Kiwelata would have been the adjudicator of all disputes in his village: according to Native law, any harm perpetrated upon a person, their property, or their reputation required recompense in the form of payments. Likewise, if individuals were killed, either as a result of family feuds or inter-tribal warfare, payment had to be made in reparation for each death-a system, notes Curtis, that penalizes the victors, thus greatly reducing incidents of violence.

The chief was also the presenter of his village's hospitality. Visitors and travelers were provided with food and lodging at his redwood-plank home.

It must certainly have been in his capacity as the distributor of hospitality that Kiwelata greeted members of the Josiah Gregg expedition when they discovered Humboldt Bay by overland route in 1849. L. K. Wood, a member of the Gregg party, writes in his diary that on the day following their arrival, Kiwelata canoed across the bay with members of his family to greet them. Wood writes that Kiwelata was "very friendly and seemed disposed to afford us every means of comfort in his power. He supplied us with a great quantity of clams, upon which we feasted sumptuously."

Wood's good opinion of Kiwelata only increased with further acquaintance, and in 1852 Wood arranged for Stephen William Shaw to paint a portrait of the Wiyot chief. This portrait now hangs in the Clarke Museum.

In the Spring 2004 Humboldt Historian, author and historian Jerry Rohde tells us that Kaquaish "lived on until 1936, when she passed away, at age ninety-six, at her home on the hillside just north of Little River."

When Kaquaish was born, before white occupancy, there were about 1500 to 2000 Wiyot. The census of 1910, however, numbered them at just 152, with the number of full-blood Wiyot less than 100.

Against the odds, the Wiyot have persevered into the twenty-first century. Today, with over 500 tribal members, they are a hopeful, vital people, enlisting old and young alike in the vital enterprise of restoring and preserving their rich culture and heritage.