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The sunrise ceremony will begin at 5 a.m. near the Bloody Island site, located off of Reclamation Road near the Bloody Island marker, a mile and a half east of Upper Lake. Drive a quarter of a mile down Reclamation Road and park on the roadside.
Organizers say the event is held to honor the Pomo Indian people who were killed by US Army forces in May of 1850.
The massacre was in retaliation for the December 1849 murders, on the other side of the lake in what is now Kelseyville, of Andrew Kelsey and Charles Stone, who had brutalized local Indians.
According to historical accounts, some of those Indians fled to the Bloody Island area – known as “old island” or Badon-napo-ti – which was the site of an established village.
Captain Nathaniel Lyon led a US Army company to Lake County in the spring of 1850 to punish Chief Augustine's band of Pomos for Stone's and Kelsey's deaths.
They didn't find the band in Big Valley, and then traveled to Upper Lake, where they found and attacked the band at Bloody Island using whaleboats and two small brass cannons from the Benicia Army arsenal, according to historians.
The estimated number of casualties is between 60 and 100, based on varying accounts.
The Saturday ceremony will be followed by a potluck breakfast with speakers and dancers at the Oddfellows Hall in downtown Upper Lake.
The community also is invited to participate in an all-night campout and dancing ceremony on Friday, May 13. Meals will be served at 6 p.m. and midnight, with a fire at 9 p.m. To get to the camp area, enter Robinson Rancheria on Pomo Way, go to end of road and turn left
Following the Saturday events, dancing at rancheria will continue from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m.
For more information, to donate or to be part of the agenda, contact Clayton Duncan at 707-274-6788 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
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