More than a century after they were removed from a tribal historic landmark known as the Old Arrow Tree near Korbel, three prayer sticks which served to mark the boundary between Wiyot and Chilula territories were returned to the Blue Lake Rancheria this week.

The Old Arrow Tree, as well as the arrows and prayer sticks placed in or near it, are believed to have been used by Native American tribes to commemorate a peace treaty, according to the rancheria. The tree had several meanings to local tribes before Euro-American contact. To commemorate the treaty, tribes would shoot an arrow into the bark while passing the tree.

The three prayer sticks — two of sharpened hazelwood and one a sharpened forked sprig of redwood — were removed by ethnographer L.L. Loud in 1913, who was employed by the University of California, according to the rancheria and transfer records. The three prayer sticks were requested to be returned from the university system to the tribe by Wiyot Tribal Chairman Ted Hernandez. In a private ceremony this week, Hernandez presented them to the rancheria.

“We are considering how best to honor these cultural resources and to use them for educational purposes,” Blue Lake Rancheria Vice -Chairperson Arla Ramsey said in a statement. “These prayer sticks have a powerful message, undiminished all these years later, about how people can peacefully co-exist by remembering the past and reaffirming their will to do better.”

According to the Blue Lake Rancheria, Hernandez is widely acclaimed for his efforts to find and return artifacts to local tribes. The prayers sticks were returned to Hernandez by the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, according to documents provided by the rancheria.

“We are overwhelmed with gratitude to Chairman Hernandez for his untiring work to locate these objects and bring them back to us,” Ramsey said.

Will Houston can be reached at 707-441-0504.