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This portion of our online guide to American Indians will focus on the Pomo people.

Historically, the Pomo people inhabited a large area of Northern California, bordered by the Pacific Ocean in the west, extending inland as far as Clear Lake, and mostly between Cleone and Ducans Point. One group of Pomo, the Northeastern Pomo (Tceefoka), lived in the area of what is now Stonyford in Colusa County. They were separated from the larger group of Pomo people by lands inhabited by other tribes.

Prior to European colonization of the region, the Pomo were linked by location, language, and culture, but were not united in the sense of having a central authority over all of the Pomo people. Rather, they lived in small groups or bands that were linked through intermarriages and familial relationships.

The Pomo people inhabited the area where coastal redwood forests met with mixed woodlands and interior valleys. It is believed that around 4000 BCE to 5000 BCE, groups of early Pomo people migrated into the Russian River Valley from the Clear Lake area, then north to what is currently known as Ukiah.

Traditionally, the Pomo people were divided into several large groups, each with its own language or dialect. These included the Southwestern Pomo (Kashia), the Southern Pomo, the Central Pomo, the Northern Pomo, the Northeastern Pomo (Tceefoka), the Eastern Pomo (Clear Lake Pomo), and the Southeastern Pomo (Elem Pomo).

At the time that Russian and Spanish explorers, followed by Spanish missionaries, began coming into the area, there were from 8,000 to 21,000 Pomo spread out among about seventy tribes.

When a group of Russians established Fort Ross in the early 1800s, the Southwestern Pomo (Kashaya) traded with them. Spanish missionaries captured and enslaved several of the Pomo people from the Santa Rosa Plain, bringing them to Mission San Rafael, between 1821 and 1828, but only a few Pomo went to Mission Sonoma, located on the north side of the San Francisco Bay. The Pomo who remained in what is now the Santa Rosa area were often referred to as Cainameros in Spanish and Mexican histories. Several Makahmo Pomo people in the Russian River Valley were baptized by Spanish missionaries, while others fled the Upper Dry Creek Area and elsewhere. At the Spanish missions, Pomo people were treated much like slaves.

European and European-American colonization prompted Pomo villages to become more centralized, as many of them retreated to remote valley areas and banded together for defense.

Infectious diseases brought by Europeans led to epidemics of cholera and smallpox, resulting in high fatalities among the Pomo.

During the Gold Rush in the mid-19th century, the lands in the Russian River Valley and the Lake Sonoma Valley were claimed by gold miners and homesteaders, and the United States government forced the Pomo people onto reservations, while others too jobs as ranch laborers or lived in refugee villages.

Some European-American settlers enslaved Pomo people, where they worked under harsh conditions, including the sexual abuse of Pomo women. Two of the settlers, Andrew Kelsey and Charles Stone, were attacked and killed by a group of Pomo men. In retaliation, the 1st Dragoons of the U.S. Cavalry slaughtered between 100 and 400 Pomo people, mostly women and children, on an island in Clear Lake in 1850. This became known as the Bloody Island Massacre.

This was followed by forced relocations of the Pomo people to four reservations that were set up for them in California, but outside of their ancestral lands. Prior to 1850, about 3,000 Pomo Indians were in the Clear Lake region. By 1852, only 400 were left.

Today, there are several federally recognized tribes or groups of Pomo Indians, particularly in Sonoma, Lake, and Mendocino counties. These include the Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians of the Big Valley Rancheria, the Cloverdale Rancheria of Pomo Indians of California, the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians of California, the Dry Creek Rancheria of Pomo Indians of California, the Elem Indian Colony of Pomo Indians of the Sulphur Bank Rancheria, the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, the Guidiville Rancheria of California, the Habernatolel Pomo of Upper Lake, the Hopland Band of Pomo Indians of the Hopland Rancheria, the Kashia Band of Pomo Indians of the Stewarts Point Rancheria, the Koi Nation of the Lower Lake Rancheria, the Lytton Rancheria of California, the Manchester Band of Pomo Indians of the Manchester Rancheria, the Middletown Rancheria of Pomo Indians of California, the Pinoleville Pomo Nation, the Potter Valley Tribe, the Redwood Valley Rancheria of Pomo Indians of California, the Robinson Rancheria of Pomo Indians of California, the Round Valley Indian Tribes of the Round Valley Reservation, the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians of California, and the Sherwood Valley Rancheria of Pomo Indians of California.

 

 

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