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The Pomo are a Native American people of California. Historical Pomo territory in Northern California was large, bordered by the Pacific Coast to the west, extending inland to Clear Lake, mainly between Cleone and Duncans Point. One small group, the Tceefoka (Northeastern Pomo), lived in the vicinity of present-day Stonyford, Colusa County, where they were separated from the majority of Pomo lands by Yuki people and Wintuan speakers.
The name Pomo derives from a conflation of the Pomo words and . It originally meant "those who live at red earth hole" and was once the name of a village in southern Potter Valley, near the present-day community of Pomo, Mendocino County. The word may also have referred to the local deposits of red magnesite (mined and utilized for making red ) or to the reddish, earthen clay soil of the area, rich in hematite (also mined for use). In the Northern Pomo dialect, -pomo or -poma was used as a suffix after the names of places, to mean a subgroup of people of the place. By 1877, the meaning of the word Pomo had been broadened, at least in the English language, to refer to not only the Pomo language but the entire group of people speaking it, as well—the people known as Pomo, today.
Another people, possibly Yukian speakers, lived first in the Russian River Valley and Lake Sonoma areas prior to being displaced by the Pomo, who subsequently took over the region. Modern archaeological analyses and discoveries have suggested that the local economy, which was based on women processing acorns by mortar and pestle, and first observed by the Spanish upon their arrival in Central California, may have developed during the Mostin culture period (ca. 8500 BP–6300 BP) in the Clear Lake Basin.
Both of these Skaggs-Phase sites contained and other handstones for grinding seed and nuts. The villages may have been used for hunting or temporary camps. Obsidian was used, albeit rarely, from Mount Konocti, in present-day Lake County. There were no petroglyphs. The population lived only along major creeks.
The "Dry Creek" Phase lasted from 500 BCE to 1300 CE. During this phase, the Indigenous people settled the lands more extensively, and permanently. Archaeologists believe a Pomo group took over the lands from earlier peoples during this phase. They founded 14 additional sites in the Warm Springs and Upper Dry Creek areas. Bowls, mortars, and pestles appeared in this phase, probably used by women to pound acorns (as opposed to the milling stones used for seeds). The sites were more settled and, likewise, more "complex". Trade took place on a larger scale beyond the region. Decorative beads and ornaments were made in this phase, and approximately half of the artifacts were made of obsidian. Steatite or soapstone objects were also found, which must have been imported into the region through trade, as the rocks do not exist locally. Relatively soft and easy to carve, soapstone was used to make beads, pendants, as well as mortars. The largest and only substantial steatite mine in California existed on Catalina Island, one of the Channel Islands off the coast of what is now Los Angeles County. The existence of steatite in Pomo and Northern California Native sites is a strong indicator of the size and complexity of Native California trade networks.
The next phase, named the "Smith Phase" after the Pomo consultants, lasted from 1300 CE to the mid-19th century. Researchers mapped 30 sites in this era, showing a gradual evolving and intensification of trends. Archery, and its associated applications, was a major technological advancement which greatly benefited the population. The production of shell beads (and drills to create holes in beads), remained important, with drills being found in high numbers. Numerous Bivalve shell beads, a major currency among the peoples of Central California, were also found, also suggesting a vast trade network.
The Spanish missionaries stole or enslaved many of the southern Pomo from the Santa Rosa Plain to Mission San Rafael, at present-day San Rafael, between 1821 and 1828. Only a few Pomo speakers went to Mission Sonoma, the other Franciscan mission, located on the north side of San Francisco Bay. The Pomo who remained in the present-day Santa Rosa area of Sonoma County were often called Cainameros in regional history books from the time of Spanish and Mexican occupation.
In the Russian River Valley, a missionary colonized and baptized the Makahmo Pomo people of the Cloverdale area. Many Pomo left the valley because of this. One such group fled to the Upper Dry Creek Area. The archeology surveyors of the Lake Sonoma region believe that European and Euro-American encroachment was the reason why Pomo villages became more centralized; the people retreated to the remote valley to band together for defense and mutual support.
The Pomo suffered from the infectious diseases brought by the Euro-American migrants, including cholera and smallpox. They did not have immunity to such diseases and fatalities were high. In 1837 a deadly epidemic of smallpox, originating in settlements at Fort Ross, caused numerous deaths of native people in the Sonoma and Napa regions. Mission treatment of Pomo was similar to that of slavery, and many Pomo died due to inhospitable living conditions.
The Russian River Valley was settled in 1850 by the 49ers, and the Lake Sonoma Valley was homesteaded out. The US government forced many Pomo on to reservations so that the European-Americans could homestead the former Pomo lands. Some Pomo took jobs as ranch laborers; others lived in refugee villages.
During this time, two white settlers named Andrew Kelsey and Charles Stone enslaved many Pomo people in order to work as cowboys on their ranch. They forced the Pomo Indians to work in very intense and unorthodox conditions and sexually abused the Pomo women. The Pomo men were forced to work in harsh conditions and were not given any respect by the settlers. Exasperated with the violence and oppression of Stone and Kelsey, they rebelled.
The Pomo men set up a sneak attack and killed both Stone and Kelsey. Because of the deaths of Kelsey and Stone, United States lieutenant J. W. Davidson and captain Nathaniel Lyon sent an army to retaliate against the Pomo people. During the Bloody Island Massacre of 1850, on an island in Clear Lake the 1st Dragoons US Cavalry slaughtered between 60 and 100 people, mostly women and children of the Clear Lake Pomo and neighboring tribes.
Shortly after the massacre, during 1851 and 1852, four reservations for the Pomo were established by the United States government in California. Pomo were also part of the forced relocation known as the "Marches to Round Valley" in 1856, conducted by the U.S. federal government. By using bullwhips and guns, white settlers demanded relocation to reservations of the Pomo Indian. The justification given was that to protect their culture, the Pomo Indians had to be removed from their ancestral land.
Richerson & Richerson stated that before the European conquests there was an estimated 3,000 Pomo Indians that lived at Clear Lake; after all of the death, disease, and killings, there were only about 400 Pomo Indians left.
One ghost town in the Lake Sonoma Valley excavations was identified as Amacha, built for 100 people but hardly used. Elder natives of the region remember their grandfathers hid at Amacha in the mid-1850s, trying to evade the colonizing settlers. They tell that one day soldiers took all the people in the village to government lands and burned the village houses.
From 1891 to 1935, starting with National Thorn, the artist Grace Hudson painted more than 600 portraits, mainly of Pomo individuals living near her in the Ukiah area. Her style was sympathetic and poignant, as she portrayed domestic native scenes that would have been fast disappearing in that time.
According to the 2010 United States Census, there are 10,308 Pomo people in the United States. Of these, 8,578 reside in California.
The Pomoan languages became severely endangered after European-American colonization of their native territory. Contacts with Russians, the Spanish, and Euro-Americans have impacted these languages, and many are no longer spoken due to language shift to English, accelerated by policies such as the 1887 ban on the teaching in Native American languages put into place by John DeWitt Clinton Atkins. There are about twelve Pomo language varieties that are still in use by Pomo people. One, xay tsnu, which is spoken by Elem Pomo, is in the process of revival due to efforts by Clear Lake Pomo Cultural Preservation Foundation.
Like many other Native groups, the Pomo Indians of Northern California relied upon fishing, hunting, and gathering for their daily food supply. They ate salmon, wild greens, gnats, mushrooms, berries, grasshoppers, rabbits, rats, and squirrels. Acorns were the most important staple in their diet. The division of labor in Pomo Indian communities typically involved gathering and preparation of plant-based foods by women, while men were hunters and fishers. painted by Jules Tavernier in 1878]]
In 1872, the first Ghost Dance was introduced to the Pomo by a Wintun dreamer and quickly spread. The initial introduction was of the Earth Lodge cult derivation which had begun in Wintu lands, with Bole Maru appearing in Patwin lands and spreading to the Pomo as well soon after. In 1874, the Big Head cult grew out of Bole Maru, but with less of a focus on dreamers and their visions, which spread all the way north to the Shasta people. While the Earth Lodge cult and Big Head cult died out pretty quickly, Bole Maru stuck around and has continued to be practiced since, though Mabel McKay, the last Pomo dreamer, died in 1993. (2025). 9780803266629, University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 9780803266629
Making the baskets required great skill and knowledge in collecting and preparing the needed materials. Materials for weaving baskets changed with the seasons and years. The Pomo usually covered a basket completely with the vivid red feathers of the pileated woodpecker until the surface resembled the smoothness of the bird itself. With the feathers, 30–50 to every inch, beads were fastened to the basket's border and hung pendants of polished abalone shell from the basket itself. Pomo women sometimes spent months or years making such gift baskets.
The materials used to make the baskets—including, but not limited to, swamp canes, saguaro cactuses, rye grass, black ash, willow shoots, sedge roots, the bark of redbud, the root of bulrush, and the root of the gray pine—were harvested annually. After being picked, the materials are dried, cleaned, split, soaked, and dyed. Sometimes the materials are also boiled over a fire and set in the sun to dry.
Women traditionally wove Pomo baskets with great care and technique. The three different techniques of Pomo basket weaving are plaiting, coiling, and twining. One drying method was wrapping maiden fern in blue clay and placing underground for several days. This prevented fading in the sun or when cooking mush.
There are many different designs that are woven into the baskets that signify different cultural meanings. For example, the Dau is a pattern woven into a basket by creating a small change in the stitching to create a small opening between two stitches. The Dau is the design that is also called the Spirit Door. This Spirit Door allows good spirits to come and circulate inside of the basket while the good or bad spirits are released.
Although baskets were made for decorating homes and as gifts, they were centrally used in Pomo daily life as well. Basket weaving is considered sacred to the Pomo tribe and baskets were produced for a variety of purposes. Pomo children were cradled in baskets, acorns (a major food staple to the Pomo) were harvested in great conical burden baskets, and food was stored, cooked, and served in baskets—some even being watertight. There were even "baskets" that were made as boats to be pushed by men to carry women across rivers.
Even though most of their original land was taken over, this was the first turning point for the Pomo people. They had finally escaped the harsh road they were once a part of, and even though they had to settle on poor, isolated land, they finally got to make a stride towards tradition and basket weaving. From 1852 to 1878, many Pomo Indians tried to rekindle their cultures and find peace to what had happened to them. Many people let this time be a learning and spiritual time, where they could have visions and see what the future would have in store. It was a time to build, a time to connect, a time of hope, and a time of change.
The Pomo Indians did not have enough money to buy land. The Pomo men decided to work for ranchers and the woman went back to making baskets. The "white" people loved the baskets, especially the designer, feathered ones, which led to a basketry movement. Finally, in 1878, the Pomo Indians bought their first piece of land in California. Paula Giese noted, "In 1878, a group of Northern Pomo people bought 7 acres in Coyote Valley. In 1880, another Northern Pomo group bought 100 acres along Ackerman Creek (now known as Pinoleville)". In 1881, Yokaya Rancheria was financed by central Pomo people. Once the Pomo Indians had bought the land, it was time to make money.
Baskets were in so much demand at this point, even though they were once used for trade and bartering with other tribes and people, they now became the Pomo people's way to make money and build their newly found empires. Women had preserved Pomo basket weaving traditions, which made a huge change for the Pomo people. The baskets were wanted all over California; it was a piece of art that traders wanted. Grandmothers and daughters taught other Pomo women, who had lost the tradition of basket weaving, how to make the all-powerful baskets.
Within this time period in addition to basket weaving, the Pomo also manufactured elaborate jewelry made from abalone and clamshells. Assembled during the winter, during the summer the Pomo would travel from various sites along the coast where they would fish and gather all of their materials needed to create their jewelry. The Pomo Indians would create stunning, beautiful, and intricate forms of jewelry that were worn during celebrations and rituals, and even given as gifts. Both of these traditions of creation and culture have slowly dispersed and have become less common over the history of the tribe but more evident in today's culture.
One of those basket weavers is Julia F. Parker. She is a master weaver, having woven under Lucy Telles. Her childhood was rough, constantly moving around until boarding school after her parents' death at 6. Lucy had taught Julia because of her perceived interest in preserving Indian culture and specifically basketry. Julia Parker became a cultural demonstrator after Lucy Telles died in 1956. She continued in her studies and later studied Pomo basketry with Pomo master weaver Elsie Allen (1899–1990) at Ukiah and several others. Julia belongs to the Miwok Pomo and Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria. Many of her baskets are in museums in Yosemite, Mono Lake and other museums; she even presented her baskets to Elizabeth II.
They wove baskets from sedge root, willow shoots and roots, bulrush or blackroot, redbud shoots, and sometimes bracken fern and a variety of colorful bird feathers, abalone and other types of shells, or magnesite beads and sometimes glass beads. Redbud shoots, used for the darker reddish colors in basket designs are gathered in October. Good redbud is hard to obtain around Ukiah, so it is usually found at Clear Lake. All these materials are gathered with a thankful heart and the gatherers talk continuously to the plants. They were, after all, living things that were giving themselves for something useful and beautiful. In order to preserve the soil and creek banks, sedge gathering was done with care. The commonly held decision would be leaving behind about half of what was found. Dyeing of the bulrush root takes about three to six months in a concoction of black walnuts, rusty metal and ashes in water.
Today, new Pomo baskets might sell for as much as $1,000, and the more historical ones might sell for more than $10,000. Dealing of these baskets has not always been so lucrative and many have tried to exploit the artists and communities. Dealers and collectors may have exploited the lucrative basket market, but it still paid well enough to provide income to Pomo women where hunting and gathering were no longer feasible and money was needed for survival.
Today you will see rare baskets being sold for the prices mentioned above. Due to the time and preparation necessary to weave these pieces of art; basket weavers today have more requests than they can fulfill, and many customers wait months before receiving orders. The rarity of the baskets and the skill are required in making them in what makes them valuable. The demand is greater than the supply, and collectors facilitate a high demand for these artistically made baskets.
Federally recognized Pomo tribes are based in Sonoma, Lake, and Mendocino counties. They include the following tribes:
Other self-identified Native American groups are not federally recognized.
The following historical list of Pomo villages and tribes is taken largely from John Wesley Powell, 1891:
Non-Pomo villages and tribes considered "Pomo" in Powell, 1891:
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