Native American People: Pomo Indian Tribe

A description of the Pomo tribe and their way of living as well as their cultural characteristics.

1. Edice Hua U.S Before 1900 February 2, 2017 Mr. Cesar Ross Northern California: Pomo Native American Tribe

2. The Author- Edice Hua I. Each night I gaze upon the stars giving each of them their rightful names I gaze upon the moon as if would Caress me with its beautiful texture I listen closely as if the sky was calling out to me And each time I fail to hear a sound, I just stare into the infinite sky until I see the sun rising, it alone shining upon my honey silk skin. This skin I am wearing was gifted to me by my ancestors; O ne of the most gentle and most generous people ever known in history. It was because of their soft hands and compassionate heart the others took it as a way to steal, to plunder, to conquer, to rape, to murder and to abuse my people.

3. II. We touched your cold hearts with our warm welcoming, we bandaged your wounds from your long journey and we made sure you left our abode without hunger. Yet , we still suffer from your bloody whips, bloody fists, blood baths, blood wars, blood and slaves, why must you write our history like this? Why must the good suffer for greed? In fact, it took my ancestor’s time, my father’s time, my mother’s time, my children’s time? How much time do you need for your progress? You paid no respect to my roots. I mean roots are to be buried deep underground with care yet you throw their bodies after bodies on the cold ground. Making jokes about their bones, calling us savages, calling us ignorant, and calling us the names you would give to the devil… are you not the devil?

4. III. I tried to find peace, I tried to have patience; I tried so hard to love you all. But you paid no attention to the stars, you gave them plagues, you cursed and mocked their success. You failed to hear their calling; you failed to hear their forgiveness. You claim that what you’ve done is still justice; you call your recklessness the law. You eradicated my people and yet, in your philosophy, that is something to be proud of.

5. IV. I am equally sick and exhausted of your actions. You played me so well as if I am standing in a circus, magic trick to my people, now you see them, now you don’t. Because this progress you seem to wear around your neck will never seem to rust. It will never put you on your knees, nor will it rewrite our history… Because you are the worst author, the most heartless people and the most gruesome murderers. Such actions you benefit from and laughing so loud next to their remains.

6. V. I will not sleep until my people ain’t but people they used to be, until mother nature actually means something, until we stop fighting for what was already given to us, until we are honored and respected and loved and left alone, until then I wish you well, I wish you war, I wish you our lives to gamble with no more. I am grateful that my ancestors were slaves, I am grateful to wear this skin you call disgusting and a threat. I am grateful because this story you are writing, makes yourselves the villains and my people the inevitable heroes.

7. I have left Earth… and I am touching, everything you beg your telescopes to show you…I am giving the stars back their right names… And this life, this new story and history you cannot own or ruin if only this new chapter… is written by us.

8. Content of Presentation Geography of the Pomo Tribe 2. Brief history of the Pomo Tribe i. Cultural Characteristics ii. Contact Period 3. Pomo Tribe Today i. Contributions to the U.S

9. 1. Geography of the Pomo Tribe

10. Pomo Tribe

11. Geographical Description of Pomo Territory Their Geography entailed/dictated their ways of lives. In the Pomo territory, it contain many lakes, coastal regions, rivers as well as the sea. This made it possible for their success in populating. Climate of their territory was mild and warm. Natural resources included: o ak trees, acorns, buckeye nuts, mushrooms, hazel nuts, bulbs, roots, grasses and seaweed

12. Clear Lake Pomo, Northern California Coastal Sea of California (linked to Pacific Ocean)

13. 2. Brief History of the Pomo Tribe

14. Pre-History of Pomo Indians 4000 BCE-7000BCE According to some linguistic reconstructions, the Pomo people descend from the Hokan -speaking people in the  Sonoma County California region. Around 7000 BCE, a Hokan -speaking people migrated into the valley and mountain regions around Clear Lake Pomo, and their language evolved into Proto-Pomo.   The word 'Pomo' means "those who live at red earth hole" 

15. i. Cultural Characteristics Social structure was very simple (small bands). Chiefs (leaders) acted as the voice for the people. Leadership was passed onto sons after each generation (hereditary). They were Neolithic hunting and gathering societies that were semi-nomadic. Egalitarian society with wild animals (deer, hare, fish), berries, nuts and seeds as their main source of food . Population estimated in 1700: 8,000 Pomo people. Men often hunt and look for remote places to move to while women make baskets, gather seeds and berries as well as doing domestic chores and child care.

16. Pomo Headdress for males c.a 1990 Cecelia Joaqin demonstrating gathering seeds into a burden basket using a seed beater, Hopland Rancheria . c .a 1924

17. Pomoan woman with child in baby basket., Yokayo Rancheria . Photograph by H.W. Henshaw , ca. 1892. Courtesy of Grace Hudson Museum, Ukiah, Cal   Pomoan man with two basketry fish traps. Traps for fish, quail, and small game were usually woven by men. Photograph by H.W. Henshaw , ca. 1892. Courtesy of Grace Hudson Museum, Ukiah, Cal

18. ii. Contact Period 1579 : Sir Francis Drake claims California for England and is said to have made contact with the Pomo Native Indians 1800's:  Hundreds of Pomo people were captured and sold as slaves The Spanish had begun raiding Southern Pomo country for converts forcing them to work as slaves in Spanish missions 1812 : Pomo Indian lands were invaded by brutal Russian fur-traders, looking for sea otters. 1821 : Mexico wins its independence from Spain and takes control of California 1833: Pomo people are forced to work as slaves on Mexican ranches 1838 : Smallpox and Cholera epidemics (1838-1839) ravages the Pomo tribe

19. 1840 : The Clear Lake Massacre occured when a posse led by Mexican Salvador Vallejo massacred 150 Pomo and Wappo Indians on Clear Lake , California 1841 : The Russians abandon Fort Ross as the fur trade declines 1848 : January 24, 1848: Gold is discovered at Sutter's timber Mill starting the California Gold rush 1848 : The white settlers and gold prospectors bring various diseases to the Native Indians who lived in the surrounding areas of the westward trails ii. Contact Period

20. 1851 : Treaties were agreed reserving lands for the Native Indians of California, but they were never honored. 1850's: Pomo people were rounded up and forced onto the Mendocino Indian Reserve and the Round Valley Reservation. They had to buy 100 more acres of land along Ackerman creek . 1850 : The Bloody Island Massacre (May 15, 1850) took place at the north end of Clear Lake, Lake County, California. The Bloody Island Massacre was perpetrated by 1st Cavalry Regiment of the U.S. Army, against the Pomo led by Chief Augustine, in retaliation for the deaths of settlers Andrew Kelsey and Charles Stone. 100 Pomo people were killed ii. Contact Period 1881, Yokaya Rancheria was financed by central Pomo people 1906: The 18 treaties of 1851 were “rediscovered” and 54 rancherias were established .

21. 3. Pomo Tribe Today

22. i. Contributions to the U.S Pomo culture has endured unpredictable series of federal Indian policies which have lead to significant and contradictory changes and challenges about every 20 years. The 1990s have been characterized by cultural revival and revitalization among the Pomoan peoples.    Pomo basket weaving is still valued and honored today, not only by the Pomo Indians themselves, but also by amateur enthusiasts, buyers for curio dealers, and scientific collectors.  Today, there are popular books published by the Pomoan people which include children’s book about their ancestral stories and some of their mythologies.

23. Barrett, S. A.   Ceremonies of the Pomo Indians . Berkeley: University of California Press, 1917 . Barrett, Samuel A.1980.  The Ethnogeography of Pomo and Neighboring Indians.  University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 6, no. 1. Berkeley. Colson, Elizabeth n.d. “Acculturation Among Pomo Women.” Unpublished manuscript on file Sonoma State University, Cultural Resources Facility, Rohnert Park, Cal. DuBois , Cora 1939.  The 1870 Ghost Dance.  Anthropological Records 3:1. Berkeley: University of California Press . References

24. Hurtado , Albert L. 1939.  Indian Survival on the California Frontier.  New Haven: Yale University Press. Levene , Bruce et al. 1977.  Mendocino County Remembered, An Oral History . Vol. 2. Ukiah, CAl. : Mendocino County Historical Society. Patterson, . Victoria"Change and Continuity"  Expedition Magazine  40.1 (March 1998): n. pag .  Expedition Magazine . Penn Museum, March 1998 Web. 02 Feb 2017 http://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/?p=5317 Pritzker , Barry. "The Pomo." In  A Native American encyclopedia: history, culture, and peoples , by Barry Pritzker and Barry Pritzker , 140-43. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. References