Little information is available about Pomo history and ways of life before the arrival of white men in the nineteenth century. History Russians in Kashaya Pomo territory The tribe regained some Pomo land in the twentieth century, and their population began to grow. By the late nineteenth century only one thousand or so Pomo remained, homeless on their own former lands.

They suffered brutality at the hands of Russians, Spanish, Mexicans, and Americans, who polluted their lands, made slaves of them, and slaughtered innocent men, women, and children. Their story after contact with Europeans is a tragic one. There were more than seventy Pomo tribes divided into seven groups: Northern Pomo, Central Pomo, Southern Pomo, Southwestern Pomo or Kashaya, Eastern Pomo, Southeastern Pomo, and Northeastern Pomo.ДЇor thousands of years the Pomo lived calm, well-ordered lives filled with laughter and song. Historians believe that early Pomo lived around the shores of Clear Lake, but a western branch split off from the rest, settling along the Russian River and near the Pacific Coast. The Pomo have lived in the hills and valleys north of present-day San Francisco for more than ten thousand years. The 2000 census showed 5,092 Pomo, and 8,011 people claimed to have some Pomo heritage. Census, 4,766 people identified themselves as Pomo. In the early 1800s there were between thirteen thousand and twenty thousand Pomo. In modern times they live on or near about two dozen mostly tiny, isolated rancherias and reservations located throughout their homeland.

The Pomo lived in northern California along the Pacific Coast and some distance inland, near Clear Lake and the Russian River in present-day Mendocino, Sonoma, and Lake Counties. Pomo (pronounced PO-mo) means вЂњat red earth holeвЂќ or вЂњthose who live at red earth hole.вЂќ The name most likely refers to magnesite (pronounced MAG-nuh-site), called po by all the tribes, a mineral used to make red beads, or to the red clay mined in that area, often mixed with acorn flour to flavor and color bread.

Images of pomo timer