Pomo Nation~ The Pomo people are a linguistic branch of Native American people of Northern California. Their historic territory was on the Pacific Coast between Cleone and Duncans Point, and inland to Clear Lake. Two middens on the Headlands portion of the Fort Bragg Botanical Gardens attest to their local presence. The people called Pomo were originally linked by location, language, and other elements of culture. They were not socially or politically linked as a large unified tribe. Instead, they lived in small groups (bands), linked by geography, lineage and marriage, and relied upon fishing, hunting and gathering for their food. They were few in number – 8,000 being the estimate of the highest number and that was in the late 1700’s. Currently there are thought to be around 4,500 Pomo. Small tribes or family groups of Pomo Indians were clustered from the Noyo River in Fort Bragg to south of Mendocino. Their territory was divided into Northern, Central, Southern and Southwestern Pomos. At the mouth of the Noyo River there was a small Pomo Indian Village called “Kadiu” in Pomo. The Pomo called the Noyo “Ol-hepech-kem” which means “tree foggy”. The Coast Yuki Indians lived in an area from the Noyo north to Ten Mile River and further north. The Pomo and the Coast Yuki were friendly with all of the neighboring tribes, the Huchnom inland from the coast, the Cahto, who were north and east of the Coast Yuki and more inland; and the Sinkyone, who were around the north and west of the Sinkyone range of hills. The sketch map left shows the distribution. Pomo shelter Pomo shelter The Pomo were a peaceful people. Their small family groups or bands were well fed and adapted to the temperate climate. Their dress was simple. Women wore a fringed skirt or apron made of buckskin and if the weather demanded it a deer cape or blanket over their shoulders. Young men wrapped a fur around their hips and the old men were generally naked. In cold weather a deerskin served as a blanket. For shelter the somewhat nomadic Pomo made Wikiups Though the Pomo Indians were migratory, they often stayed for extended periods wherever they dwelled. Here they would build elliptical shelters from indigenous materials that were in abundance, such as redwood branches and brushes and mud over a rough frame. For food the Pomo speared salmon with two-pronged harpoons as the salmon went upstream to spawn. They would catch salmon heading out to sea with a scoop net. Surf fish or smelt were netted in the receding ocean surf. Eels were caught on a bone gaff at night. Snares were set for deer and elk. Acorns, a staple of the Pomo, were not plentiful near the Noyo but there were edible seeds. They also gathered and ate wild greens, gnats, sap of the white pine, mushrooms, grasshoppers, Pomo shelterrabbits, rats, squirrels. The women were the gatherers and the men the hunters and fishers. Deer, elk, bear and birds furnished bones, hides and meat as well as ornaments of teeth, claws and feathers for clothing and tools. The pomo were makers of baskets of every size and shape for myriad uses. Their baskets beauty and craftsmanship make them highly prized today – see pictures below. The baskets designed for holding water were so tightly woven that their very large ones were used as boats, pushed by men, to carry women across rivers. According to archeologists who have studied the layers of shells mounds left by the Indians, very little changed in the Indians food supply, way of living, their tools or migratory habits for at least 3,000 years before the white men came. The Pomo had a religion, a spoken language and lived in small bands governed by a chief. They respected the land for the existence that it gave them and took no more from it, killed no more animals than they needed to live. ~mendorailhistory.org
Posted on: Sat, 12 Jul 2014 03:01:03 +0000
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