Jump to content

Pomo

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 169.244.172.3 (talk) at 15:25, 28 February 2007. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Pomo People
Pomo girl photographed by Edward S. Curtis in 1924
Pomo girl photographed by Edward S. Curtis in 1924.
Regions with significant populations
California: Mendocino County, Sonoma Valley, Napa Valley, Lake County, Colusa County
Languages
Pomoan Family
Religion
Shamanism: Kuksu, Messiah Cult

The Pomo people are a Native American people of Northern California. They live on the Pacific Coast in the Northern San Francisco Bay Area between Cleone and Duncan's Point, and inland to Clear Lake. A separate group, called the Northeast Pomo, also lived near Stonyford.They eat acorns.

Culture

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.

The name Pomo is derived from a suffix -pomo or -poma, which was attached to the names of villages and local groups, the meaning of which is "at red earth hole," since their languages is one of many endangered languages.

The Pomo spoke seven distinct Pomoan languages that are not mutually intelligible. There are still a few speakers of some of the Pomoan languages and efforts are being made by the Pomo people to preserve those languages and other elements of their culture.

Religion

The Pomo people participated in Shamanism, one form this took was the Kuksu religion that was evident in Central and Northern California, which included elaborate acting and dancing ceremonies in traditional costume, an annual mourning ceremony, puberty rites of passage, shamanic intervention with the spirit world and an all-male society that met in subterranean dance rooms.[1][2] The Pomo believed in a supernatural being the Kuksu or Guksu (depending on their dialect) who lived in the south and who came during ceremonies to heal their illnesses. Medicine men dressed up as Kuksu. Another later shamanistic movement that took place and lasted through 1900 was Messiah Cult, introduced to them by the Wintun that was practiced through 1900. This cult believed in prophets who had dreams, "waking visions" and revelations from "presiding spirits" and "virtually formed a priesthood". The prophets earned much respect and status among the people.[3]

Traditional narratives

Main article: Pomo traditional narratives

The record of Pomo myths, legends, tales, and histories is extensive. The body of narratives is classed within the Central California cultural pattern, but influences from the Northwest Coast and, more tenuously, from the Plateau region have also been noted.[1]

Mythology

Main article: Pomo mythology

The Pomo had a strong mythology of creation and world order, that includes the personification of the Kuksu of Guksu healer spirit, spirits from six cardinal directions, and the Coyote as their ancestor and creator god.[4]

History

Prehistory

According to linguists, the Pomo people come from the Hokan speaking people: The Sonoma region was a critical meeting point of coastal redwood forests and interior valleys with their mixed woodlands. Linguists think that about 7000 BC a Hokan speaking people migrated into the valley and mountain regions around Clear Lake, and their language evolved into "Proto-Pomo." About 4000 BC to 5000 BC the pro-Pomoans migrated into the Russian River Valley and north to present day Ukiah. Their language diverged into western, southern, central and northern Pomo. Another people possibly Yukian speakers lived first in the Russian River Valley and the Lake Sonoma Area but the Pomoans slowly took these places over.[5]

One area that was studied in great detail by archeologists was the Lake Sonoma Area, concerning 17,000 acres in the North Coast Range, west of the town of Geyserville) (considered an "upland" valley in Pomo territory). It was surveyed and excavated in 1978 by the Warm Springs Cultural Resources Study of Sonoma State University, before the valley was submerged under water with the completion of the Warm Springs Dam in the 1980's. The archeology surveyors documented over 62 sites of Pomo prehistory, including 38 middens, and numerous petroglyphs. Their excavations and findings suggested that: In the the oldest phase "Skaggs Phase" 3000 BC - 500 BC, the surveyors identified the oldest human-inhabited site in the valley, by radio carbon dating was 3280 BC[6], at just one site ("the broken bridge site") but the next site did not date until 1843 BC ("Oregon Oak Place"). The surveyors suggested that this valley was remote and sparsely settled by people before the Pomo people, compared to the lower river valleys. The Skaggs Phase sites had millingstones and handstones for grinding seeds and may have been hunting villages or temporary camps. Obsidian was used only rarely. Petroglyphs were absent and population was focused only along major creeks.[7]

The next phase, "The Dry Creek Phase" from 500 BC to 1300 AD was very different: the land was populated more extensively and permanently. Archeologists believe a Pomoan group took over the lands in this phase, and created 14 additional sites in the Warm Springs area and Upper Dry Creek Area. Bowl mortars and and pestles appeared in this phase, probably used to pound acorns (as opposed to the milling stones used for seeds). The sites were more permanent and lifeways "more complex" as beads and ornaments appeared in this phase and half the artifacts were made of obsidian. Steatite objects were found that must have been imported into the region to make beads, pendents and mortars. Trade was clear on a large scale.[8]

The next phase, coined the "Smith Phase" after the Pomo consultants, from 1300 AD to mid-1800's: The surveyors mapped 30 sites in this era showing a gradual transition and intensification of trends. The bow and arrow appeared after 1300 AD as the main technological advancement. Shell-bead manufacturing and drill production was important. Drills were found in high numbers. Clamshell beads were also found in numbers, a major currency among the Indians of Central America.[9]

Since 1800

The lifestyles of Pomo people changed with the arrival of immigrating Spanish and European-americans into California. At first with the Spanish missionaries, some of the southern Pomo were moved to the Mission San Francisco, later the Mission Sonoma to work and live. In the Russian River Valley, a missionary baptized the Makahmo Pomo people, and many Pomo people fled the valley because of this. One such group fled to the Upper Dry Creek Area. The surveyors of the Lake Sonoma region believe this is why the villages became more centralized. They suggest the people retreated to this remote valley and attempted to band together and defend themselves here.[10]

In 1837 a very deadly epidemic of small pox that came from settlements at Fort Ross wiped out most native people in the Sonoma and Napa regions.[11]

In 1850 the Russian River Valley Area was settled by the 49'ers and "Lake Sonoma Valley" area was homesteaded out. Many of the Pomo were then taken to reservations so that the new Americans could homestead the former Pomo lands. Some Pomo took jobs as ranch laborers, others lived in refuge villages. One ghost town in the Lake Sonoma Valley excavations was identified as "Amacha" built for 100 people but hardly used. Natives of the region remember their grandfathers hid out from the oncoming immigrants in the mid-1850's at Amacha. However one day soldiers reputedly took all the people in the village to government lands and burned the village houses.[12]

U.S. Recognition

The United States acknowledges many groups of native people of the United States as "federally recognized tribes," giving them a quasi-sovereign status similar to that of states. Many other groups are not recognized. The Pomo groups presently recognized by the United States are based in Sonoma, Lake, and Mendocino Counties and include, among others:

  • Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo Indians
  • Lytton Band of Pomo Indians
  • Cloverdale Band of Pomo Indians
  • Dry Creek Band of Pomo Indians
  • Guidiville Band of Pomo Indians
  • Manchester-Point Arena Band of Pomo Indians
  • Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians
  • Hopland Band of Pomo Indians
  • Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians
  • Kashia Band of Pomo Indians

Population

Population: In 1770 there were about 8,000 Pomo people, in 1851 population was estimated between 3500 and 5000, and in 1880 estimated at 1450.[13] The 1910 Census reported 777 Pomo, but that is probably low. The anthropologist Alfred L. Kroeber estimated 1,200 in the same year [14]. According to the 1930 census there were 1,143. In 1990, the census showed 4900.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b Kroeber, Alfred. The Religion of the Indians of California, 1907, Vol. 4 #6, sections titled "Shamanism", "Public Ceremonies", "Ceremonial Structures and Paraphernalia", and "Mythology and Beliefs".
  2. ^ The Kuksu Cult paraphrased from Kroeber.
  3. ^ Barret, 1917, page 398, 440-441.
  4. ^ Barret, 1917:397-441.
  5. ^ Stewart 985:13-15.
  6. ^ Stewart 985:53-56
  7. ^ Stewart 985:53-56.
  8. ^ Stewart 985:56-59.
  9. ^ Stewart 985:59.
  10. ^ Stewart 985:59.
  11. ^ Silliman
  12. ^ Stewart 985:59-60.
  13. ^ Cook, pages 236-245.
  14. ^ Kroeber.

References

  • Barret, Samuel A. Ceremonies of the Pomo Indians, Published by University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnicity, July 6, 1917, Vol. 12, No 10., pages 397-441.
  • Cook, Sherburne. The Conflict Between the California Indian and White Civilization. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1976. ISBN 0-520-03143-1.
  • Kroeber, Alfred L. The Religion of the Indians of California, 1907, University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 4:#6. Berkeley, sections titled "Shamanism", "Public Ceremonies", "Ceremonial Structures and Paraphernalia", and "Mythology and Beliefs".[1]
  • Kroeber, Alfred L. Handbook of Indians of California, 1919. (discusses Kuksu religion).[2]
  • Kroeber, Alfred L. Native American research and population data.
  • Stewart, Suzanne B. Time before Time: Prehistory and Archeology in the Lake Sonoma Area. Sacramento, CA: UAS Army Corps of Engineers, 1985.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pomo&oldid=111589731"