Pomo

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Pomo

Pomo woman in traditional dress (2015).
Total population
1770: 8,000 1851: 3,500–5,000 1910: 777–1,200 1990: 4,900 2010: 10,308
Regions with significant populations
United States ( California: Mendocino County, Sonoma Valley, Napa Valley, Lake County, Colusa County)
Languages
Pomoan languages, English
Religion
Kuksu, Messiah Cult, traditional Pomo religion

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, were they were separated from the majority of Pomo lands by Yuki and Wintuan speakers.

The name Pomo derives from a conflation of the Pomo words [pʰoːmoː] and [pʰoʔmaʔ].^[1] 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.^[2] The word may also have referred to the local deposits of red magnesite (mined and utilized for making red beads) or to the reddish, earthen clay soil of the area, rich in hematite (also mined for use).^[3] 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.^[3][4] 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.^[3]