Sonoma County, also known as Wine Country, and totaling approximately 1,800 square miles, was officially founded in 1850. However, the area’s scenic beauty, rich soil, year-round hospitable climate, and Easy access to ocean and river fishing, as well as abundant hunting grounds, attracted inhabitants for many centuries. The Pomo, Coast Miwok, Patwin, and Wappo Indian tribes were its earliest known and documented inhabitants dating to 8000 BC. And these early tribes of Native American Indians who enjoyed their prosperous lives in peace and harmony until the arrival of European settlers, more specifically the Spanish, in the 19th century.
The Pomo Indians…
The Pomo Indians were actually made up of seventy smaller tribes, each with their own language and distinct territory within the region. What literally brought them all together was their art: the art of basket weaving practiced by both men and women. Everything about their lifestyles, their cultures and their livelihoods was directly related to their baskets and revolved around their making. The seventy basketry tribes of the Pomo Indians used similar materials, used the same techniques, and derived shapes that were quite similar.
The Pomo Indians were invaded in the 18th century by brutal Russian fur traders and, with the discovery of gold in 1848, by Americans. Its population was greatly reduced by murderous massacres, forced and debilitating labor, as well as white man’s disease. Due to the American Indian Reservations and Trust Areas of 1996, the Pomo Indians of today acquired a federally protected reservation.
The Miwok Indians of the coast…
The Coast Miwok Indians made the region we now call Sonoma County their home for over five thousand years until they were captured and forced into slave labor by the first Spanish settlers in the late 18th century.
Of the 600 villages discovered in the area, archaeologists found that the Coastal Miwok had an extraordinarily rich and intricate culture that included hunting birds and large game, fishing, acorn gathering and processing, basket making and beads, as well as ritual ceremonies. which incorporated dance and music. The language of the Coast Miwok Indians was unusually elaborate and extremely complicated.
The Patwin Indians…
The Patwin Indians are one of five other tribes (the Hoots, Libaytos, Malacas, Tolenas, and Suisunes) within the larger Wintum group that lived in the Sonoma Valley area for approximately four thousand years until they they were also brutalized by the invaders. Spaniards in the 19th century.
The Patwin Indians are best characterized as keepers and tellers of local myths, far-reaching legends, fantastic tales, and oral histories from their own families and the community at large. The Patwins firmly believed that their spiritual leaders, the shamans, could speak to the dead and heal the sick.
The Wappo Indians…
The Wappo Indians inhabited the general territory that is now Sonoma County and maintained their livelihoods and rich traditions by hunting and gathering the bounty the land provided, and their beautifully crafted baskets were so well constructed that they could hold water indefinitely.
The entire Wappo nation was forcibly baptized and absorbed into the various local Spanish missions.