Juan Camilo Abella, Jean Paul Montagut and Isabella Sardi 7A

 Located in the west of the United States.  They Originated in California.  Divided in three regions: lake, valley and coast of northern, central and southern California.

Men in the Pomo tribe did almost all of the outside labors and activities.  They hunted and fished  They cut trees for the materials they needed.  Gathered the materials to build the houses.  Made weapons, such as bows, spears, snare, clubs and the most common materials they used were stone and wood. Clothes: They were most of the time naked and in cermonies, they wore special dresses of animal skin, feathers, shells, etc…

The women in the Pomo tribe mostly did the house roles. Harvested corn, beans and squash. Gathered nuts, acorns, chestnuts, berries, grasses, etc… Cooked the animals brought by men. They made baskets and jewelry as hobbies. Clothes: They wore skirts or shorts and shirts made out of deerskin and if they were cold, they used rabbit skin robes.

Their houses were shaped like an elliptical circle and were made by three layers held by poles. Their daily diet included acorns, berries, fish and meat. They originally spoke seven differente languages, but now, they only speak three. One of them is Hokan. Some of them also speak english. They did not hunt some animals because they believed that they had different characteristics that were symbolic. They had two main ceremonial rituals: “Ghost Dance”, which recognized the death and the “Far South”, which is based on the children.

The decisions of the Europeans and the Russians to settle in the Pomo region were very important to this Native American tribe and caused many effects.  The Europeans and the Russians brought a lot of diseases, such as smallpox and venereal diseases and these diseases killed many Pomo.  The European and Russian missionaries forced the Pomo to leave their religions and beliefs and follow theirs.  The Europeans and Russians stole land, food, jewelry, etc. From the Pomo.  They kidnapped Pomo as slaves and put them into small reservations.  The decisions of the Europeans and Russians caused a lot of effects: Decreased the Pomo population. Left them in complete poverty. Affected in a huge way their normal life.

There were many effects for the interaction between the Pomo and the Europeans and Russians.  The Europeans and the Russians wanted to get all the land and the belongings of the Pomo, so they started to kill a lot of Pomo.  Only a few Pomos fought for their tribe, but they failed because the Europeans and the Russians were more powerful, were more than the Pomo and had a better technology than the Native Americans.  Then, after the fights ended, the Europeans took all the power of the land and got Pomos as slaves and forced them to work for them.

These were two Europeans that settled in the region of the Pomo. They were two of the ones who made the Pomo tribe suffer the most. They were key individuals because, they were kind of leaders of some groups of the Europeans and the ones who ordered the others. They captured the Pomo as slaves to work for them and to sell them to other Europeans and Russians. They put very tough work to the Pomos, and gave them very little amounts of food and water per day. If the Pomo didn’t obey them or follow the labors orders by Charles and Andrew, they would put them the worst punishments of all; they would torture them and most of the times killed them. The most famous torture of this two man was to tie the Pomo’s hand, hang them, naked them and whip them all over the body. In winter was when the most people died because of them. The Pomo mostly died because of cold, fear, starvation, weakness, exhaustion and because of the great injuries in their bodies.

There were many things the Europeans and the Russians did as they tried to settle in the Pomo region.  They wanted to have all the land, furs, jewelry, and the belongings of the Pomo and they thought the Pomo had treasures and gold, so they went searching directly for everything.  They took all the Pomo to very small reservations.  They fought against the Pomo who wanted to defend themselves and killed most of them.  They stole everything from the Pomo and left them in complete poverty.  They captured the Pomo as slaves and forced them to do whatever they wanted.  They separated families, took women as domestic laborers and sent the kids to cities.  They forced the Pomo to leave their own ways of hunting, fishing, praying, follow their religions, and the Pomo had to follow the ways of the Europeans and the Russians.  About 2/3 of the Pomo population was killed.

The life of the Pomo tribe after the European and Russian settlement changed completely. The population decreased a lot. The Pomo people now live mostly in the cities because as the time went on, the civilization continued colonizing and now there are cities. Even though they live in cities, some of them still live in the place were they originated but in a smaller land. They still have their unique religions and traditions and some of them celebrate ceremonies. The children are like normal kids and go to normal schools like everyone. The men still hunt, fish, cut down trees, etc., but in different ways than before. The women still do ancient activities, but also follow the ones in the society. Even though they seem to live very good, they live very, very different than they lived before; their life changed in a very negative way.