There is a feeling today with some groups that ethnic history should be written by natives of that group. I see that as a fine idea going forward but dedicated ethnologists and archaeologists left us wonderful stories of human ingenuity and trading patterns in books written decades ago. Thomas Layton’s 1990 “Western Pomo Prehistory” was a 230 page monograph produced through UCLA. “Western Pomo” was the term used back then for Pomo’s on the coast.
The first 120 pages of text focused on a dig done by college students about a half mile north of what was the Albion River Inn back then in the 1980’s. Opinions change about how long, when and where Pomo people inhabited the coast. These researchers believed the coast was seasonally visited by Pomo from the interior of the county who came to collect marine food stuffs. There primary food came from acorns on oak trees in the Russian River Valleys. Buldam, the name for a native village at the mouth of Big River, was not occupied year round, according to early anthropologists, until modern times (after 1850) when white folks made life for the natives along the Russian River unsafe.
In an attempt to condense dry scientific language into terms easier to understand let me say the excavations in Albion revealed seven different layers of artifacts. Seven layers down was the bottom of the dig and was soil never disturbed by humans. In between that and today’s top soil were found layers with shells, bones, and projectile points (think arrow and spear points) made of rock found in locations hundreds of miles away.
It was the odd new facts I learned that I enjoyed. I would never have known how important the actual rock that made the points were, and what that rock could tell us about trade routes and seasonal migration. The shape of the points change over centuries and the source of the rock in the points changes too. There were 225 projectile points found in this site and they are illustrated in the book.
Another thing interesting me that I never considered before was the hydration of the obsidian points that came from Mt. Konocti in Lake County. They can date obsidian from the water content remaining in it. Local stone for Western Pomo point making came from geologic Franciscan formation, which is under our feet today. But how did rock forms originating in Monterey and found as far north as Pt. Arena end up in Albion? Radio Carbon dating and migration helped tell the story. (More on this coming up. But first…)
Digging down through levels students found the remains and shells of 12 different kinds of shellfish. Evidence did not show any use of boast or rafts as Pomo’s just collected along the shorelines. Layton seemed to believe Pomo migrated to the coast in April to fish and collect sea life all summer, then migrated back to the interior river valleys to collect acorns, the staple of their diet. He believed Pomo had been visiting the coast for 5000 years.
In the book I loved the term “task specific resource procurement” which means Pomo went after certain foods at certain times of the year. Natives understood the concept of “Red Tides” when sea foods could be poisonous and did not collect shellfish when it could poison their people. The author believed they came in late spring and left mid-summer.
These Pomo carried stones they liked best with them to make new projectile points when the ones they had broken or were lost. They chipped them into points in Albion. At some of the older levels at the dig, dated 425 to 100 BCE natives were using local Franciscan chert rock and radio carbon dating of charcoal at the suite provided the time span.
Farther up in the levels obsidian points appeared. Were migrating food seeking natives from Lake County Pomo’s here? Next level up Monterey chert points were back. Had natives from Pt. Arena and points south been visiting or trading stone dating from years 1200 to 1600? The top layers the students excavated dated between 1600 and 1800 and were back to Franciscan rock chert — had trade or migration ceased? The soil above the seven layers discovered featured “Historic Euro-American items” and showed Pomo’s were trading for commercially made items of metal and glass beads.
The book has drawings of the projectile points and charts of seasonal availability bot food stuffs, i.e., Chinquapin nuts were collected in September and sea lions hunted in October. If Roosevelt Elk bones were found it was noted if they were adults or juveniles. The book has photos of the trenches with the levels visible. Note: this dig was ALL on private property. Along with the 120 pages on Albion there were 50 pages on “Nightbird’s Retreat,” a Pomo village west of Calpella near Eagle Peak and 20 pages on “Three Chop Village” at the headwaters of Parlin Creek north of Highway 20.
This book is hard to find but museums and reference collections in libraries will allow you to sit for an hour or two and browse the volume. I found it fascinating when I could understand the science. It reflects years of research and I’m glad we have it to help us understand Pomo people better.
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