Total population | |
---|---|
1,080 | |
Regions with significant populations | |
United States ( California) | |
Languages | |
English, Pomo, Miwok language | |
Religion | |
Roundhouse religion, Christianity, Kuksu | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Miwok and Pomo people |
The Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, formerly known as the Federated Coast Miwok, is a federally recognized American Indian tribe of Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo Indians. The tribe was officially restored to federal recognition by the U.S. government pursuant to the Graton Rancheria Restoration Act, Pub. L. No. 106-568, Title XIV (114 Stat. 2939), 25 U.S.C. § 1300n et. seq. (2000).
Prior to European contact, the residents of Marin and Sonoma Counties were bands of Native Californians belonging to two linguistic and cultural groups: the Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo, living in close proximity to each other and indigenous to Marin and southern Sonoma Counties in Northern California.
Occupied at various times during more than thirty centuries, over 600 village sites have been identified in the Coast Miwok territory, stretching from Bodega Bay to the north, eastward beyond the towns of Cotati and Sonoma, and along the Point Reyes National Seashore and the shores of Tomales Bay. The year 1579 was the earliest recorded account made by the Europeans of the Coast Miwok people on the coast of Marin in the Point Reyes area, as documented in a diary by Chaplain Fletcher who was aboard Sir Francis Drake’s ship. During the Mission Period of 1779–1823, Mission San Francisco de Asís (also called "Mission Dolores"), Mission San Rafael Arcángel and Mission San Francisco Solano used Indians, including the Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo people, as a key source of labor.
The territorial lands of the Southern Pomo are in Sonoma County, south of the Russian River to the southern Santa Rosa area. The Southern Pomo were the first inhabitants of what is now the town of Sebastopol, with several smaller traditional Southern Pomo villages located southeast of Sebastopol along the Laguna de Santa Rosa. California anthropologist Alfred L. Kroeber stated: