Giclee on canvas
With permission of Grace Hudson Museum, Ukiah, California.​​
Earliest Inhabitants
At the far north end of the great Santa Rosa plain, where the steep Mayacamas mountains on the east and the coastal hills to the west converge, the Russian River emerges from a twisting gorge. This land was home to native people known as the Makahmo Pomo long before the town of Cloverdale existed.
Along the Russian River, ten miles north of Cloverdale, stands the beautiful “Frog Woman Rock," the site of ancient petroglyphs and the subject of native legends of unrequited love.
Peaceful hunter/gatherers, the traditional Pomo used regional plants and game for food but their primary food source was acorns. Baskets were used in all facets of life, including cooking, food gathering, storage, rituals, family memorials, and healing. Pomo baskets are considered by many fine-art experts to be among the most beautiful in the world.​
The Cloverdale Pomo numbered between 600 and 960 people at the time of the first European contact in the 1820s. In the 1850s, the Pomo were forced to leave the Cloverdale area for reservations in Mendocino and Round Valley. They returned to the area and in 1921 were given land dedicated to the Pomos. The Cloverdale Rancheria of Pomo Indians maintains an active presence in Cloverdale and recently coordinated an exhibit of Pomo baskets and history at the History Center.
The Seed Conjurer
Known here and abroad for her paintings of the Pomo, Ukiah artist Grace Carpenter Hudson portrayed "The Seed Conjurer" in oils in 1896. The conjurer plays a wooden flute as part of a ritual to ensure a bountiful harvest. His traditional Pomo ceremonial regalia includes a feathered top knot, a flicker quill headband, an eagle feather dance mantle, and long slender dance plumes.
