Before Columbus
Pre-contact Pomos enjoyed non-exclusive use and occupancy of large areas of northern California in a region stretching from the northern shores of the San Francisco Bay through modern day Marin, Sonoma, Lake, and Mendocino counties. Pomos shared the Bay, shoreline, and islands with many other tribal groups that came to trade and gather in this resource-rich area. Land was managed and cared for by Indian people as a living entity. The idea of "owning" property and the bright lines of specific territories of exclusivity are non-native concepts. Indian people used the land in a balanced way—to support the human population while assuring a future harvest.

The landscapes of northern California were extraordinarily diverse and productive. Native peoples were an essential part of the evolution and ongoing maintenance of this rich system. Through their harvesting practices they managed the land in ways that increased species diversity and productivity. Their burning helped develop coastal prairies rich in nutritious wildflower and grass seed. Similarly, oak savannahs were maintained and extended through burning. Unlike annual agriculture, these plant communities accumulated soil, water, and genetic diversity. Early Europeans thought that the lack of trees along the Bay indicated poor soils until wheat crops planted in these areas demonstrated their profound productivity.

After European Contact
In 1775, Spanish explorers in Richardson Bay encountered Indian people in Tule boats, just like the kind the Guidiville ancestors used to traverse the Bay from the Marin shoreline for fishing, trade, and cultural exchange at Point Molate Island and other areas around the northern Bay.

After discovery of gold in California, a rush of land-hungry settlers drove Indian people, including the Guidiville ancestors, out of the resource-rich Bay Area. Guidiville ancestors retreated to the northern reaches of their traditional range in what is now Mendocino County. Indian people that did not retreat quickly from the Bay Area were captured and either killed or enslaved. In an attempt to reduce the bloodshed, the US Government sent three commissioners to California to negotiate treaties to move the remaining Indians away from the path of settlement. Throughout California, 18 treaties were negotiated and executed in 1851. The Pomos and other tribes ceded more than 90 percent of their ancestral lands in Marin, Sonoma, Lake and Mendocino counties in exchange for 254,000 acres of land surrounding Clear Lake.

The tribes never received the Treaty lands. The federal government left Pomos and other Indians in the region landless and homeless in a hostile anti-Indian society. Instead, the US Senators from California convinced Congress not to ratify the Treaties. They were locked away in a building in Washington, D.C. until discovered in the early 1900s. In the 50 years following signing of the treaties, 96 percent of California’s remaining Indian people were killed.

Between 1909 and 1915, the federal government purchased lands in California for the remaining homeless Indians. One parcel eventually became the Guidiville Rancheria. The Guidiville parcel, like almost all of the others purchased for homeless Indians, had no water or infrastructure necessary for survival. The deplorable conditions led to disease and early death of remaining Pomos. Tribal members traveled back and forth to the Bay Area to find work. This pattern continues today. In a report to Congress a federal employee wrote the following regarding the conditions at these Rancherias.

“The sanitary condition of the Indian rancherias is bad, but the feeling of helplessness and despair is worse... It is evident that if the Indian is to keep alive he must have some means of making his living... nearly 6,000 souls are dangerously near the famine line... There is very little work of any kind to be had, and the Indians often have to go 50 or 100 miles to work. Then he can

Since its first inception until it was terminated, the Guidiville Rancheria was a complete failure. The absence of water or adequate infrastructure made living on this barren land virtually impossible. In 1958, the federal government illegally terminated the Guidiville Tribe. The lands within the Rancheria were transferred to private hands. In 1987 (one year before the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act), Guidiville filed suit against the federal government for wrongful termination, as did many of the 42 terminated California tribes. Four years later, in 1991, the Scotts Valley/Guidiville federal lawsuit was settled and the Guidiville Band of Pomo Indians was restored to federally recognized status.