Oil on Canvas, 24" X 30"

This painting depicts a Native American of the Northern California Pomo tribe (circa 1924) gazing across Clear Lake in Lake County. Pomos, like many California Indians, have never been widely known outside the state. In fact, even within California, most people have never heard of the tribe. The Pomos were the only human inhabitants of the Mendocino-Sonoma coastline until 1810 when first the Russians invaded followed by the Spanish and Mexicans. The devastation suffered by these tribes was extraordinary. It is estmated that after the Spanish arrived their numbers had been reduced from several hundred thousand to some 20,000.