Sonoma County’s First Inhabitants
Long before Europeans “found” California, Sonoma County’s first inhabitants had been living and thriving in the area for thousands of years. Having migrated millennia ago, the First People of Sonoma County were numerous and lived in harmony with each other and nature.
- For thousands of years before European explorers arrived in the 1500s, California was home to more than 300,000 Native Americans, belonging to hundreds of small groups and speaking at least 90 different languages.
- The first inhabitants of California were Paleo-Indians, a great number of who migrated to the central and northern coasts. They were nomadic bands that fished and hunted along the coastline, eventually settling into villages in our region as far back as 10,000 to 12,000 years ago.
- Four main Native American tribes made their home in what is now Sonoma County between 3,000 and 5,000 years ago. The first were the Kashaya Pomo (pronounced: kash-ya POH-moh), who settled a large area along the northern coastline near present-day Fort Ross.
- The Pomo were followed by the Coast Miwok (pronounced: MEE-wok) settling along the south coast near present-day Bodega Bay.
- The Patwin settled in the southeast near present-day Sonoma and the Wappo in the northeast near the Mayacamas Mountains.
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