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Dry Creek Rancheria - California (U.S.)

Native American

image located by Valentin Poposki, 3 January 2008

The band
The flag

See also:

The Band

Today the Dry Creek Rancheria covers only 75 acres of what was once an 86,400-acre territory. As in 1915, Dry Creek Tribal members continue to survive through economic development. Without traditional resources and extensive land holdings, the majority of the tribe has been forced to adapt to much of the Anglo-European society and culture. Nevertheless, the Pomo people remain a strongly independent and distinctive community.

History

During the 19th and 20th centuries, exploitation of the indigenous peoples in this region occurred first by the Russians, secondly by the Europeans, and then by the American groups. The influx of new settlers to Northern California and the richness of the agriculturally valuable lands long home to the Pomo were key factors in the federal government's decision to resettle the Pomo people to established reservations or rancherias. This forced relocation is remembered as the most destructive in Pomo history and is referred to as the "Death March." California Indians--once estimated at 330,000--dipped down to a mere 15,000 by the early 1900s. In the 1910 census, only 1,200 Pomo were recorded.

Official recognition for the Mihilakawna (a band of Southern Pomo) by the federal government did not occur until 1915, and thus created the name of the tribe today -- the Dry Creek Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians.

The federally designated Dry Creek Rancheria, where a small tribal population remains together without segregated land entitlements, occupies a remote 75-acre area of steep slopes. Today, ancestral tribal lands are flooded by water from the Warm Springs Dam and Lake Sonoma.

Valentin Poposki, 3 January 2008

The Flag

The flag is shown on its website: drycreek.simplewebware.com/cgi-bin/default.asp?aID=50, but without explanation of the symbolism.

Valentin Poposki, 2 January 2008