Pomo and Roundhouse

The Pomo

By Alex, Thomas, Nina, and Casey

Typed by Casey

The Pomo Native Americans were a fascinating tribe. The Pomo lived in the American Southeastern Woodlands, a warm climate with little rain. The Pomo mostly gathered their food from plants, such as seeds, nuts, and berries, but the region also supplied plenty of fish, deer, and rabbit for the Pomo to eat. They slept in unique structures called roundhouses, which were primarily made of wooden posts hidden by clay and stone. Their rich culture offered superior crafts, such as baskets and jewelry, that are now valued in museums.

The Pomo Native Americans used stone and wood posts to build a roundhouse. Then, they put a bark or reed mat roof on top and coated the posts with clay and stones, making a thick outer wall. After, they would build small fires inside the roundhouses. No smoke holes were added, as the smoke could vent through the mat roof itself. Roundhouses were not meant to be permanent structures for many reasons: firewood grew scarce, and dying bark and reeds in the roof presented safety problems and attracted pests. Also, the Pomo were nomads, which means that they moved around a lot, didn’t stay in the same places for a long time.

The Southeastern region supplied a variety of food. They also liked to eat most of the food, although some foods were disliked by seniors and young children. Some foods they ate were fish and clams. They even gathered nuts and wild grains! They ate many nuts that today we have not discovered and named. They also ate acorns, salmon, surf fish, abalone, mussels, sea lions, and bulb plants. The Pomo loved deer and small animals that were easy to hunt, like rabbit. The above reasons show that the Pomo ate a variety of foods, all of which their region supplied.

In the Southeastern Woodlands there is a little Native American habitat called a roundhouse. In a roundhouse there were many unique things such as the floor, the posts, and the shape of the roundhouse. The floor was ten to fifteen feet below the ground. Also, the roundhouse was ten to fifteen feet across. The roof was supported on posts that were made out of wood and were arranged around the outside of the floor. In the middle was the central post. The central post was the most important. On top of the posts they laid bushes, leaves, and bunches of sticks. On top of that they put red clay, then spread red clay all over the house. They made the house into a round shape, perhaps because the roof fit over the big round hole they dug when making the floor. The Pomo loved to tell long stories called myths. For religion, they followed medicine men and prophets who would have strong dreams and they would use those dreams as the base of their religion. There were 5 or 6 clans in a village and all had a certain basket or bowl in their roundhouse where they would place special objects. Children might put an interesting stone in the basket, or a strange-colored leaf. The basket/bowl and objects in it were symbolic, for the children would place things in it when they were going through good or bad times and when they died, the objects would be like the story of their life. The basket/bowl usually had simple designs such as zigzags or small circles, just bigger than polka dots. The much important basket was placed in the center of the roundhouse, right near the center post.

The climate of the Southeastern region was truly fascinating. The climate was thrilling because it was unpredictable and had many hazardous storms. In the southeast, the weather was unpredictable because it would be sunny and then the next day it would be cloudy! Finally, there was hazardous weather in the southeast. There were floods, hurricanes, and even some tornadoes!

The Pomo and other tribes of the Southeastern region were remarkable because of their habitat, the roundhouse, the region’s weather and food, and the regions supplies that were available for making a roundhouse.

* © 2009 5J City Publishing, Inc. *