Qualla: Dry Creek Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians

Dry Creek Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians: Introduction

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit en:User:Paul.h, Public domain. The land was already ancient when the vineyards arrived. Long before Sonoma County became synonymous with Pinot Noir and tasting rooms, the Pomo people lived along the creeks and valleys of northern California in roughly 21 autonomous communities, speaking seven distinct Pomoan languages. Among them were the Mihilakawna and Makahmo bands, Southern Pomo groups whose descendants would become the Dry Creek Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians -- a federally recognized tribe whose 75-acre reservation near Geyserville sits in the heart of what real estate agents now call the Alexander Valley. The name honors Cyrus Alexander, a settler. The Pomo were here thousands of years before him.

Image: en:User:Paul.h | Public domain

Dry Creek Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians: Fur Traders, Gold Seekers, and the Shrinking World

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit en:User:Paul.h, Public domain. Sustained European contact came first through Russian fur trappers in the 18th century, drawn to the northern California coast by sea otter pelts. The 19th century brought American gold prospectors and settlers who arrived in numbers that quickly overwhelmed the native population...

Image: en:User:Paul.h | Public domain

Dry Creek Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians: Seventy-Five Acres from Eighty-Six Thousand

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit en:User:Paul.h, Public domain. In 1915, the federal government purchased land in Dry Creek Valley for use by both the Dry Creek Indians and the Geyserville Indians. The purchase was part of the U.S. rancheria program, which ran from 1893 to around 1922 and acquired 58 tracts across California where, as the gov...

Image: en:User:Paul.h | Public domain

Dry Creek Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians: Reorganization and Recognition

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit en:User:Paul.h, Public domain. The tribe reorganized through Articles of Association adopted on September 13, 1972, and approved by the Secretary of the Interior on April 16, 1973. The formal name changed from the simple "Dry Creek Rancheria" to "Dry Creek Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians" -- a deliberate assert...

Image: en:User:Paul.h | Public domain

Dry Creek Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians: River Rock and the Casino Economy

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit en:User:Paul.h, Public domain. In 2002, the tribe opened River Rock Casino on its reservation near Geyserville, joining the wave of tribal gaming enterprises that transformed Indigenous economies across the United States in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The casino complex includes the Quail Run Restaurant, t...

Image: en:User:Paul.h | Public domain

Dry Creek Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians: The Weight of Self-Governance

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit en:User:Paul.h, Public domain. Sovereignty carries its own turbulence. In 2001 and again in 2010, the tribe experienced internal political upheavals that the source materials describe, without understatement, as coups d'etat. The 2010 crisis involved competing special meetings called by the chairman and opposi...

Image: en:User:Paul.h | Public domain