‘We can be our Native selves’: Ukiah High students revive Northern Pomo language

by Sarah Stierch, Bay City News May 21, 2025June 2, 2025

(L-R) Ukiah High School students Tyeson Ramos, Nora Frease, both of the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians, teacher Buffie Schmidt, and students Lily Elliot and Sonny Elliot, both of the Hopland Band of Pomo Indians, in Ukiah, Calif. in May 2025. The students are the first graduates of the school's intense four-year Northern Pomo Language and Culture Program in which students learn to speak the once dormant, nearly extinct Northern Pomo language. (Ukiah Unified School District via Bay City News)

FOUR UKIAH HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS have become stewards of a once-dormant Indigenous language native to California after completing an intensive four-year course of study centered on Northern Pomo language and culture.

According to the Ukiah Unified School District, four Pomo students completed the school’s Northern Pomo Language and Culture program last week.

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