Cahto

The Cahto (Kato) Native American tribe is the southernmost indigenous group of Athabascan speakers on the Pacific Coast. Their traditional homeland was comprised of the Long Valley and the Cahto Valley in northern California’s Mendocino County. Surrounded on three sides by the Yuki, they historically maintained extensive ties with the southern Pomo. Historians have estimated that there were 500 Cahto living in northern California before Euroamerican contact, although others have estimated upwards of 2,000 Cahto natives. Today, there are an estimated 100 Cahto living on the Laytonville rancheria and the Round Valley reservation.

Name: Cahto. Cahto is a Pomo word meaning “lake.” It is often written as Kato, and in historical accounts the Cahto were sometimes referred to as the Kaipomo.

Location: Northern California in Long Valley and Cahto Valley, as well as around the headwaters of the South Fork of the Eel River.

Population: Between 500 and 2,000 in the 1770s; 100 today.

Language Family: Athabascan.

First Contact by Euroamericans: 1851 – documented by Federal Commissioner Redick McKee.

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