Kuksu Shamanism

Kuksu was the religion of the Pomo, Patwin, Maidu and other peoples of Northern California, from the Sacramento Valley west to the Pacific coast. Its heart was a men’s secret society that met in underground dance rooms and appeared in costume at public dances, enacting spirit beings to secure health, good harvests, fertility and fair weather.

The Pomo told of Kuksu, a red-beaked supernatural being who lived in a sweathouse at the south end of the world and was a healer. The dancer who played him was often regarded as the medicine man.

Among the Patwin and Maidu a variant called Hesi admitted women. In the 1820s Spanish missionaries took many southern Pomo into the missions of San Rafael and Sonoma, and a smallpox epidemic from Fort Ross killed many in 1837.