UKIAH, CA., 8/27/26 — Four high school graduates earned a state distinction for demonstrating proficiency in Northern Pomo this year, a language spoken in Northern California for thousands of years but almost disappeared, the Ukiah Unified School District announced Monday.
Kala Wright, Taylor Feliz Jr., Izzy Garcia and Zach Martinez received California’s Seal of Biliteracy in Northern Pomo at graduation in June, having completed Ukiah High School’s Native Language program, which completed its fifth year of instruction in the 2025-26 academic year, the school district said. Last year, the program saw the first two graduating seniors to receive the state seal for Northern Pomo.
As the school district noted in its announcement, Northern Pomo came close to being lost due to generations of persecution for speaking the language, which is traditionally passed down through speech. The school district said the students’ achievement represents not only academic excellence but the “continuing revitalization of a language that nearly disappeared.”
According to the announcement, the program grew from several years of collaboration between the school district and the local tribal community, as well as research from the University of California, Berkeley that helped shape the curriculum.
The instructor for the courses in the program, Buffie Campbell, said the students she’s teaching are “courageous and brave to revitalize a dormant language.”
In July, Campbell started a Northern Pomo language club at the Ukiah library where students can continue practicing the language after graduating. She said students from Mendocino College’s Northern Pomo language course come to the club meetings as well.
Campbell said she’s hoping to see use of the language “spread and ripple out into the community more.” She said part of that hope is seeing more signage in the Ukiah area with Pomo language.
