Columns & Opinion

Named Ashokawna—“the water to the east”—by the Southern Pomo. Slavyanka, “slavic woman,” by the Russian Colony. “Saint Ignatius” and “big river” by the Spanish colonists who came after. The river itself remains nameless, and mighty, winding 115 miles to the sea. It drains 1,500 square miles of Mendocino and Sonoma...