he Russian River is 110 miles long with headwaters North of Ukiah, near Willits, that flow southward to Forestville where it runs West and empties into the Pacific at Jenner, entirely on the ancestral and unceded lands of the Pomo, Miwok and Wappo Native American tribes. The watershed area is roughly 1500 square miles, with large dams Lake Mendocino in Ukiah and Lake Sonoma near Healdsburg. In Potter Valley a PG&E hydroelectric facility diverts water from the Eel River into the East Fork of the Russian River. The Russian River was first known among the Southern Pomo as Ashokawna, “East water place” or “water to the East.” Pomo, Miwok and Wappo tribes were the first inhabitants of the area living sustainably with the land dating back more than 10,000 years. Later an 1843 Spanish Land Grant referred to it as the Rio Grande before it became the name used today.