Sem-Yeto () was a leader of the Suisunes, a Patwin people of the Suisun Bay region of northern California. Baptized as Francisco Solano and also known as Chief Solano, he was a notable Native American leader in Alta California because of his alliance, friendship, and eventually the support of his entire tribe to General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo of Sonoma, in military and political excursions around Sonoma County and the San Francisco Bay Area. By allying with Vallejo and assisting him in quelling Native American uprisings north and west of Sonoma between 1836 and 1843, Sem-Yeto is regarded as a controversial historical figure. The California county of Solano is named for him. Childhood Sem-Yeto, an epithet meaning "brave or fierce hand," was born about 1798–1800 in the Suisun Bay region of California and lived there the first years of his life. On July 24, 1810, he was baptized at the San Francisco Mission and there adopted the baptismal name of the Spanish saint Francisco Solano. The recorder noted he was a Suisun, about 10 to 12 years old with the native name Sina, and that his father's native name was Sulapy, and his mother was deceased. It also records both his parents as gentiles (meaning not recruited or baptized). Notably, this baptism took place two months after the tragedy of his tribe losing their men in Moraga's 1810 raid on the Suisunes. Sem-Yeto was possibly captured as a child in Moraga's raid of 1810, or else his tribe brought him to the mission to live within two months of the battle due to losing so many adults in the raid. The raid had demoralized the tribe, and instead of fighting or moving inland, many chose to join the mission and stop fighting. Others believe it was more the next year that the move to the mission occurred, giving support to the view that Sina was among the approximately twelve children taken hostage in the battle. He presumably grew to adulthood at the San Francisco Mission, where he lived for seven years. He learned Spanish at the mission. In the 1820s he reached manhood and became known as the leader of his people, "Sem-Yeto" or "Chief Solano." Sonoma (1823–1846) In 1823, Sem-Yeto moved to the present-day town of Sonoma, California, to help build and populate the Mission San Francisco de Solano, along with many of the Suisunes tribe who had grown up