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49-529: "Like many other Tribes throughout the United States, the Nisenan have been misidentified and mislabeled. The Nisenan have been lumped together under inaccurate labels such as " Maidu ", "digger" and " southern Maidu ". However, the Nisenan are a separate Tribe with their own Cultural lifeways, their own leaders and holy people, a distinct geographic territory and their own ancient and unique language." The Nisenan have been delineated by their geographical location, and so in many texts they are further subcategorized as

98-549: A combination of tule, earth and wooden poles. Their floors were strewn with foliage and a fire occupied a clear space in the center of a floor. The smoke floated out through a corresponding hole in center of the roof. Earth was also piled on the outside of the Hu for additional insulation. K’um was a partially subterranean dwelling where ceremonial practice and dances took place. These structures were more prominent in larger villages. The K’um also provided lodging for visitors. The floor of

147-555: A different variation of the Nisenan language , researchers have inconsistent linguistic data on the language. Early documentation about the social organization of the tribe failed to account for the female Nisenan perspective, their voices and inclusion. Researchers concluded that the Nisenan were a patriarchal society , that they adhered to a patrilocal residence system, and followed a system of patrilineal leader succession. Because of

196-417: A fire and collected. Shell beads were used as a display of wealth and a form of currency. The beads were not shaved down by the Nisenan but were imported from coastal communities. Once worn down the shell beads were punctured, so they could be strung on strings. This currency was not always used with outside tribes. The Valley Nisenan and Hill Nisenan frequently traded with each other. The Nisenan who lived in

245-625: A language that some linguists believe was related to the Penutian family. While all Maidu spoke a form of this language, the grammar, syntax, and vocabulary differed sufficiently that Maidu separated by large distances or by geographic features that discouraged travel might speak dialects that were nearly mutually unintelligible. The four principal divisions of the language were Northeastern Maidu or Yamonee Maidu (known simply as Maidu ); Southern Maidu or Nisenan ; Northwestern Maidu or Konkow ; and Valley Maidu or Chico . The Maidu inhabited areas in

294-416: A long and tedious process that was undertaken by the women and children. The acorns had to be shelled, cleaned, and then ground into meal. This was done by pounding them with a pestle on a hard surface, generally a hollowed-out stone. The tannic acid in the acorns was leached out by spreading the meal smoothly on a bed of pine needles laid over sand. Cedar or fir boughs were placed across the meal and warm water

343-414: A mourning period of six months to three years; men were allowed to remarry sooner than the women. Many women most often opted to return to their own people than to remarry. Marriage to a husband's brother was also an option. Before any decisions to remarry, permission from deceased spouse's relatives was necessary as a form of respect. Funeral burning rituals are one of the most prominent death ceremonies in

392-889: A small effort at language revival. Most notably the release of the "Nisenan Workbook" (three volumes so far) put out by Alan Wallace, which can be found at the California State Indian Museum in Sacramento and the Maidu Interpretive Center in Roseville. As the Nisenan (like many of the Natives of central California) were not a unified nation but a collection of independent tribes which are grouped together primarily on linguistic similarity, there were many dialects to varying degrees of variation. This has led to some degree of inconsistency in

441-554: Is a nearly extinct Maiduan language spoken by the Nisenan people of central California in the foothills of the Sierras, in the whole of the American, Bear and Yuba river drainages. Ethnologue states that there is only one speaker left. However, it is believed that there are a few other speakers left, although the number is not known. Most speakers also speak one or more of the four different dialects. There has recently been

490-473: Is due to gemination as the double consonants in Japanese, or just simply the same consonant being on the end of one syllable and the start of the next. All vowels come in long/short pairs Long vowels are indicated by a doubling of the vowel. /e/ is a bit lower, level with /ə/ , somewhere between cardinal [e] and [ɛ] . /ɨ/ is sometimes further back, closer to cardinal [ɯ] . /u/ and /o/ are

539-524: Is so fine that a magnifying glass is needed to see the strands. In addition to making closely woven, watertight baskets for cooking, they made large storage baskets, bowls, shallow trays, traps, cradles, hats, and seed beaters. They used dozens of different kinds of wild plant stems, barks, roots and leaves. Some of the more common were fern roots, red bark of the redbud, white willow twigs and tule roots, hazel twigs, yucca leaves, brown marsh grassroots, and sedge roots. By combining these different kinds of plants,

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588-645: The Feather and American Rivers and in Humbug Valley. In Maiduan languages , maidu means "man". The Maidu people are geographically dispersed into many subgroups or bands who live among and identify with separate valleys, foothills, and mountains in northeastern Central California. The three subcategories of Maidu are: Estimates for the pre-contact populations of most native groups in California have varied substantially. Alfred L. Kroeber estimated

637-763: The Sacramento River to the west and the Sierra Mountains to the east. The southern reach went to about Cosumnes River but north of Elk Grove and the Meadowview and Pocket regions of Sacramento , and the northern reach somewhere between the northern fork of the Yuba River and the southern fork of the Feather River . Neighboring tribes included the Valley and North Sierra Miwok to

686-641: The Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians , a federally recognized tribe . The name Nisenan derives from the ablative plural pronoun nisena·n ,. The Nisenan have been called the Southern Maidu and Valley Maidu. While the term Maidu is still used widely, Maidu is an over-simplification of a very complex division of smaller groups or bands of Native Americans. The Nisenan live in Northern California, between

735-674: The 1770 population of the Maidu (including the Konkow and Nisenan) as 9,000. Sherburne F. Cook raised this figure slightly, to 9,500. Kroeber reported the population of the Maidu in 1910 as 1,100. The 1930 census counted 93, following decimation by infectious diseases and social disruption. As of 1995, the Maidu population had recovered to an estimated 3,500. The Maidu women were exemplary basketweavers, weaving highly detailed and useful baskets in sizes ranging from thimbles to huge ones 10 or more feet in diameter. The weaving on some of these baskets

784-605: The Cosumnes River and Yuba River, as well as in the Sacramento Valley between the American River and Feather River. There were as many as 13 specific Nisenan dialects. Eight are documented. They were previously documented as four dialects, classified as: The Spanish invaded and occupied Alta California in the late 18th century. Franciscan missions were built in California to settle the area, spread

833-533: The K’um was partially dug in below ground level. The door was oriented to the east. The K’um had two to four major posts depending on its size for support. An abundant source of food came from acorns . In the fall, villagers helped to forage for acorns. Long poles were used to acquire the acorns. Acorns were harvested in a granary. Acorns were then ground and made into mush, gruels, or cakes. Pine nuts, berries, and other sorts of vegetations were harvested as well. Tule root

882-471: The Maidu are traditionally a monotheistic people: "they greeted the sunrise with a prayer of thankfulness; at noon they stopped for meditation, and at sunset, they communed with Kadyapam and gave thanks for blessings throughout the day." A traditional spring celebration for the Maidu was the Bear Dance when the Maidu honored the bear coming out of hibernation. The bear's hibernation and survival through

931-399: The Maidu were primarily hunters and gatherers and did not farm. They practiced grooming of their gathering grounds, with fire as a primary tool for this purpose. They tended local groves of oak trees to maximize production of acorns , which were their principal dietary staple after being processed and prepared. According to Maidu elder Marie Potts: Preparing acorns as the food was

980-492: The Nevada City Nisenan, said, "Our elders have said that twins were not killed, but were considered fortunate if both survived during infancy. Our tribe has ancestors who are twins." Due to a high frequency of stillborn births, the people did not make cradleboards until after the successful birth of a child. An expectant mother close to giving birth avoided cold air, salt, meat, and cold water. The umbilical cord

1029-659: The Nisenan Workbook by Alan Wallace, [tʃ] and [ts] appear in complementary distribution. For example, the word for 'ten' is transcribed as 'maacam' (⟨c⟩ being realized as [tʃ] ) in Workbook #1 and 'maatsam' in Workbook #2. Similar allophony occurs between [s] and [ʃ] . /pʼ tʼ kʼ/ have been listed as ejectives (lenis ejectives according to "Central Hill Nisenan Texts with Grammatical Sketch" by Andrew Eatough) while other sources have labeled them simply as emphatic not specifying further as to how they contrast with

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1078-451: The Nisenan community. It included cremation of the body, and also of all of the deceased person's possessions. Cremation was the most feasible practice for tribes, primarily for those of a nomadic lifestyle, due to easier transportation and to limit grave robberies. The dead were reported to mingle in the surrounding space, before going to a land of the dead, an area that did not discriminate between good or bad. The deceased were thought to have

1127-627: The Rancheria System in California. Although 27 out of 38 Rancherias as well as additional tribes have been restored throughout the past 25 years, the Nisenan were the first to be denied restoration of their Rancheria in 2015. This withheld them from federal health and housing services, education programs, and job assistance programs. Today, 87 percent of the tribe live along or below California's poverty line. Extremely high rates of under-education, under-employment, drug and alcohol addiction, domestic violence, suicide, and poor health persist within

1176-533: The Roman Catholic religion, extract resources from the land, and enslave indigenous people for their labor. The Nisenan people had less interaction with Spanish settlers from the coast compared to neighboring tribes. They were relatively undisturbed by Spanish missionaries and religious missions, though Spanish and Mexican troops occasionally set foot on Nisenan land to capture enslaved indigenous people who had fled (many of whom in one particular example were of

1225-622: The Valley Nisenan, Hill Nisenan, and Mountain Nisenan. Because of these geographical barriers, the people of each region have distinct and unique customs and cultural practices. Although they have existed in these regions prior to European encounter, the people are not recognized as a tribe by the US government. The Nisenan previously had federal recognition via the Nevada City Rancheria . Some Nisenan people today are enrolled in

1274-473: The ability to take the forms of either creatures or weather patterns, but were not welcomed by the living community. They believed there was a distinguishable boundary between the living and dead. The mention of a deceased person's name was greatly discouraged. The Nisenan language encompasses 13 dialects that are as extensive as the language itself. The language is spoken in the Sierra Nevada, between

1323-447: The area, resulting in appropriation of their lands, decimation of their resources, more disease, violence, and mass murder. The influx of numerous migrants resulted in overuse of land, competition for game and water, and a strain on resources and the environment. When a drought took place, crops failed and people died of starvation. The Nisenan population dropped precipitously from approximately 9,000 to 2,500 people by 1895. A fraction of

1372-404: The available linguistic data, primarily in regard to the phonemes. The phonology of Nisenan is similar to both Konkow and Maidu . Taking into account the various dialects, there appears to be a fair amount of allophones across the dialects. The single affricate consonant has been most commonly described as alveolar [ts] , though some sources describe it as postalveolar [tʃ] . According to

1421-407: The community. The main goal of the Nisenan people is to restore their identity and re-establish representation of their tribe. Nisenan Heritage Day is held annually to showcase ceremonial dances and allow attendees insight as well as participation in traditional practices such as basket weaving. Additional efforts are put towards educating people on their language as they view it as their "connection to

1470-496: The couple themselves, but the parents chose the arrangements in older customs. Once both of their parents reached an agreement on the pairing, the couple was officially engaged. Shells and beads were gifted between the two families, and an event was arranged to celebrate their communion. Before the union was consummated, the couple was educated on their specific marital responsibilities. The man proved his ability to care for his wife by providing gifts to his in-laws. Couples moved from

1519-482: The first sixteen days after birth, with a heated flat stone placed on the belly to assist with passage of the afterbirth. A feast was essential after the sixteen days; during which the child was celebrated with relatives and a name chosen. Naming the child after an elder or ancestor was common. If there were no more names left to choose in a particular lineage, a close friend might allow the parents use of his family lineage for names. Marriage arrangements are now set by

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1568-428: The hills and the mountains, the Maidu built their dwellings partially underground, to gain protection from the cold. These houses were sizable, circular structures 12 to 18 feet in diameter, with floors, dug as much as 3 feet below ground level. Once the floor of the house was dug, a pole framework was built. It was covered by pinebark slabs. A sturdy layer of earth was placed along the base of the structure. A central fire

1617-501: The land itself." In 2024 the Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe through the 501(c)(3) non-profit California Heritage Indigenous Research Project launched its "Homeland Return" campaign to raise funds to purchase the former John Woolman School . Maidu The Maidu are a Native American people of northern California . They reside in the central Sierra Nevada , in the watershed area of

1666-430: The many flowering plants, and corms from wildflowers also were gathered and processed as part of their diet. The men hunted deer, elk, antelope, and smaller game, within a spiritual system that respected the animals. The men captured fish from the many streams and rivers, as they were a prime source of protein. Salmon were collected when they came upstream to spawn; other fish were available year-round. Especially higher in

1715-440: The neighboring Miwok tribe), find livestock, or traverse the land. The Nisenan, as with many of the tribes of central California, is not considered a strict political distinction. The people were highly decentralized, in small groups who shared a common language, with a wide spectrum on similar dialects. The Nisenan people historically lived as a number of small, self-sufficient, autonomous communities. Because each community spoke

1764-505: The northeastern Sierra Nevada. Many examples of indigenous rock art and petroglyphs have been found here. Scholars are uncertain about whether these date from previous indigenous populations of peoples or were created by the Maidu people. The Maidu incorporated these works into their cultural system, and believe that such artifacts are real, living energies that are an integral part of their world. Nisenan language Nisenan (or alternatively, Neeshenam, Nishinam, Pujuni, or Wapumni)

1813-479: The organization of descent, property customs also followed a patriarchal means. Women were also leaders through kinship, though not as commonplace as male leaders. Nisenan tribal families hold knowledge and memory of a shared society that was equally matriarchal|matrilineal in form and function. The Nisenan made two distinct living structure known as Hu , and K’um . Hu was the common structure in which villagers lived. These dome-shaped homes were typically built of

1862-694: The plain plosives. The Nisenan Workbooks depict these in transcription, though the sound guides have yet to distinguish them from the plain plosives. One source noted an audible click with /b/ and /d/ among some older speakers of at least one dialect of one of the Maiduan languages. The sound guides in the Nisenan Workbooks hold /b/ and /d/ as voiced plosives as in English. Some words have a double consonant (i.e. wyttee [one], dappe [coyote], konna [girl]) but it has not been made clear as to whether this

1911-500: The pool of men who headed the local Kuksu cult. They did not exercise day-to-day authority, but were primarily responsible for settling internal disputes and negotiating over matters arising between villages. The primary religious tradition was known as the Kuksu cult. This central California religious system was based on a male secret society. It was characterized by the Kuksu or "big head" dances. Maidu elder Marie Mason Potts says that

1960-616: The south, the Washoe to the east, the Konkow and Maidu to the north, and the Patwin to the west. The Nisenan were initially unaffected by European influence. In the early nineteenth century, their initial encounters with Spanish and U.S. expeditions were peaceful. In 1833, a severe malaria epidemic spread, which killed many of the Nisenan as well as other neighboring tribes. The 1849 Gold Rush attracted hundreds of thousands of Europeans to

2009-544: The surviving Nisenan remained in the Sierra Nevada foothills and acquired low-wage jobs. Documented history about customs can be contradictory and not always reliable, as early anthropologists were often researching several regions at once, often well after disruptions and trauma to tribes had already occurred due to European contact. According to some sources, if twins were born, they and the mother were often killed. But Richard B. Johnson, current Tribal Chairman for

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2058-627: The valley traded fish, roots, shells, beads, salt, and feathers to the Hill Nisenan. They in turn traded black acorns, pine nuts, berries, animal skins, and wood needed to make bows As of 2020, about 147 Nisenan were residing in Nevada City, California. The tribe is not recognized by the government which prevents them from receiving federal protection and financial aid. Congress enacted the Rancheria Act of 1958 in an effort to disband

2107-612: The winter symbolized perseverance to the Maidu, who identified with the animal spiritually. The Kuksu cult system was also followed by the Pomo and the Patwin among the Wintun . Missionaries later forced the peoples to adopt Christianity, but they often retained elements of their traditional practices. Stories of K'odojapem/World-maker and Wepam/ Trickster Coyote are particularly prominent in Maidu traditional narratives . The Maidu spoke

2156-539: The woman's home to their own place near the man's family, which is classified as patrilocal. During the process of the consummation of the marriage, the pair slept at a distance from each other for a number of nights. Each night, the man was allowed to advance closer toward the woman. The consummation was complete once they were "within touching distance." Widows, widowers, and divorcees could remarry without an engagement period as they no longer thought to require guidance from elders. Female widows were allowed to remarry after

2205-463: The women made geometric designs on their baskets in red, black, white, brown or tan. Maidu elder Marie Potts explains, "The coiled and twining systems were both used, and the products were sometimes handsomely decorated according to the inventiveness and skill of the weaver and the materials available, such as feathers of brightly plumaged birds, shells, quills, seeds or beads- almost anything that could be attached." Like many other California tribes,

2254-479: Was boiled or roasted over an open fire. Men typically hunted for game. In small parties they hunted deer, elk , and rabbits . Bears were hunted during the winter months when they were hibernating. Fishing was also popular in regions close to rivers. Freshwater fish like salmon , sturgeon , and trout were amongst the most popular. Food was not only limited to vegetation and game but also insects. Grubs, earthworms, and yellow jackets were eaten. They were smoked over

2303-414: Was cut with an obsidian knife, and the end of the cord was smeared with charcoal. The mother started breastfeeding her child two days after his or her birth, and children were usually weaned at two or three years old. After a birth, the new mother and her child remained in the birthing hut for the first 16 days, with the husband maintaining a fire day and night. The new mother slept in a seated position for

2352-552: Was poured all over, a process that took several hours, with the boughs distributing the water evenly and flavoring the meal. The Maidu used the abundance of acorns to store large quantities for harder times. Above-ground acorn granaries were created by the weavers. Besides acorns, which provided dietary starch and fat , the Maidu supplemented their acorn diet with edible roots or tubers (for which they were nicknamed "Digger Indians" by European immigrants), and other plants and tubers. The women and children also collected seeds from

2401-530: Was prepared in the house at ground level. It had a stone-lined pit and bedrock mortar to hold heat for food preparation. For summer dwelling, a different structure was built from cut branches tied together and fastened to sapling posts, then covered with brush and soil. The summer shelters were built with the principal opening facing east to catch the rising sun, and to avoid the heat of afternoon sun. Maidu lived in small villages or bands with no centralized political organization. Leaders were typically selected from

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