CHIRP’s Mission

CHIRP's mission to preserve, protect and perpetuate Nisenan Culture is informed by the Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribal Council, which assesses and identifies the needs and best practices of their Tribal citizens. Through its mission, CHIRP identifies, funds, and implements programs and projects to address and mitigate the ongoing social, environmental, and racial injustices brought to Nisenan Homelands in 1848 that continue today in the form of historical trauma, illness, poverty, substance use disorder, under-employment, marginalization, and hopelessness. 

As part of CHIRP's mission, the Nisenan people themselves are cultural resources, history holders, Culture bearers, and survivors of genocide. They stand at the center of CHIRP's work. The people themselves are indicators for measuring CHIRP's programmatic successes and failures - they are symbolic thermometers that can measure the health and strength of Nisenan Culture, society, environment, and overall Tribal stability, indicating future survivability or extinction of a Cultural practice, perseverance of oral history, environmental knowledge, and the functionality and wellbeing of Nisenan people into the future. 

CHIRP realizes its mission through eight program areas: Cultural Preservation, Economic Development, Land-Back and Sacred Sites, Environmental and Human Health, The Arts, Research, Archives and Database, Visibility, Advocacy and Education, and Leadership Development. These programs exist in an intersectional feedback loop that weaves each area out into the larger society and back through the Nisenan people themselves.

While all of CHIRP’s cultural preservation activities are critical, there is only so much the organization can do without addressing a fundamental root cause of trauma and dis-ease among the Tribe, namely the separation of the Land from its People and vice versa. At this unprecedented moment, CHIRP has an urgent and time-limited opportunity to rematriate Nisenan Homelands through the purchase of Woolman at the site of an ancient Nisenan village named Yulića. This initiative returns land to its original caretakers, giving the Tribe a more effective and sustainable pathway towards healing and restoring justice and balance in our country and in our world.

The Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe

The Nisenan (pronounced nee-see-nan or nee-she-nan) are the Indigenous people of the Sierra Nevada foothills, their territory extending from the crest of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the north fork of the Yuba River, to the west side of the Sacramento River and the northern banks of the Consumnes River. 

For over 10,000 years, the Nisenan People lived in prosperous harmony with the land and its animal kin. The earth was laden with clean water, delicious food, strong medicine, pure spirit, sacred grounds, and vast-interconnected species of animals - deer, elk, wolves, bear - and the waterways brimmed with crayfish, eel, trout, and seasonal salmon. The Nisenan stewarded forests of pine, cedar and sacred oak trees, and valleys rich in willow, wildflowers and native grasses. 

The Nisenan, whose name means “from among us” or “from this side” were a vibrant, sophisticated nation of people who identified themselves by their village names and by their language and dialect. They were highly sought after healers and holy people, known for the beautiful, water right basketry, and maintained extensive trade-relationships with tribes throughout the area now known as Northern California. 

Through deep relationship with the land, the Nisenan people prospered in great wealth, rich culture, and stable social fabric. For the Nisenan, this land was a true Paradise.

To learn more about the Nisenan, please visit Nisenan.org.

The next Nisenan Heritage Day will be held on November 16th, 2024.

The Loss of Nisenan Homelands

The gold rush marked the end of the ancient Nisenan lifestyle and the ability of the Nisenan to thrive on their own land. The massive influx of gold miners and settlers created competition for resources (food and medicinal plants), destruction of the environment and persecution of the Native people, ultimately forcing consolidation of many Nisenan villages in the mid-1800s into one area in Nevada County. 

In 1887, Tribal Chief Charley Cully obtained a federal land allotment protecting 76 acres of Nisenan land on Cement Hill. It was his hope to secure a home for his people forever. In 1913, this land was converted by President Woodrow Wilson into the Nevada City Rancheria by executive order. Nevada City Rancheria is still a name used to identify the Tribe of Nisenan who are descended from the families that lived there.

Following the U.S. Congressional enactment of the Rancheria Act of 1958, which disbanded the Rancheria System in California, the United States illegally “terminated” the Nevada City Rancheria in 1964, revoking individual rights and status afforded to “Indians.” The U.S government sold the reservation land at auction, and left the Nisenan homeless. 

Of the 40+ Tribes throughout California that were terminated under that Act, today only three of those congressionally terminated Rancherias have not been restored. Despite significant legal efforts by the Nisenan Tribe, the Nevada City Rancheria remains one of the tribes in a “terminated” state. It is therefore barred from accessing Federal Indian programs and funding for housing, education, health, and economic sustainability.