Land Back: The Nisenan’s Urgent Campaign to Return Home

Written by: Saraya Hamidi, Indigenous Partnerships Manager

The Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe’s ancestral territory spans thousands of miles across the Sierra Nevada foothills, but due to centuries of mishandled Treaties and harmful federal policies, the Tribe was left landless. For the first time in years, they have an opportunity to re-acquire homelands, but they need support.

When gold was discovered in Nisenan Territory in California in 1848, over 300,000 settlers flocked to the region, displacing and enacting violence on Indigenous people and taking nearly all Nisenan homelands. A few years later, Tribal leaders signed the Camp Union Treaty, reserving 12 square miles between the Yuba and Bear Rivers for the Tribe. However, the Senate failed to ratify the Treaties, and the Tribe was left landless and homeless.

In the early 1900s, an Executive Order recognized and re-established a land base for the Nisenan, a 76-acre reservation called the Nevada City Rancheria. Just 51 years after establishing this permanent home, Congress terminated their recognition and illegally sold their reservation at auction.

Again without a home base, the Tribe suffered trauma, poverty, and the near erasure of identity and culture.

Despite these challenges, the Tribe perseveres. Through their nonprofit California Heritage: Indigenous Research Project (CHIRP), they preserve and promote cultural identity and serve as an active community force through initiatives such as the North Yuba Forest Partnership, of which Blue Forest is a fellow member.

The organization has a time-limited opportunity to purchase 232 acres of homelands located on a historic Nisenan Village site called Yulića. This land would give the Tribe a new start, a place for Elders and Tribal members to live, gather, revitalize culture, practice tradition, reconnect with and restore homelands, and cultivate Indigenous foods and medicine. It would further their efforts to restore federal recognition and rebuild as a nation.

To acquire the property, they need to raise $1.5 million by April 4th and an additional $1 million thereafter. Nearly 1,000 community members have already contributed to their campaign on GoFundMe, but there is still a significant amount to raise to make this dream a reality.

The Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe encourages folks to donate to the campaign and share it widely with their communities. For philanthropic funders that support landback transactions, please reach out to me, Saraya Hamidi, at saraya@blueforest.org, for an introduction to CHIRP leadership.