Description
The Nisenan are a group of Native Americans and an Indigenous people of California from the Yuba River and American River watersheds in Northern California and the California Central Valley. The Nisenan people are classified as part of the larger group of Native Americans known as the Maidu, though some dispute the accuracy of this relationship. They have been delineated by their geographical location, and so in many texts they are further subcategorized as the Valley Nisenan, Hill Nisenan, and Mountain Nisenan. 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.
Language
Nisenan (or alternatively, Neeshenam, Nishinam, Pujuni, or Wapumni) is a nearly extinct Maiduan language spoken by the Nisenan people of central California
Culture
Nisenan territory offered abundant year-round food sources. Food gathering was based on seasonal ripening, but hunting, gathering, and fishing went on all year, with the greatest activity in late summer and early fall. They gathered many different staples, not depending on one crop. Seasonal harvests could be communal or personal property. Most activities and social behaviors such as status, sharing, trading, ceremonies, and disagreements were important adjuncts to the gathering and distribution of food. Extended families or whole villages of hill Nisenan would gather acorns. Men would hunt while women and children gathered the acorns knocked from the trees. Buckeye nuts, sugar and digger pine nuts, and hazelnuts were also gathered.