In Fall 2023, the California Heritage: Indigenous Research Project (CHIRP), a Tribally-guided nonprofit serving the Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe, was presented with an opportunity to purchase 232 acres of land near Nevada City, California, in the Sierra foothills. This land was once part of the thriving Nisenan community and town of Yulića. In a successful grassroots campaign, CHIRP fundraised over $2.5 million. Escrow closed in September 2024 following a lengthy negotiation with local government, the sellers, and county code enforcement. Tribal spokesperson Shelly Covert commented, “Contained within what might look like an everyday land transaction are the opportunities to re-identify and re-ignite our cultural identity through land rematriation as well as building a framework for revitalization of land, cultural practices, and culturally informed community protocols.”
The Nisenan (pronounced nee-see-nan or nee-she-nan) are the Indigenous Peoples of the Sierra Nevada foothills. Their territory extends 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. The Nisenan, whose name means “from among us,” or “from this side,” were a vibrant, sophisticated Nation of highly sought-after healers and holy people known for their beautiful, water-tight basketry. Following the discovery of gold in their territory in 1848, the Nisenan Peoples and their ancestral homelands were at the epicenter of the environmental and humanitarian disaster. The influx of settlers during the ensuing California gold rush led to widespread displacement, violence, cultural erasure and assimilation, and the destruction of the land’s natural abundance.
In 1887, Chief Charlie Cully secured a federal land allotment for the Tribe, which was later converted into the Nevada City Rancheria in 1913. The Rancheria was illegally “terminated” following the U.S. Congressional Rancheria Act of 1958, which sought to disband the entirety of the state’s rancheria system. The U.S. government sold the reservation land at auction, leaving the Nisenan homeless and stripped of their federal recognition status. Despite significant legal efforts by the Nisenan Tribe over the last two decades, the Nevada City Rancheria remains one of three Congressionally terminated California rancherias whose federal status has not been restored.
To address the vacuum created by the loss of federal recognition, Tribal members and community allies founded CHIRP. Established in 2015, the Tribally-guided nonprofit takes direction from the Tribal Council to identify, fund, and implement programs and projects to address and mitigate the ongoing social, environmental, and racial injustices brought to the Nisenan homelands in 1848. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, CHIRP acts as a proxy for the Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe and its approximately 140 members, providing cultural revitalization services, land rematriation and stewardship efforts, Tribal visibility and community education, and ongoing advocacy and litigation efforts to restore the Tribe’s federal recognition.
Homeland Return: An Unprecedented Opportunity
In late 2023, CHIRP was given an opportunity to purchase and rematriate 232 acres of ancestral homeland on behalf of the Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe. The land, located on the historic Nisenan village site Yulića, was previously stewarded by the Woolman Quaker Experiential Education School and Friends Meeting House. When CHIRP leaders were notified of the intent to sell Woolman, they engaged the opportunity to purchase the property with hopes to establish a land base for the Tribe—and with it, an opportunity to reclaim their land-based ceremonial and cultural practices, provide much-needed Elder housing, and renew the Tribe’s relationship with its ancestral homelands and its animal kin.
Thus began the Homeland Return, an urgent grassroots campaign to raise $1.4 million in 10 weeks. Despite then tremendous ask from the community, the campaign was immensely successful, mobilizing the community in support of Land Back and exceeding the fundraising goals. Much of the campaign’s success was built upon CHIRP’s long-standing work of amplifying the visibility of the Tribe through art, education, and local community partnerships. During the height of the fundraising efforts, allies participated in community meetings to brainstorm ways to support the campaign, hosted independent fundraising events, and spread awareness through their networks. These grassroots efforts were amplified by CHIRP’s outreach to foundations to honor dollar-for-dollar match opportunities.
Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribal Council Members at the Yulića Medicine Rock. Photo courtesy of CHIRP.
Ultimately, CHIRP and its supporters exceeded the Phase 1 goal and raised over $2.5 million within 4 months, a testament to the community’s dedication and solidarity in engaging in reciprocal giving to address historical injustices, champion cultural revitalization, and support the goals of restoring a piece of the Nisenan Tribe’s ancestral homeland. While skeptics assumed that the ability to raise the necessary funds on such a short timeline would be the greatest barrier to purchasing Yulića, the substantial code issues uncovered during the discovery process and the tension between Tribal protocols and Western government regulations were the most significant hurdles to navigate during the Homeland Return Campaign.
As with any large land acquisition, the discovery process was complex and required lengthy negotiations. Conversations revealed that the needs of the Tribe, the land, and the animal kin are not considered in the modern framework of government policy. The negotiations, though laden with historical complexities and power differentials, required significant patience and commitment to Tribally-informed conservation, and ultimately served as an invitation for colonial systems to evolve and incorporate diverse perspectives. CHIRP and the Tribe have continued to engage this land acquisition as an opportunity to foster genuine collaboration between Indigenous communities and western conventions.
Vision For Yulića
With escrow closed and the rematriation of Yulića secured, the long-term goals of healing and stewarding the land, establishing safe and secure housing for Tribal Elders, and opportunities for cultural revitalization can begin. The land at Yulića is in deep need of healing and restoration. Building upon CHIRP and the Nisenan Tribe’s ongoing stewardship of local creeks and restoration corridors, the immediate work at Yulića involves re-routing roads around meadows, cultivating native plants and trees, and updating existing structures to limit their impact on the natural environment. Together, through the acts of remembering the ways of the past and bringing Tribal wisdom into the future, reimagining what is possible in light of this Indigenous Traditional Knowledge and modern technologies, and revitalizing cultural and environmental practices, CHIRP and the Tribe hope that Yulića may one day be a model of Indigenous innovation and stewardship.
To heal the Earth, ultimately, humans must return to their natural place as stewards, protectors, and kin to the natural world, living both on and with the land. One of the most significant outcomes of Yulića’s rematriation is the ability for the Nisenan Tribe to begin to heal their relationship to the Earth, starting with the Elders. For the Nisenan, the Elders are the culture. The opportunity to have Tribal Elders living together on the land is central to providing safety and security to a generation that experienced extreme hardship and trauma, as well as preserving and protecting Nisenan culture and wisdom for future generations.
Restoration and healing of the land go hand-in-hand with revitalizing community ties and culture. As such, the rematriation of Yulića offers a profound healing opportunity for both the Earth and the Tribe. In returning undisturbed access to their ancestral homelands, and thus the revitalization of sacred ceremonial traditions, reclamation of cultural and land-based practices, and re-establishment of Indigenous environmental practices, the land and the Tribe heal in unison.
Many Indigenous traditions share the understanding that the health of the Earth, a Tribe, and its culture are symbiotic—neither Tribe nor land can thrive without connection to the other. As with many of the Indigenous communities of Turtle Island, colonization has ripped Tribes from their homelands, and the Earth and the Tribes have suffered in innumerable ways. Homeland return and rematriation of Yulića stands as a profound step towards healing.
--Shelly Covert (Nisenan) is the Tribal spokesperson of the Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe.
Top photo: Tribal Members and CHIRP Staff at Yulića. Photo by Sean Patrick Leydon.
