Humans Find The Yuba

Petroglyphs near Fordyce Creek / South Yuba

“The cultural practices that accompany the traditional environmental knowledge of California Indians are more that common-sense strategies for sustainability; these are expressions of indigenous cosmologies which center on belonging to the land.” (Settler Law, by Stephanie Lumsden, Notes from Native California, Summer 2014).

 Eleven thousand years ago glaciers were retreating from the Sierra Nevada. Prior to that it wasn’t possible for humans to populate the mountains and foothills. Geologists call this post-glacial time frame the Holocene – or “wholly recent” epoch. Most of the archaeological evidence human communities in the Yuba River watershed dates from no earlier than 4,000 years ago, although there are some exceptions. The earliest people appear to have relied heavily on hunting. Their legacy includes stone tools, petroglyphs, hunting blinds, quarries, trails, campsites, ceremonial sites and remains of small settlements.

About 1,500 years ago other populations arrived and occupied the western slope of the Sierra Nevada. Those who settled in the watersheds of the Yuba, Bear and America Rivers spoke the Nisenan language. North of Marysville and Honcut Creek, in the foothills of the Feather River and Butte Creek, is the home of the Koyon’kawi, sometimes called Koncow, or Northwestern Maidu. While north of the North Yuba, including its tributaries, Canyon Creek and Slate Creek, is the territory of the Northeastern Maidu, more often called the Mountain Maidu. On the east side of the summit, including Lake Tahoe, are the Washoe. Descendants of these groups still live in their ancestral homelands.

Through comprehensive knowledge of their homeland the Nisenan were able to change what foreigners saw as inadequate and unreliable natural resources into a rich and productive landscape.  Nisenan horticultural practices included burning, pruning, weeding, coppicing, tillage, sowing and selective harvesting. Burning was the most widely employed, efficient and significant vegetation management tool. Fire was used to clear brush, to maintain grasslands and meadows, to enhance the production of basketry and cordage materials, to modify understory species, to reduce fuels and pathogens and had many other benefits.

 The Nisenan were hunter-gatherers, but this simple sounding characterization doesn’t begin to reflect the degree of sophistication required to nurture and manage a favorable environment. They were not wandering in a state of desperation, continually on the edge of starvation, but instead maintained sustainable ecosystems that satisfied their desires.

Nisenan settlements were relatively small, with a restricted home range that generally extended over two or more biotic zones providing the bulk of the food supply. Weather permitting, they traveled frequently using traditional camps in various ecosystems. Their habitat was primarily woodland and meadow and canyon and stream environments. Natural diversity provided access to a large array of both terrestrial and aquatic plants and animals collected from freshwater marshes, grasslands, oak woodlands, riparian corridors, and forests. The ecosystem between 1000’ and 3000’ supported the greatest frequency of plant species which provided the main source of food. Their diet was supplemented by mammals, fish, birds and insects.

For most of the year Nisenan groups moved with the cycles of ripening plants and the migrations of fish and animals. Some plants, like clover, were eaten raw or steamed as a vegetable. On June 2, 1848, Jonas Spect, while prospecting for gold on the Yuba River, just above Timbuctoo Bend, wrote in his diary, “… we met a large number of Indians, all entirely nude and eating clover.” Yampa had a desirable potato like consistency. grasses produced small seeds that could be ground, while gray and sugar pines produced nutritious and delicious nuts.

Wild Plums, Hazel Nuts and Blackberries

When the Nisenan realized that the bitter tannic acid found in acorns could be leached they became the most dependable food source. Acorns from black oak, live oak, blue oak, valley oak and several others were a mainstay. Not only were they nutritious, flavorful, and generally abundant, they could be stored too. In the Fall, when the acorns were ready to be gathered, extended families who had been dispersed in subsidiary campsites came together for communal harvest, feasting and social activities. Acorns, as well as seeds, bulbs and plants were pounded and reduced to meal in bedrock mortars. The greatest density of California Indians was found in the Foothill Woodland and Ponderosa Pine-Black Oak ecosystems where the acorn was a critical dietary staple.

There were also edible blackberries, thimble berries, strawberries, service berries, elderberries, choke cherries, manzanita berries and wild plums. Other plants were used exclusively as medicines. Many plants were groomed and harvested at particular times, especially those intended for basket weaving. All of the plants have their timings, particular habitats, and associations with other plants and animals. It took alertness and a sound understanding of regional ecosystems to synchronize the Nisenan’s annual movements for maximum nutritional and epicurean benefit.

Bedrock Mortars / Deer Creek

In the Yuba watershed there are thousands of campsites with bedrock or portable mortars and/or waste flakes and edged stone tools. These sites are found in almost every setting from the lower foothills to the summit and they are testimony to the incessant seasonal movements that characterized native culture.  Often the ripening of an important plant was also the occasion of a social or ceremonial event and an opportunity for trade. A good leader (headman, or “Captain”) had the ability to mobilize extended families and synchronize their movements to coincide with the ripening of plants and other natural cycles, while simultaneously honoring traditional ceremonial, trade and social obligations.

Frequent relocation to other campsites was intended to deliberately coincide with peak availability of plants and animals and was a dominant aspect of Nisenan lifeways. Because of their familiarity with the plant world, and the fact that most food came from plants, it was probably women who chose the campsites. For mobile groups a possible residential location involves an appraisal of the character of a place. There were considerations about water, aspect, shade, prevailing winds, firewood, aesthetics, availability of resources for basketry, the location’s history, and other factors. To enjoy a full and good life the Nisenan used a mixed strategy by using acorn-based semi-sedentary camps during the winter and as soon as the weather allowed started hunting and gathering and using their ancillary camps. Far from static, theirs was a dynamic body of knowledge that was alert to change and capable of adaptation.

Cultural Persistance

 The Nisenan and Washoe hunted, fished, gathered seeds, harvested bulbs and berries and deliberately set fires. They managed the landscape according to their preferences and maintained sustainability. The original people of the North-Central Sierra Nevada believe that they have lived in their homelands forever. This is verified in their stories, ceremonies, histories and place names. They invested in their place the intention to live there and therefore care for this place in perpetuity. The Nisenan, Koyon’kawi, Maidu and Washoe are still here.

If you're not an Indian now, it's unlikely that you were an Indian in a past life.

(Photographer unknown)