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Nisenan
The Nisenan are a group of Native Americans and an Indigenous people of California from the California Central Valley. Some Nisenan people today are enrolled in the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, a federally recognized tribe. copied from Nisenan

Name
The name Nisenan, derives from the ablative plural pronoun nisena·n, "from among us".

The Nisesan have been called the Southern Maidu and Valley Maidu. While the term Maidu is still used widely, Maidu, translated to "person," is an over-simplification of a very complex division of smaller groups or bands of American Indians. copied from Nisenan

Territory
The Nisenan lived in the Central Valley of California, between the Sacramento River to the west and the Sierra Mountains to the east. The southern reach went to about Cosumnes River but north of Elk Grove and the Meadowview and Pocket regions of Sacramento, and the northern reach somewhere between the northern fork of the Yuba River and the southern fork of the Feather River.

Neighboring tribes included the Valley and North Sierra Miwok to the south, the Washoe to the east, the Konkow and Maidu to the north, and the Patwin to the west.

copied from [[Nisenan ]]

Gold Rush
The Nisenan were initially unaffected by European-American influence and their initial meeting with the Spanish and U.S. expeditions was peaceful in the early nineteenth century. In 1833, a severe malaria epidemic hit which killed many of the Nisenan as well as other neighboring tribes. The 1849 Gold Rush led to the appropriation of their land, decimation of their resources, more disease, violence, and mass murder. The influx of migrants created by the Gold Rush and their excessive use of the land caused a strain on the environment; this prompted a drought and starvation took over. The Maidu population dropped from approximately 9,000 to 2,500 people by 1995 and a fraction of the surviving Nisenan were left in foothill towns and worked low-wage jobs.

Birth Customs
Due to the frequency of stillborn births, cradles were always made after the birth of the child. If twins were born, they were often killed along with the mother. The mother avoided cold air, salt, meat, and cold water. She also slept in a seated position for the next sixteen days. Once the umbilical cord was cut, either parent spat on the stub. The mother started breastfeeding her child two days after his or her birth and children were usually weaned at two or three years old. A feast was essential after the sixteen days; if not, the people believed bad luck would strike the parents and the mother would die in her next childbirth. The name of the child was also decided during the feast. Naming the child after an old relative was common. If there were no more names left to choose, a close friend may allow the usage of his family lineage to the parents.

Marriage Customs
Although marriage arrangements are now set by the couple themselves, the parents chose the arrangements in older customs where once both of their parents reached an agreement on the pairing, the couple was then officially engaged. Shells and beads were gifted between the two families, and an event is arranged to celebrate their communion. Before the union was consummated, the couple is educated on their specific marital responsibilities. The man proved his ability to care for his wife by providing gifts to his in-laws. During the process of the consummation of the marriage, the pair slept at a distance from each other for a number of nights. Each night, the man was allowed to advance closer towards the woman. The consummation was completed once they were "within touching distance."

Widows, widowers, and divorcees remarried without an engagement period as they no longer required guidance from elders. Female widows and widowers were allowed to remarry after a mourning period of six months to three years. Many women most often opted to return to their own people than to remarry. Marriage to husband's brother was also an option. However, permission from the husband's relatives was necessary. Same restrictions applied to men, but they were allowed to remarry sooner than women.

Death Customs
Funeral burning rituals are one of the most prominent death ceremonies in the Nisenan community. It not only included the cremation of the body, but also of all of the deceased person's possessions. Cremation was the most feasible practice for tribes, primarily for those of a nomadic lifestyle, due to easier transportation and to limit grave robberies. The dead were reported to mingle in the surrounding space, before going to a land of the dead, an area that did not discriminate between good or bad. The deceased have the ability to take the forms of either creatures or weather patterns, but were not welcomed by the living community. There is thought to be a distinguishable boundary between the living and dead, and even the mere mention of a deceased person's name was greatly frowned upon.

Overview
Also referred to as Southern Maidu, the Nisenan language encompasses a variety of dialects that are extensive as the language, itself. The language is spoken in the Sierra Nevada, between the Consumnes River and Yuba River, as well as in the Sacramento Valley between the American River and Feather River.

Spanish Influence
Spanish originally settled California in the late 18th century. Franciscans missions were brought to California to help populate the area and spread the faith. The Nisenan people had less interaction with Spanish settlers from the coast compared to neighboring tribes. They were relatively undisturbed by Spanish missionaries and religious missions, though Spanish and Mexican troops occasionally set foot on Nisenan land to recover fleeing Indian slaves, many of whom in one particular example were of the neighboring Miwok tribe, find livestock, or traverse the land.

Social organization
Nisenan, as with many of the tribes of central California, is not a strict political distinction, but are a group that shared a common language, with a wide spectrum on similar dialects. The Nisenan people historically have no been a unified polity but instead a number of small, self-sufficient, autonomous communities. Each community spoke a different variation of the Nisenan language, which has led to some inconsistency among the linguistic data on the language.

copied from Nisenan

The Nisenan tribes encompassed the traits of a Patriarchal society. The tribes adhered to a Patrilocal residence system and most likely followed a system of Patrilineal chief succession. Because of the organization of descent, property customs also followed a Patriarchal means.

Current Events
147 Nisenan currently reside in Nevada City, California. The tribe is not recognized by the government which preventing them from receiving federal protection and financial aid. Congress enacted the Rancheria Act of 1958 in an effort to disband the Rancheria System in California. Although 27 out of 38 Rancherias as well as additional tribes have been restored throughout the past 25 years, the Nisenan were the first to be denied restoration of their Rancheria in 2015. This withheld them from federal health and housing services, education programs, and job assistance programs. Today, 87 percent of the the tribe live along or below California's poverty line. Extremely high rates of under-education, under-employment, drug and alcohol addiction, domestic violence, suicide, and poor health persist within the community. The main goal of the Nisenan people is to restore their identity and re-establish representation of their tribe. Nisenan Heritage Day is held annually to showcase ceremonial dances and allow attendees insight as well as participation in traditional practices such as basket weaving. Additional efforts are put towards educating people on their language as they view it as their "connection to the land itself."