The driving force behind the recent land acquisition is Shelly Covert, Tribal Spokesperson for the Nisenan Tribe. In the mid-1800s, Shelly’s Nisenan ancestors experienced a horrific genocide as they were forcibly removed by settlers in pursuit of gold. This loss of family and homelands was the start of a systematic erasure of Nisenan language, culture, and identity. Years later[JC1.1], reparation was delivered from the U.S. to many tribes in the form of sovereign governance, granting them the right to govern themselves on reserved land. For the Nisenan Tribe, this period of healing and rebuilding came to an abrupt stop when their federal recognition was stripped in 1962.

The Tribe found themselves further fractured from the loss of land and federal resources which made it even harder for members to gather and connect, sustain cultural practices, and build economic security. To fill these critical gaps, Shelly, without prior experience in the field, took a daring leap in 2015 and founded the California Heritage Indigenous Research Project (CHIRP). Since then, CHIRP has developed projects and programs that retell Gold Rush history through the Nisenen lens and provide current and future Tribal members with tools to form their own Nisenen story.

One way CHIRP works to preserve Nisenan heritage is by purchasing land for Tribal members to reconnect with their ancestral homelands. For non-federally recognized tribes, working through a tribal-serving organization is one of the only viable paths to acquire land, but can be complex and expensive. In 20XX, Shelly learned about the Sustainable Agricultural Lands Program (SALC), which not only provides funding for acquisitions, but also training for how to do it. Through the program, CHIRP learned alongside their partner, the Bear Yuba Land Trust, which has proven to be a critical part of Shelly and CHIRP’s journey to build confidence and organizational capacity.

Next on CHIRP’s list was to find an available property that reflected the Nisenan Tribe’s vision and needs, which was not a simple task. That’s why it felt like magic to Shelly when 417 non-mined acres of their homelands were listed on the market, “It’s like somehow, somebody just turned time off in that little bubble and it was waiting for us. Waiting for all these people to come together so that they could press play on that bubble again.”

On the property, the stream runs strong and clear and Nisenan petroglyphs still blanket the scattered boulders. The Tribe’s ancestors walked these lands, and drank from these waters, and now their living Tribal family can do the same. Shelly recognizes that the journey to this point did not start with her own, but with those of her ancestors and the survivors of genocide that came before her.