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The remnants of the village of Kutba near the Cosumnes where Chief Hunchup lived until the early twentieth century. C. Hart Merriam Collection 1904 (courtesy of Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley). 05112_gsl_128pg_r8_v8.qxd:Stories of the Land 5/20/09 3:59 PM Page 9
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California historians have long referred to the time prior to the arrival of Spanish, Mexican, and other European explorers as “pre-history,” essentially associating history with written records alone. Nowadays as archeologists and historians learn more about the indigenous cultures that inhabited the land long before these explorers, they understand that “records” of human history extend much further back in time and come in many forms beyond the written word.
ral histories, pictographs, petroglyphs, and other signs left on the land are now floodplains extended from Rancho Cordova through the northern half of Brighton to being studied, and the presence of indigenous peoples is marked indelibly on the downtown Sacramento and south through today’s Land Park region. The people hunted landscape that surrounds us today. We are learning how to see and read what bountiful herds of deer, antelope, and elk that browsed along the river and in these marshlands. they left behind. Increasingly, the term “pre-contact” is replacing prehistory when referencing California indigenous cultures, as it is a more descriptive term for the There is little record left of this first era of the Nisenan, known as the Early Horizon thousands of years aboriginal peoples lived in the Sacramento Valley before (2500 BC–1000 BC). No Early Horizon sites have been found along the American River meeting the first Europeans. and adjacent lands, but archaeologists believe this may be due to the changing river courses and associated silting processes burying the sites over time. They believe most The earliest known human presence in California has been documented as far back as 10,000 first sites existed far from the current river course as indicated by archaeological studies years ago. It is believed that the same ice age that brought the development of the fossil in other portions of the Central Valley. In those areas, they found that the Central Valley rivers and changed the course of the American River through our Brighton area brought people buried their dead in well-organized cemeteries with the deceased placed in the the first people to North America — over the Bering Strait, down through Canada, following ground fully extended with the head oriented to the west. Personal property was buried coasts and rivers that provided them with welcome habitat and bountiful food sources. with them. Shell beads made from abalone and olivella shells (from the Pacific Ocean) were traded from coastal communities and found in all burial sites. In the Sacramento Valley, archaeological research continues to produce a large amount of knowledge about local Native Americans extending back well over 4,000 years. The American From the end of the Early Horizon and stretching well into the Middle Horizon (1000 BC and Cosumnes River watersheds provided ideal land for villages and towns with easy access –AD 300) the population grew significantly. People transitioned from hunting primarily to fish, game, and vegetation for food; wood and tules for housing; and stone and wood for large game to fishing. There were large-scale harvests of salmon and other migratory fish. tools and trade. Among the first inhabitants in the Brighton area were the Valley Nisenan, the These provided a stable food source along the river, and population density increased in southernmost of three groups known as Maidu. Nisenan is a term meaning simply “people.” villages accordingly. Studies of skeletal remains show that adults lived long lives and there was very low infant mortality. Several sites along the American River from this time period When the earliest Nisenan lived in the Central Valley, the American River area looked vastly have been located. different than it does today. Tules and tidal marshes stretched for miles, and the annual 05112_gsl_128pg_r8_v8.qxd:Stories of the Land 5/20/09 3:59 PM Page 10
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Villages and towns of the Notomusse Nisenan District (above) bordered the north side of Brighton Township along the American River and the Estom Nisenan District (right) bordered the south side (copyright Sheri Tatsch 2008). 05112_gsl_128pg_r8_v8.qxd:Stories of the Land 5/20/09 3:59 PM Page 11
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Not surprisingly, much more information exists about Late Horizon (AD 300 –1769) peoples in the Protohistoric period, then abandoned and later reoccupied during the American and their communities because of the numerous archaeological sites still in existence. This Period (1850–1900). This was one of only two sites of the Valley Nisenan along the river period is often divided into The Late Prehistoric (AD 300 –1500), the Protohistoric from known to have a Kum or dance-house. As such, villagers for many miles around would AD 1500 to 1769, and the beginning of European influence. Bows and arrows came into come to it for special celebrations. use increasingly in this period along with more intensive use of mortars and pestles, reflecting a growing reliance on acorns as a food source. The dead were often cremated, One of the last remaining Nisenan villages in the American River-Cosumnes region was but burials also remained common. Personal belongings were often burned or destroyed Kutba, near the Cosumnes, where Chief Hunchup lived. Although this was some distance rather than interred. away from Brighton, photographs of the remnants of his village provide an example of how the Kum house along the American River near Watt Avenue probably looked. What The Valley Nisenan territory extended from the Bear and Yuba River watersheds to the we know of the lives of the Nisenan who lived, traveled, and hunted through Brighton Cosumnes, including Morrison Creek, which flows through Brighton to the Cosumnes. comes from interviews with Chief Hunchup and a few other survivors of the epidemics The entire American River drainage was within this area as well, from the confluence of that devastated their communities in the 1800s. the Sacramento River, east into the foothills of the Sierras, ending at an elevation around 3,000 feet. Locating villages close to water sources – rivers, creeks, or running springs — Communication among the villages throughout the region was vital to the well-being of provided easier access to both water and food. To accommodate seasonal flooding associated the villagers. Hunchup had an uncle who was a “carrier of news,” a weda bone’pa. A village with all of the major rivers, the Nisenan often built their villages on knolls. When natural headman would appoint a person to this position based on their powers of observation knolls were not available, they constructed them, carrying earth and raising the elevation and communication abilities. It was through this person that villages learned what was of their town sites 8, 10, 12 and more feet. happening in other villages, who had died, been married, or taken sick. The carrier’s powers of observation were vital because as he traveled between villages he would also note where The homes they constructed on these sites were dome-shaped and built from nearby good acorn crops, berries, and other foods existed (Bibby 2004). materials — frames made of poles that were covered with tules and earth. Large villages also had a ceremonial house called a Kum. Kums were partially subterranean, dug 3 to 4 Through these news carriers and other modes, the Nisenan maintained communication, feet into the earth with large poles erected and beams attached to create a frame that hunting, and trade relations beyond their individual towns and political districts. Long was then covered by tules, brush, bark, and earth. before the arrival of the Spanish and subsequent explorers, the Nisenan had formed a complex society. Valley Nisenan towns commonly had as many as 1,500 inhabitants and Dr. Sheri Tatsch, a linguist and scholar of indigenous cultures, recently completed five years were autonomous, each with a leader. Although leadership was usually hereditary, the researching and mapping Nisenan Maidu and Miwuk town sites throughout the Central Nisenan left themselves the option to elect a non-relative as well. Being a leader required Valley and the Sacramento area. Her maps show multiple Nisenan villages in the Brighton the ability to provide for the people, to negotiate within the town and externally with other vicinity, including Kadema on the north side of the American River near Watt Avenue (2006). towns, to resolve disputes, and to call for and arrange for hunts with other towns. If these A housing development off American River Drive now covers that site, which Tatsch found abilities were beyond the person in line for leadership, the community would select was part of the Notomusse Nisenan District. Notomusse and Estom were the two Nisenan another for the position. This could be either a man or a woman (Tatsch 2008). political districts overlapping the Brighton area. Kadema was a major village first occupied 05112_gsl_128pg_r8_v8.qxd:Stories of the Land 5/20/09 3:59 PM Page 12
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1841 hand-drawn map of the Brighton area showing “Tierras Esteriles” or barren lands (courtesy of SAMCC). 05112_gsl_128pg_r8_v8.qxd:Stories of the Land 5/20/09 3:59 PM Page 13
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Journal entries show that the earliest explorers (Spanish, Mexican, and Canadian) to the Early indigenous people’s contact with the Spanish probably occurred in the 1770s when Sacramento Valley and California expected to find a landscape relatively devoid of human Jose Canizares explored the Delta. He removed some of the native people to the missions, life. What they found was the opposite. Alexander McLeod led a Hudson Bay expedition but due to their successful resistance, no Nisenan went to missions. In 1808 Gabriel Moraga through the Central Valley in 1829 and reported the following: traveled along the inland rivers and proceeded north to the Sutter Buttes (Moraga 1808). However, the Valley Nisenan, including those along the American River, had minimal contact The Indian population in the Bonaventura Sacramento is very great. with Moraga. It is impossible for me to give even an idea of their number. Several villages we passed each contained at least 1500 men and every creek One of the first maps of the Brighton area archived at the Sacramento Archives and Museum or lake where water could be found Indians were stationed at in Collection Center (SAMCC) was made by an unknown Spaniard or Mexican in 1841. It great numbers (Boyd 1975). shows a vast area extending from near Sunrise Boulevard today through the Mather and Brighton areas labeled “Tierras Esteriles” or barren lands. The area was part of the American Tatsch’s maps confirm this, showing 18 Nisenan villages surrounding the Brighton area River floodplain, marshy with large areas of tules that provided a tremendous resource for alone. As in other areas of the valley, villages and towns within the Notomusse and Estom the Nisenan who used the reeds for boat-building materials, tools, baskets, clothing, and districts were sited to withstand local climate and weather conditions. Using burden baskets food. Native grasslands also extended from the edges of these marshlands, south beyond carted on their backs, the Nisenan could build dirt “mounds” large enough to accommodate Morrison Creek and west toward Sutter’s Fort. The Nisenan used various grasses for basketry a village of 1,500 people in a week’s time (Tatsch 2008). A local example of one of these is and harvested the seed for food. Oak woodlands were abundant south and east of the Mather Sacramento’s Old City Cemetery which is situated on top of a large mound that used to be Field area, with their acorns another food source. the Nisenan town of Sama.
Vernal pools existed on Brighton area lands as well, and Nisenan set nets over drying pools Many of these hand-constructed knolls were found in what is now downtown Sacramento of water to capture birds and small animals. Men would hunt deer in large groups, setting and environs: people visiting Sutter’s Fort in the heart of Sacramento today will note that fires in the grasslands to surround and trap the deer before killing them. The vegetation it sits on land higher than any surrounding it. Maymen was the Nisenan town in that area. growing along what is now the American River Parkway extended beyond the confines of Sacramento’s city hall is built on the site of yet another Nisenan village. Sloughhouse, just today’s levees — poplars, oaks, cottonwoods, wild grape, soaproot, buckeyes, laurels, east of Brighton, was built on part of the remains of Yuhume. It was not coincidence that sycamores, and oaks. Up to 31 species of wild clovers grew in springtime and along with so many towns established by the new settlers were built where Indian villages once stood; wild oats were bountiful food for Nisenan and animals alike. Tule elk browsed in the the Nisenan were a practical people who constructed sites to withstand the seasonal flooding, marshlands where Folsom Boulevard and Watt Avenue are today. Other large mammals and once the settlers experienced floods, they put the mounds to use yet again by building roaming the area included antelope, grizzly and black bears, puma and bobcats portions of their towns upon them. (Woodward and Smith 1977). The river banks were home to beavers, otter, and mink. There were ducks, geese, and cranes around the water as well as upland birds like quail, doves, hawks, eagles, and condors. 05112_gsl_128pg_r8_v8.qxd:Stories of the Land 5/20/09 4:00 PM Page 14
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THE NISENAN: PRE-CONTACT TO THE PRESENT Nisenan grinding rock along the American River (courtesy of Chris Aschenbrener). 05112_gsl_128pg_r8_v8.qxd:Stories of the Land 5/20/09 4:00 PM Page 15
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What we know of the Nisenan today is that they had a deep understanding and knowledge of the cycles of nature. In fact, the local Nisenan read nature’s signs so well that they knew, even before heavy rains began, when floods were going to occur, and moved to high ground calmly and systematically.
With plentiful resources along and adjacent to local creeks and rivers, there was never need The results of some of this management can still be seen from the air in the distinct pattern to travel far for food. The local Nisenan were nomadic inasmuch as they traveled with the of planting in some oak groves in the valley and along the foothills — arrangements that cycles of the seasons, but they typically traveled within a defined territory. They marked were not purely a result of natural selection but due to human management. The oaks rocks to denote the boundaries of their lands to others and returned to the same townsites along the rivers, creeks and foothills were managed as a crop, passed down from one surrounding Brighton, in some cases, for thousands of years. Nisenan woman to another, with individual trees owned by one generation after another. They favored and nurtured the largest oaks, providing them with adequate space to grow. What we know of the Nisenan today is that they had a deep understanding and knowledge Similar patterns can be found with other plants that were planted as “crops” in a natural of the cycles of nature. In fact, the local Nisenan read nature’s signs so well that they knew, landscape rather than in an intensively managed agricultural field where only a single crop even before heavy rains began, when floods were going to occur, and moved to high ground was cultivated. calmly and systematically. We also know that they did not depend entirely on the abundance of nature at all, but were among those peoples responsible for maintaining the American and The Indian method of gathering seed using seed beaters and gathering baskets also Cosumnes River drainages at a relatively sustained ecological constant. What was occurring facilitated plant dispersal. They gathered and saved seed specifically for broadcasting in for many hundreds of years pre-contact was a form of indigenous land management. appropriate habitats — techniques that have been documented among the local Nisenan. 05112_gsl_128pg_r8_v8.qxd:Stories of the Land 5/20/09 4:00 PM Page 16
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Fire was also an important tool in their land management. Ethnobotanist M. Kat Anderson Through these and other landscape practices, the Nisenan in the villages and towns along explains that the oak stands were burned intentionally with a variety of goals in mind: the American River, around Brighton, and into the foothills greatly modified the woodland communities. Woodlands were more open, ecologically diverse, productive, and resistant • To facilitate acorn collection. Regular fires reduced undergrowth and the accumulation to catastrophic fires than they would have been in the absence of management (Anderson of duff, making movement simpler and fallen acorns easier to spot. 2005, 2008).
• To suppress diseases and acorn pests. Burning increased the quality and quantity of Many early settlers arriving in the Sacramento area were unable to comprehend the Nisenan acorn production by helping to control the insect pests that would otherwise consume lifestyle. Times, and attitudes towards indigenous peoples, were different and period a large percentage of the crop. publications reveal the limited knowledge held then about Nisenan and other native • To stimulate the production of branches for making cultural items. Following a fire, peoples. Given what we now know of Nisenan culture, we can see the disparity between suppressed buds along the base of oak trunks or above the roots were released, what was written during the period for general public consumption and the reality. The sending up long, straight flexible shoots useful for making many things. following is excerpted from Thompson & West’s History of Sacramento County, California, written in 1880, wherein the authors quote “experts” of the era to describe the local • To decrease the likelihood of a major conflagration that would destroy the oaks. Sacramento Nisenan population: Regular fires kept fuels in the form of shrubs, young conifers, leaf litter, and dead
branches from accumulating. The Neeshenams [Nisenans] were very low on the social scale. They had no political organization, and no punishment for murder but personal • To increase edible grasses and other seed-bearing herbaceous plants under the oaks revenge. They had no social or political organization except the and in the surrounding forest. family. Sutter’s Indians were Neeshenams.
• To enhance the growth of deergrass. Deergrass, one of the plants most prized for They had made no advances toward civilization since the discovery basketry materials, grows in association with oaks, and burning favored the growth of the country by the Spaniards and although they possessed a of individual plants and increased the size and vigor of populations. favored portion of the earth, they almost entirely neglected tillage, and they lived by the change or natural productions of the plains and forests. 05112_gsl_128pg_r8_v8.qxd:Stories of the Land 5/20/09 4:00 PM Page 17
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As with these authors, the Spanish explorers, members of trapping expeditions, and even On our return, late in the summer of 1833, we found the valleys John Sutter, as he was founding what would become Sacramento, did not realize that the depopulated. From the head of the Sacramento, to the great bend and fertility and abundance of “the favored portion of the earth” the Nisenan lived upon was slough of the San Joaquin, we did not see more than six or eight live due to their work, the direct result of hundreds of years of land management. Indians, while large numbers of their skulls and dead bodies were to be seen under almost every shade tree, near water where the Nisenan society flourished prior to the exploration and settlement of Sacramento. The uninhabited and deserted villages had been converted into grave- journals of trappers and fur traders described them as well fed and usually helpful. But yards (Secrest 2006). with the hunters and trappers came malaria. Between 1830 and 1833 it is estimated that Over the next two decades there were many first-hand accounts of unoccupied, seemingly 75% or 20,000 of the local Nisenan people died (Cook 1955). Entire villages of people abandoned Indian villages (Cook 1955). The population dwindled further to 15,000 disappeared in a year’s time. Malaria first appeared on the Columbia River in 1830, from additional disease, and between 1833 and 1846 the Nisenan were reduced to a mere introduced by ships docking at Fort Vancouver and spread to California by trapping 3,000 people. parties, possibly with the John Work expedition of 1832. Members of Work’s trapping
party were known to be suffering the intermittent symptoms of malaria. By late summer of As mentioned previously, Hunchup and members of his family were among the survivors. 1833, John Warner, travelling south from Sacramento with another trapping party, His story illustrates the change that overtook the Nisenan way of life with the arrival of the described a scene that contrasted starkly with earlier writings describing valleys and riparian “newcomers,” the term they used for the explorers and new pioneers. In 1904, when the areas with thousands of Indians: photos shown on the next page were taken of Kutba and Hunchup, he was 72 years old and his mother was still alive. He had moved the village to Kutba after telegraph lines were strung through the midst of their old village, disrupting the harmony of the community. 05112_gsl_128pg_r8_v8.qxd:Stories of the Land 5/20/09 4:00 PM Page 18
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Chief Hunchup and family members at Kutba roundhouse on the Cosumnes. C. Hart Merriam 1904 (courtesy of Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley). 05112_gsl_128pg_r8_v8.qxd:Stories of the Land 5/20/09 4:00 PM Page 19
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In the new society forming around the settlers, Hunchup and his people had no legal title And yet today, well over a century after the disappearance of so many of the land’s original or right to the lands where they had lived and traveled for so many years. They survived human inhabitants, we are seeing their revival. The Maidu Interpretive Center now sits on 30 the malaria epidemic and the other diseases brought with the Gold Rush, but eventually acres of land near Roseville occupied by the Maidu for 7,000 years. It offers teacher training, were forced to leave Kutba to live in Sloughhouse and Sheldon because they were starving. docent-led tours, and facilities for gatherings where Nisenan and others can learn about and share their culture. The University of California, Davis, houses The Native American Lang- The fisheries along the American River had been destroyed by sedimentation from hydraulic uage Center and the Department of Native American Studies. The theme of the California mining. The elk, bear, and puma had been hunted out by professional hunters supplying Indian Conference and Gathering held there in October 2007 was “Building Community,” miners with food. Lands were being fenced for cattle. Old ways, the traditions of thousands and its program listed over 20 pages of events, papers, and activities for participants. of years, became impossible to follow. At the end of his life, Hunchup picked hops to earn enough money to purchase food. He was nearly 100 years old when he died (Tatsch 2008). In addition, environmental scientists, botanists, biologists, ecologists, and others are In 1904 C. Hart Merriam captured some of the only photos ever taken of the Nisenan who increasingly studying indigenous peoples’ methods of land management. In efforts to lived around Brighton, photos of Hunchup and his roundhouse, allowing us a rare glimpse incorporate sustainability in our lives, we are turning away from thinking linearly about at the past. the world around us to a philosophy that resembles the American Indian belief that life is a continuum where the past is part of the future. Brighton and its surrounding areas are part With the advent of the American Period — a time named for the new “Americans” arrival of this continuum from geologic and Nisenan time through pioneer settlement to today. in California — the land and its people would experience many changes. The near-destruction of one civilization in some ways facilitated the settlement of the Sacramento region by another. Abandoned villages left safe places, above flood level, for settlers to build. Some Nisenan who survived became the region’s first agricultural labor force, replaced eventually by new emigrants needing jobs planting, tending and picking crops in Sloughhouse, Brighton, Elk Grove, and other areas surrounding the city of Sacramento.