‘UBA SEO opens its exhibit Erased in celebration of Nisenan Heritage Month

November 8, 2021 – The Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe and California Heritage: Indigenous Research Project invite you to the newest exhibition at the ‘UBA SEO Gallery. Erased is a thoughtful examination of the local and national history which has contributed to legislative and cultural erasure of the Nisenan.

Erased is also a powerful invitation and opportunity to educate ourselves as a community about the lasting impacts of anti-Indigenous legislature and forced assimilation, as well as the present-day endeavor for self-determination, land sovereignty, and rematriation for the Nisenan in their ancestral homelands.

Save the date: November 26th is Nisenan Heritage Day!

WHAT IS ‘UBA SEO

‘UBA SEO: Nisenan Arts and Culture is a new gallery space in downtown Nevada City. The gallery project falls under CHIRP’s Art Program and is yet another way to bring visibility to the Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe while fulfilling CHIRP’s mission: to preserve, protect, and perpetuate Nisenan Culture.

‘UBA SEO will be malleable, flowing and changing as needed to feature gallery exhibits, retail, and workshop space that amplify CHIRP’s mission and support the Nisenan. We want it to be a gem for the town and community as well. It is our desire to be a destination for authentic Native American art and education. We are excited to have an accessible brick and mortar space in downtown Nevada City where we can be seen.

‘UBA SEO is another amazing step toward raising the visibility of the Nevada City Rancheria and our continued fight to have our Federal Recognition restored.

WHO ARE THE NISENAN AND WHAT IS CHIRP

The Nisenan are the Indigenous People who were here thousands of years before the gold rush. Despite the destruction of their homelands, broken Treaties, and forced assimilation, they remain here in their homelands today and strive to have their identity reflected in the fabric of community. An Executive Order federally recognized the Tribe in 1913 and they had a reservation on Cement Hill called the Nevada City Rancheria until their wrongful termination by Congress in 1964.

True and correct knowledge of the Nisenan and their ancient existence on this land, up until very recently, had been fully erased from history and the Tribe was nearly forgotten.

The need for visibility as the Tribe fights to have their Federal Recognition and sovereignty restored, has begun to turn the tide of historic amnesia. Up until very recently, most of that education and change has had to be shouldered by the Tribe itself.

Thus, the California Heritage: Indigenous Research Project, aka CHIRP, was created to assist the Tribe in areas of Federal Recognition, Education, Art, Cultural Resource Protection, Land Back, Community Education and Communications, Media, Fundraising and more.

CHIRP’s mission serves the needs of the Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe, guides and informs right-relations with Indigenous communities, stabilizes Nisenan Culture and community, all while bringing education and connection to the public through its charitable purposes. CHIRP’s 501c3 status brings opportunities that as a terminated Tribe, the Nevada City Rancheria does not have.