Maidu Indian Help Please!!!

[cookiemonstr87]

Hey everyone.
I hate to disappoint anyone, but I really haven't have anytime to do any treasure hunting at all lately. But I'm still young and still have plenty of time to do that. Well anyways, I have been doing a lot of research lately, trying to find out more information about what went on around my place around the time that the Gold Rush hit. As I have been reading a lot about the people that once occupied the vast land of El Dorado County, I have been thinking, that just maybe, my house really does hold some kind of meaning in it. Unknown until now. I think that I may have found the answers I have been looking for. The only thing left to figure out is about the Maidu Indians. Has anyone ever heard of them? Know about them? Anything? I have hit a stump at this point. The Maidu Indians are pretty hard people to research, that's for sure. Everytime I think I am getting somewhere with them the information just dissipates. From what I understand, the descendants of the the Maidu Indian Tribes, barely know enough about their own culture to help me out. But I wish that there was some more info somewhere about these Indians, because if just knew a little bit more to confirm my theory, I believe that I might be able to add a little piece of History, of what might never be discovered. I hate to leave you guys hanging like this, but I'm going to get back to my research. If anyone can find out more about the Maidu Indians, please let me know! It would really help! Thanks Guys. I'll get back to this tomorrow and let ya know what all I have found out. If I don't, just give me a couple of days. Believe me, you'll need the spare time to sit down and read it all when I'm done. It will sort of be like a documentary! Well Gotta go for now! Talk to ya later.
Danna

 

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[bearbqd]

Sorry, have no idea on that one cookie, but good luck in your research.

 

[cookiemonstr87]

thanks

 

[Tom_in_CA]

El Dorado County in CA, right? There's probably scores of stuff written about all the various CA indians over the years. No shortage of indian stuff written by archaeologists here. If you're having a hard time finding stuff about just that particular band or tribe, it could be because you're limiting your word searches too narrowly. Sometimes indian groupings had, or used, different names for themselves. Like here on the coast of CA for instance, there were sub-groups, with their own names, within a larger name that covered the entire central coast area, or whatever. So maybe there is stuff written about the indians in your area, but just not referring to them as "Maidu", and just going by a broader name for the entire Sierra foothills region.

The CA indians had no refined metals, so their sites, before the contact-period, would have nothing to find with metal detectors. Once the missions got started, and trading began, it was only a matter of 50 to 75-ish yrs, before they became totally assimilated into the culture, and their ancestral villages were abandoned, or gave way to modern cities, etc... Here on the coast, we've found some of the historic indian "rancheria" sites that gave up some early metal items, because apparently they were on trading routes, and had contact with the incoming Spanish.

There's a few gold rush country folk on the Kinzli California forum that might know more about your area. To get to the main page, you have to sign up, but it's easy. Just pick a password to log in.

 

[hsjrev]

I assume you've seen these since they took about 3 minutes to find with a quick internet search:

http://thefirstamericans.homestead.com/Maidu.html

http://oldsierrahistoricalranch.com/maidu.htm

http://www.greenvillerancheria.com/history.htm

http://www.maidu.com/maidu/maiduculture/culture.html

http://www.middlemountain.org/body/buttes/maidu.html

http://www.scsc.k12.ar.us/2002Outwest/NaturalHistory/Projects/LachowskyR/Maidu.htm

http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/tribes/pujunan/maiduindianhist.htm

Finding local history can be tough. Some of the best resources I've found are older folks in the area. Over the years, I've been lucky in meeting gentlemen in their 70's and older that share some common interests and are willing to share stories of the area that they heard from their parents or grandparents.

 

[packerbacker]

The Maidu are divided, mainly on dialectic grounds, into the Nishinam or Southern Maidu (holding the whole of the American drainage plus that of the Bear and Yuba Rivers), the Northeastern Maidu (on the upper reaches of the North and Middle Forks of Feather River), and the Northwestern Maidu (below the high Sierra, part in the foothills where the South, Middle, North, and West Branches of Feather River converge, and on upper Butte and Chico Creeks and part in the open Sacramento Valley along the lower courses of the same streams

 

[packerbacker]

If you just google the word "Maidu" you will get 306,000 hits
The following list of Northwestern Maidu "districts" or "tribelets" was given
to Dr. Kroeber by a Wintun half-breed, who had spent most of his life associated with the Chico Maidü:

Shi'da-wi, between Sacramento River and lower Pine Creek.
Mu'li, on the Sacramento between Pine and Chico Creeks.
Ts'êno or Ch'ê'no, on the west side of the river about opposite the mouth of Chico Creek.
Su'`nusi, on the Sacramento from Chico Creek to the Llano Seco or Parrott grant about opposite Jacinto or a couple of miles above.
Batsi', near Jacinto, on the west side, opposite and perhaps including the Llano Seco grant.
Pi'nhuk, the principal settlement, at Butte City, of a tribelet covering a considerable extent of country.
Micho'pdo, from Dayton to Chico east of Little Chico Creek.
O'da-wi, from Chico City water tank to the foothills and from Edgar slough to Sandy Gulch.
E'sken, from Durham to the foothills and Butte Creek to Clear Creek.
Shi'udu, from Clear Creek to Feather River and from near Oroville to past Liveoak.
Ku'lu, east of Shi'udu from Feather River toward the foothills about as far as the Oroville branch of the Southern Pacific Railroad and from Oroville inclusive south not quite to Marysville.
Yu'pu, from the Southern Pacific bridge over the Feather River north of Marysville to about 2 miles south of the city and from a short distance west of the Feather to the foothills (this was a Nishinam village).