Museums and Parks / South Yuba River SP
 South Yuba River State Park: |
| Native Americans
There were about 4,000 Northern Maidu or Nisenan in this area. They are believed to have migrated to the area of the Northern Sierra around 500 AD. Before the Maidu, the Martis people inhabited the area. They were more nomadic in life style (4000 to 5000 years earlier). During this time there were obviously no dams on any of the Sierra rivers, which allowed the Salmon and Steelhead to spawn freely. Game was plentiful as well as the acorns. The abundance of these natural food products allowed the Nisenan to develop a stable plant & storage system. They developed villages and were more settled than their predecessors, the Martis people. The Nisenan would migrate to the higher Sierra along with the deer herds. They would harvest acorns in the fall. This gentle life style changed forever with "European Contact." The gold discovery at Rose's Bar on the main Yuba River by Jonas Spect in 1848 brought the Europeans into direct contact with the fragile native American culture. The river flows were radically changed interrupting the fish spawns. The increased pressure on the deer herds dramatically reduced their numbers. The all important acorn crop was reduced when the oaks were cut down by the gold prospectors. In addition, persecution ran rampant driving the native Americans from their lands and then came the small pox epidemic of 1855 and other adversities driving down their population to less than 350 by 1860. By 1870 the Nevada County census showed only nine Indians in the county, down from more than 3,000 when the first census was taken in 1852. Disease, displacement, and outright killing led to their rapid decline. |
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