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California Heritage: Indigenous Research Project

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California Heritage: Indigenous Research Project

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HUṠWEJ (formerly California Heritage: Indigenous Research Project) is a 501(c)(3) organization created to Preserve, Protect, and Perpetuate Nisenan Culture

CALIFORNIA HERITAGE: INDIGENOUS RESEARCH PROJECT (CHIRP) was created to research, document, preserve, and protect California Indigenous culture. As an important first task, CHIRP has been following the history and stories of the Foothill Nisenan people of the Nevada City Rancheria, and has played an important roll in the re-introduction of the Nisenan people to the non-native community now residing in the Nisenan homelands of the Bear and Yuba river watersheds, especially in Nevada County where the Nisenan once had a federally recognized reservation. CHIRP lead restoration efforts at the Firehouse No.1 in Nevada City, California, where some of the last remaining Nisenan Tribal artifacts are archived and available for public viewing. CHIRP continues to support the Nisenan in their quest to re-establish themselves as the Indigenous people in the foothills where their families have resided for thousands of years.

10/10/2026

Nisenan Heritage Day: niṡek huṡwej "our wish" is tomorrow (Sunday 10/11)! Join us for this all ages, free, community event. There will be great conversations, pine nut station, kid zone, a really great raffle, and even some free snacks.

Don't miss out on the conversation with Lyla June Johnston! We hope to see you there. 💫

10/10/2026

Perhaps this is what niṡek huṡwej – our wish asks us to recognize:

The Nisenan wish was never only one thing.

It can be Land returned to Tribal Stewardship.
Indigenous Children growing up connected to Culture.
Healing within families and community.
Traditional knowledge guiding care for Land.
Tribal Economic stability.
Federal restoration.
Nisenan People seeing their art, language, history, knowledge, and contemporary presence reflected throughout their own Ancestral Homelands.

And when one part of the wish becomes possible, the horizon expands again.

This Sunday, Nisenan Heritage Day brings the Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe and broader Sierra Foothill community together to celebrate what has already taken form, strengthen the relationships supporting the work today, and look toward what might become possible next.

And from that new place, we ask: What do we wish for now?

Join us.

Sunday, Oct. 11 | 12 – 4 PM
Miners Foundry | 325 Spring Street

Free and open to the public

10/08/2026

None of this work happens in isolation.

As Nisenan presence has become increasingly visible throughout their Ancestral Homelands, recognition has created opportunities for deeper relationship.

Community members show up. Partners share resources and expertise. Donors contribute. Relationships deepen. And possibilities that once felt distant begin moving toward tangible reality.

The broader community does not determine the Nisenan wish. The wish belongs to the Tribe.

But we can choose to be in relationship with it: to listen, learn, show up, contribute, build reciprocal partnerships, and support the conditions in which Tribal priorities can flourish.

Join us at Nisenan Heritage Day to continue building that relationship. And if you would like to directly support the work of HUṠWEJ and the evolving priorities of the Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe, donate at huswej.org

10/06/2026

Sometimes a wish coming trust doesn’t complete the story. It changes the conditions for which the next wish can emerge.

The rematriation of Yulića – 237 acres of Nisenan Ancestral Homelands – has created space for deeper Cultural connection, Land Stewardship, Tribal Wellness, Youth Development, and possibilities that could not exist in the same way without Land.

As the Tribe’s priorities and possibilities have grown, the nonprofit supporting its work has evolved alongside them. Earlier this year, CHIRP became HUṠWEJ – meaning “wish” in the Nisenan language – reflecting a shift from protecting what remained toward creating capacity for what can become.

Join us for Nisenan Heritage Day to celebrate what has already taken form and look together toward what might come next.

Sunday, Oct. 11 | 12 – 4 PM
Miners Foundry | 325 Spring Street

Free and open to the public.

10/05/2026

What we allow ourselves to wish for is shaped, in part, by what we believe is possible.

For generations of Nisenan People living within the continuing aftermath of the gold rush, displacement, assimilationist policies, termination, and erasure, hope itself could carry risk. Over time, those conditions began to change, and possibilities that once felt distant began to take tangible form.

Today, another shift is taking place: a growing willingness within the Tribe to dare to wish for more.

That generational evolution is at the heart of this year’s Nisenan Heritage Day theme: niṡek huṡwej – our wish

Read the full blog post at huswej.org/nisek-huswej, and join us Sunday, October 11th at the Miners Foundry as we honor what came before, celebrate what has taken form, and consider what becomes possible next.

Sunday, Oct. 11 | 12 – 4 PM
Miners Foundry | 325 Spring Street

Free and open to the public.

10/02/2026

Join the Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe and HUṠWEJ for the 17th Annual Nisenan Heritage Day: niṡek huṡwej – our wish

This year’s theme invites us to consider the Tribe’s wish not as a single destination, but as something responsive and continually evolving. As long-held wishes take form, they create new responsibilities, relationships, and possibilities for what the Tribe can imagine next.

Throughout the afternoon, Tribal members, partners, authors, artists, and educators will gather for conversations exploring Land Stewardship, rematriation, visibility, storytelling, and Indigenous-led world.

Come listen, learn, gather, and celebrate what has taken form – and join us in considering what becomes possible next.

Sunday, Oct. 11 | 12 – 4 PM
Miners Foundry | 325 Spring Street

Free and open to the public.

09/26/2026

We have shared what the Indian Boarding School and Adoption Eras attempted to destroy, how these policies affected Nisenan families, and why their impacts continue today.

Now, we invite you to gather with us.

Join the Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe, HUṠWEJ, Be the Change / Elevate Youth, and community partners for an afternoon of remembrance, education, Cultural sharing, and community connection.

Saturday, September 26 | 4:00pm - 6:00pm
Odd Fellows Lodge | 212 Spring Street, Nevada City

The gathering is free and open to the public, with light snacks and refreshments available.

09/26/2026

If colonization created harm by severing relationship, healing must include restoring them.

Kinship is medicine. Language is medicine . Relationship with Land is medicine. Culture is the medicine.

HUṠWEJ’s work supports these interconnected forms of healing through Tribal youth programming, Community Wellness, Nisenan language and Cultural revitalization, arts enrichment, and the rematriation and stewardship of Nisenan Ancestral Homelands.

This work restores opportunities for Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan families and Tribal members to gather, learn, revitalize Culture, strengthen intergenerational relationships, and reconnect with Ancestral Homelands.

Healing does not mean that the grief is gone or that the harm has been resolved. It means that the relationships targeted by assimilation are still alive and being renewed.

This year’s Orange Shirt Day gathering is one expression of that ongoing work.

Join us for this year’s Orange Shirt Day, and continue supporting HUṠWEJ’s ongoing efforts to strengthen Nisenan Culture, kinship, community wellness, and connection to Ancestral Homelands.

Saturday, September 26 | 4:00pm - 6:00pm
Odd Fellows Lodge | 212 Spring Street, Nevada City

09/25/2026

The harm caused by the Boarding School and Adoption Eras did not end when children returned home or when federal policies shifted.

Forced separation created wounds that extended far beyond individual survivors.

Families lost children and parental connections.
Tribal communities experienced the disruption of language, ceremony, kinship, and Cultural knowledge.
Tribal Nations lost citizens, future leaders, and generations of connection.

These ongoing impacts are sometimes described as a “Soul Wound” – an injury carried across personal, familial, communal, Cultural, and spiritual dimensions.

Understanding this legacy asks us to see present day inequities within the history of genocide, dispossession, forced assimilation, and child removal, rather than as evidence of individual or Indigenous failure.

09/24/2026

The Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 was won through decades of advocacy by Indigenous communities demanding that Native children remain within their families and Nations. It is a protective legal outcome rooted in Indigenous resistance.

Created in direct response to the Boarding School and Adoption Eras, ICWA was designed to stop the mass removal of Native children and hold state agencies accountable. Yet Native children are still disproportionately removed from their families and Tribal communities, and ICWA continues to face challenges at the Supreme Court.

True protection goes beyond legislation. It means strengthening family and community systems, supporting kinship care, and addressing the root causes of colonial trauma through Tribally-led wellness, language, and Cultural revitalization.

Address

PO Box 2624
Nevada City, CA
95959

Opening Hours

Thursday	1pm - 6pm
Friday	12pm - 5pm
Saturday	12pm - 5pm

Website

http://www.huswej.org/

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