MAIDU

The name Maidu, pronounced MY-doo, is derived from a Native word referring to all that is living. The people of this name occupied ancestral territory along the eastern tributaries of the Sacramento River, including the Feather, American, and Bear Rivers flowing out of the Sierra Nevada in present-day northern California, not far from the Nevada border. There were three main divisions of Maidu, speaking an estimated 20 dialects of the Penu-tian language family: the Maidu proper (Northeastern or Mountain); the Konkow (Northwestern or Foothills); and the Nisenan (Southern or Valley). The valley group had the most villages or tribelets—permanent main hamlets with a number of temporary satellite hamlets. The Maidu, although not a particularly warlike people, regularly posted sentries on the hills surrounding their villages to protect themselves and their hunting grounds from outsiders.

The Maidu had many cultural traits in common with other central California Penutian tribes, such as the

MIWOK, YOKUTS, and WINTUN. All were hunter-gatherers who depended on acorns and other wild plant foods, small game, and fish. They wore minimal clothing. Some Maidu lived in pole-framed, brush-covered shelters, as did other central California tribes, but some built earth-covered, domed pithouses as large as 40 feet in diameter. The openings in the roofs of these dwellings served as both a door and a smokehole. The Maidu, like many of their neighbors, participated in the Kuksu Cult. And typical of CALIFORNIA INDIANS, they crafted beautiful baskets.

The Maidu, like all Native North Americans, enjoyed a variety of games. Some of their favorite pastimes were hoop-and-pole, tossing games, dice games, and hand games. In a popular hand game, one player would switch marked and unmarked bones back and forth in his hands, then stop to let other players bet on which hand held which. Sometimes the participants would wager away all their possessions—shell money, baskets, furs, tools, and weapons—over several days in a marathon game.

The Maidu and their neighbors maintained their traditional culture longer than the southern California tribes and the coastal peoples despite Spanish attempts to move them into missions during the late 1700s and early 1800s. But in 1849 the California gold rush had a significant impact on them, and their numbers drastically decreased through violence and disease.

Contemporary Maidu live for the most part in Plumas County, California (especially of the Maidu branch); Butte

County (especially of the Konkow branch); and El Dorado, Placer, and Yuba Counties (especially of the Nise-nan branch). They hold a number of rancherias (small reservations). They have undergone a cultural revitalization and regularly perform traditional dances, such as the Acorn, Bear, Coyote, Deer, Flower, and Toto Dances. As of 1994, the Maidu have also re-created the ancient celebration around the return of the salmon for upriver spawning in an annual Salmon Ceremony.