CALIFORNIA HERITAGE: INDIGENOUS RESEARCH PROJECT (CHIRP) was created to research, document, preserve, and protect California Indigenous Nisenan 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 role 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 efforts to restore the Nisenan exhibit at the Firehouse No.1 museum 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. CHIRP's area of influence is mainly the counties of Sierra, Yuba, Sutter, Nevada, Placer and Butte.
CHIRP officially became a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in November of 2015.
Deer Creek Tribute Trail - Nisenan Presence
