The first people who lived in Nevada
County were the Maidu Indians. They gathered acorns and wild plants and
caught fish and game. The women were skilled basket weavers. They were
migratory, traveling down to the Sacramento Valley and up to the High Sierras.
Because of this frequent wandering to search for food, it prevented the
development of a complex social structure.
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The Maidu Death Ritual consisted of burning
the bodies of the dead along with their brush houses and belongings. On
the anniversaries of the deaths, the mourners exchanged shell money and
burned exquisite baskets.
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Maidu myths tell of a kindly creator god.
The Kuksu Society, through which the Maidu men worshiped spirits, held
initiation dances with masked participants in elaborate feather costumes.
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Today, you can still see by the rushing
streams in Nevada County large granite rocks. Look carefully, and you can
sometimes find smooth rounded holes that were worn into the rocks by Indian
women grinding the acorns.
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