Maidu Indians

The Maidu were the Native Americans who once inhabited the region of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Sacramento valley. The Maidu are divided into principally three groups called, the mountain Maidu, the hill Maidu and the valley Maidu. The hill and mountain Maidu were the divisions who actually used the term Maidu which means “person” whereas; the valley Maidu used the term Nishinam or Nisinan. The differences between these three groups exist in slight distinctions in language, customs, either subtly or grossly, and relative wealth. The Valley Maidu tended to be wealthier, living in more weatherproof houses, and having more elaborate ceremonial regalia. Probably at least partially because for the mountain Maidu, summer was short, and the gathering season needed to be fully taken advantage of because they lived in harsh conditions most of the year was either spent preparing for winter or trying to live through the winter. Whereas, for the valley, and to some extent the hill Maidu, there was more time during the summer and in the mild winter for the development of their society and culture. The Maidu were divided into villages each containing two to eleven houses, and almost always a sweat lodge (a larger house in which ceremonies and dances were held.) The mountain Maidu typically only interacted with villages within a twenty-mile radius of them, only occasionally trading with the Northern Paiute, but there is evidence that the valley Maidu may have traveled farther, visiting other tribes such as the Pomo, Wintun and Miwok. The Maidu received their money, clamshells and glass beads, solely from trade; the beads were counted in tens and handled on strings. But the most common form of currency was the disk bead made by the Pomo, and transmitted by the Wintun. Five of the larger version of these beads (about a third of an inch thick) equaled about one dollar in today’s currency, and the smaller ones were about twenty beads to the dollar. In Maidu culture, money

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