SSBMI Language Department

Folsom Zoo Language Trip

We hosted our third annual language outing to the Folsom City Zoo Sanctuary on April 4, 2025.

Thanks to everyone who participated this year! At the Folsom Zoo Language Trip, SSBMI Tribal Members and SSBMI TANF families toured the zoo and learned Nisenan and Northern Sierra Miwok language using animal flashcards that we provided and language signage that we posted around the zoo. Paricipants also received a language bag and custom enamel pin; this year's pin featured a bobcat (tolomá in Nisenan and tóllomma in Northern Sierra Miwok). Finally, participants enjoyed drinks provided by the SSBMI Exhibits & Collections Center and participated in demonstrations hosted by the SSBMI Language Department, SSBMI Environmental Department, and SSBMI Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) Department.

Here, you can listen to audio recordings of the Nisenan and Northern Sierra Miwok language that we shared on zoo signage, including names for animals who live at the zoo and names for more animals and plants that you may see at the zoo. You can also check out our zoo language map.

You can also learn more about the Folsom Zoo Language Trip, where the language we share comes from, and our language materials.

The SSBMI Community has ancestral ties to the Valley and Southern Hill dialects of the Nisenan language through the Tribe's Matriarchs, Pamela Cleanso Adams and Annie Hill Murray Paris. Pamela spoke the Valley dialect and she, her brother Tom Cleanso, and her daughter Lillie Williams are responsible for passing on most of the knowledge we have of Valley Nisenan today. We have less direct information about Annie’s language; based on where she was from and documented language from her relations and associates, she likely spoke Southern Hill Nisenan.

Animal names

The Folsom City Zoo Sanctuary is home to a wide range of both native and non-native animals. Here are the Nisenan and Northern Sierra Miwok names for some of the animals who live permanently at the zoo, which you may have seen on zoo signage that we shared.

More zoo language

Here are Nisenan and Northern Sierra Miwok names for some other animals and plants that you can find at the Folsom City Zoo Sanctuary:

The Folsom Zoo hosts two colonies of honeybees, but did you know that honeybees are an introduced species? At the Folsom Zoo Language Trip, we shared signage highlighting two families of native bees (bumblebees and yellowjackets) and their Nisenan and Northern Sierra Miwok names.

So what do you call a Honeybee? When a new species is introduced to an area, speakers have many options for naming it. Sometimes speakers come up with a new name for that species, and sometimes they borrow or adapt the name from another language (like English or Spanish).

William Joseph (a.k.a. Bill Joe), a Nisenan man from Amador County, adopted the first of these strategies and called honeybees woolém eepén. This name literally means "European yellowjacket", reflecting his knowledge of the origin of this species.

Northern Sierra Miwok speakers adopted the other strategy by adapting the English word honey and calling honeybees háne in their language.

The Folsom Zoo hosts a couple of butterfly nesting boxes. Here are the Nisenan and Northern Sierra Miwok words for "butterfly":

You may have noticed a metal statue honoring California condors when you were visiting the Folsom Zoo. While Folsom is no longer home to any condors, these massive birds once soared throughout California. Here are their Nisenan and Northern Sierra Miwok names:

The Folsom Zoo is home to many kinds of plants. Here are Nisenan and Miwok names for a few of the native plants that you may see at the zoo:

You may have seen a replica bedrock mortar at the zoo. Bedrock mortars are used to ground acorn and other foods, and they are an important part of traditional lifeways in Central California. The grinding holes grow deeper through use over many, many generations; the depth of these holes reflects the presence of Native Peoples in California since time immemorial. Please respect bedrock mortars by leaving them alone.

Do you want to know more?

About the event: The Folsom Zoo Language Trip is an annual event hosted by the SSBMI Language Department for SSBMI Tribal Members and SSBMI TANF families since 2023. We meet at the Folsom City Zoo Sanctuary to tour the zoo and learn and use language with one another.

Participants of the 2025 Folsom Zoo Language Trip received a custom soft enamel pin featuring the words for "bobcat" in Nisenan and Northern Sierra Miwok (pin design by Skye Anderson, SSBMI Language Department).

Nisenan

Tolomá

Miwok

Tóllomma

About the language: The Nisenan language that we share is from speakers of the Valley dialect like SSBMI Matriarch Pamela Cleanso Adams & her brother Tom Cleanso as well as speakers of the Southern Hill dialect including William Joseph, Ida Hill Starkey, & Charlie Hunchup. We also adapted names for "donkey", "goat", & "mint" from the Central Hill dialect because we have not found names from the Tribe's heritage dialects.

Valley Nisenan and Southern Hill Nisenan are very similar to one another in their words and grammar, and they are more similar to one another than either one is to the other dialects of the Nisenan language (Central Hill Nisenan and Northern Hill Nisenan). To the best of our knowledge, speakers of both dialects would understand the language that we share here.

The Northern Sierra Miwok language that we share comes from many speakers like Eph Cummings and others who worked with C. Hart Merriam in the early 1900s, and Queenie Miller, Elena McCauley, & Nicolas Villa Sr. who worked with linguist Catherine Callaghan on the Northern Sierra Miwok dictionary (1987). The word for fox which we share here is specific to the northern dialects of Northern Sierra Miwok spoken by Queenie Miller and others. Otherwise, to the best of our knowledge speakers of all dialects of Northern Sierra Miwok share these words and phrases.

About the website: This website is maintained by SSBMI Language Department staff in order to share Nisenan and Miwok language learning resources with the Tribal Membership and other learners. Our current team consists of: Jonathan Geary, Skye Anderson, and Richenda Ervin. Unless otherwise specified, the Nisenan and Miwok audio recordings that you will find on this website are of Jonathan, Skye, and Richenda.

We are all learners of the Nisenan and Northern Sierra Miwok languages, and we hope that you will join us in learning Nisenan and Miwok too!

If you have questions or want to know more about either language, you can reach out to us at Language@ssband.org.

Webpage last updated: 2025-05-06