SSBMI Language Department

Language Day Camp

On July 26, 2024, the SSBMI Language Department hosted Language Day Camp at the Shingle Springs Rancheria. At this event, Tribal Members learned and used the Nisenan language while participating in activities hosted by the Language Department, the Environmental Department, the Exhibits & Collections Center (ECC), and the Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) Department.

Here you can listen to audio recordings of the Nisenan language included in the Language Day Camp (LDC) Guidebook, which includes simple commands and other phrases needed to complete the activities. You can also download a copy of the LDC Guidebook which you can print at home by clicking here.

The Tribe has ancestral ties to the Nisenan language through the Tribe's Matriarchs, Pamela Cleanso Adams and Annie Hill Murray Paris. Pamela, Annie, and many of their close relations spoke Nisenan and shared their language with researchers in the early 1900s. The knowledge they shared provides us with a pathway to reconnect with the Nisenan language today. The Tribe also has significant connections to ancestral Nisenan villages like Pusúune and Yáales, where the Nisenan language has been spoken since time immemorial.

At Language Day Camp, we spoke Nisenan with one another to honor and reconnect with this part of the Tribe's heritage. Nisenáanweypé!

You can use the links below to jump to specific parts of this webpage, which correspond to the sections of the LDC Guidebook:

(1) Group up!

(2) Environmental Department activity

(3) Olém Ham (Coyote Says)

(4) Traditional Ecological Knowledge Department activity

(5) Exhibits & Collections Center activity

(6) Neetíp min henɨmihí (Grow your language)

You can learn more about Language Day Camp, the language that we shared, how to get a copy of the LDC Guidebook, and more here.

Group up!

At Language Day Camp, participants joined teams named after five animals: Black Bear, Fox, Butterfly, Deer, and Salmon:

At the end of each activity, participants were asked the question Hésmɨsébe mi? (What group are you in?). They could respond using the name of their animal alone, or by putting the name of their animal in the structure _____-mɨsém ni (I'm in the _____ group), like so:

How to play Sɨpaayuwá! (All of you, point at it!)

In Sɨpaayuwá!, which means "All of you, point at it!", one person calls out words and two players compete to be the first to point at the picture that the word describes. We played this game to assign participants to groups, but you can play Sɨpaayuwá! at home to practice new words:

Environmental Department acivity

The Environmental Department hosted a matching game in which players have two sets of cards: One set has pictures of different habitats, and the other has pictures of animals. Players learn about the animals and their needs, and then must match each animal to a suitable habitat.

Players learned about eight animals, including Bald Eagle, Black Bear, Coyote, Deer, Gray Squirrel, Northern Flicker, Rattlesnake, & River Otter:

You can also talk about these animals in Nisenan by asking the following questions, most of which can be answered Haan (Yes) or Wiin (No):

Olém Ham (Coyote Says)

The Language Department hosted a game called Olém Ham (Coyote Says), which is like the game "Simon Says": One person is Olé (Coyote). When Olé gives a command in the frame sentence Olém ____ ham! (Coyote says ____!), the other players try to obey as quickly as possible.

Anyone who doesn't perform the correct action is out. Anyone who obeys a command given without the frame sentence Olém ____ ham! is out.

The last player standing wins!

Here are the commands we used at Language Day Camp. Note that all of these commands are addressed to two or more people:

To use these commands in the game, we use this sentence "frame":

Here are the commands repeated in the sentence frame Olém _____ ham (Coyote says _____):

Did you complete the practice activity in the Language Day Camp Guidebook? You can check your answers here.

Traditional Ecological Knowledge Department activity

The Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) Department hosted a fishing game and showed us how to make a dipnet.

Participants who completed the fishing game learned about different local Palá (Fish), including Salmon, Suckerfish, Sturgeon, and Eel:

Participants who learned to make a dipnet with TEK also learned Nisenan words for talking about dipnets and other kinds of nets, inlcuding:

Here are some phrases you could use to talk about what you did with TEK at Language Day Camp, whether you went fishing or made a dipnet:

Here are some additional phrases that you could use to ask and talk about things you may do with the TEK Department here or at other events:

Exhibits & Collections Center activity

The Exhibits & Collections Center (ECC) hosted a painting activity. Participants painted using watercolor paints made of natural pigments, while learning about Nisenan color terms (and how they differ from English color terms). Participants learned the following color terms:

Participants painted using a variety of natural pigments, including ochre and Elderberry berries, and they learned their Nisenan names too:

Here are some additional phrases that you could use while you are painting with ECC at Language Day Camp:

Heads up! A note on color terms

If you want to describe something like a "blue fox" or an "orange deer" in Nisenan, you add a special ending to the first word in the pair, like so:

Makbeepé! (Let's try it out!) If you know the word c’aa (tree), how could you describe a "blue tree" or "red tree"? (highlight to see the answer)

Did you complete the practice activity in the Language Day Camp Guidebook? You can check your answers here.

Neetíp min henɨmihí (Grow your language)

You can say more in the Nisenan language than you think! Recall the question and answer pair below:

Hésmɨsébe mi? can also be translated "Of what people are you?". Nisenan speakers ask this when they want someone to identify themselves.

Here we learned how to identify ourselves as members of teams named after animals. But you can also use the names of places, like the Nisenan villages of Pusúune or K’ademmá for example, to talk about where you come from and who your ancestors are.

Here are some examples of how to identify yourself as coming from a few of the Tribe’s ancestral villages:

This is not a complete list of the places your Nisenan ancestors may have come from, and there are other ways to talk about yourself and your heritage in the Nisenan language. This is just a small example of how you can build on what you learned at Language Day Camp!

Esak’ahá daak’ábe mi c’aykɨ́? (Do you want to know more?)

About the event: Language Day Camp (LDC) is an annual, Tribal Member-only event hosted by the SSBMI Language Department in the summer. At Language Day Camp, we meet outdoors (weather permitting) to learn and use language with one another while participating in fun activities.

LDC 2022: We held the first Language Day Camp at Verona Marina in 2022. At LDC 2022, we learned some Nisenan together while spending our time outdoors fishing at the marina, going on a plant scavenger hunt, and doing other activities.

LDC 2023: We held the second Language Day Camp at the Shingle Springs Rancheria in 2023 following a last-minute move from Verona Marina. At LDC 2023, we learned Nisenan & Northern Sierra Miwok together while playing Language games and participating in fun activities hosted by the Exhibits & Collections Center and the Traditional Ecological Knowledge Department. You can read more about LDC 2023 here.

LDC 2024: We held this year's Language Day Camp at the Shingle Springs Rancheria. We decided to focus on Nisenan once again to be able to better support our collaborators and language learners, and maximize the amount of language we are able to learn and use during the event. We chose to host LDC 2024 at the Rancheria again so that SSBMI Tribal Youth and Tribal staff could participate.

Participants at LDC 2024 received a copy of the LDC Guidebook, which contained Nisenan language that they used to complete event activities. You can get a copy of the LDC Guidebook from the Language Department, or by clicking here to download a copy that you can print at home.

Participants also received a custom Hummingbird pin, which was designed by Skye Anderson, for completing all of the event activities. The back of the pin features the following names for "Hummingbird" in Nisenan and Northern Sierra Miwok:

Nisenan

Lisnó

Miwok

Líiciici

Esak’ábe mi? (Do you know?) Different Nisenan speakers call Hummingbirds by different names. The name we share here, Lisnó, comes from speakers of the Valley dialect including SSBMI Matriarch Pamela Adams and her brother Tom Cleanso. Speakers of the Southern Hill dialect call them Liic’iic’í, which is probably related to the Miwok name Líiciici.

Prior to LDC 2024, we hosted a Nisenan language class for participants in the Tribe's Summer Intern program. You can read more about it here.

About the language: The Nisenan language that we share is from speakers of the Valley dialect of Nisenan like SSBMI Matriarch Pamela Adams and her brother Tom Cleanso as well as speakers of the Southern Hill dialect like William Joseph, Ida Starkey, and Charlie Hunchup.

Valley Nisenan and Southern Hill Nisenan are very similar to one another in their words and grammar. Where these dialects differ, we typically share Valley Nisenan language. Where Valley Nisenan speakers differ, we typically share language from Pamela Adams. However except where we explicitly note these differences, most of the language that we share is the same in both of these dialects.

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, Richenda Ervin, and Skye Anderson. Unless otherwise specified, the Nisenan and Miwok audio recordings that you will find on this website are of Jonathan, Richenda, and Skye.

We are all learners of the Nisenan and 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 the Nisenan language, you can reach out to us at Language@ssband.org.

Webpage last updated: 2024-07-29