POWER (PANORAMAS) 2013-Present
Rancho Seco (Nisenan)
12.29.17 20”x94”
Pe - spiritual power; shamanistic power
Bipi’k - strength
Wili’k - to show life
Wadaᐧ - to be alive
- Nisenan language
dictionary
The Nisenan homeland sweeps across eco-regions which include the mountainous Sierra Nevada, the temperate foothills of Central California and the fertile soils of the valley. North, the volcanic lava domes of the ‘Estom Yanim, or Marysville Buttes, radiate power from which all life originates. The spirits of all Nisenan return to this sacred mountain upon death, communing with ancestors before ascending to the stars of the Milky Way. Further north, the ‘Uba River spiritually joins the Nisenan of the living to ancestors. Water sits at “the center of Nisenan identity, where its power is “not a symbol of life; it is life.”
For the Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe (NCRNT), traditional Nisenan cosmologies of power inevitably blend with present resilience under colonialism. As one of the 44 California reservations terminated by the 1958 California Rancheria Termination Act – a rollback of a 1913 executive order that declared federal recognition of these Tribes – the NCRNT was stripped of their land rights and political-economic sovereignty.
NCRN Tribal Spokesperson Shelly Covert teaches, “Nature and Nisenan culture are deeply intertwined. Damage one and the other feels it. They are counterweights paired to balance each other… The image of the Earth as a living being and nurturing mother served as a cultural constraint restricting the actions of human beings in many cultures for millennia. The Nisenan are one such culture. One does not readily slay a mother, digging into her for gold or mutilating her body.”
The cooling towers of the decommissioned Rancho Seco Nuclear Generating Station stand to the distant south. In 1979, the plant experienced a near-meltdown, leading to public disfavor and the plant’s eventual shutdown. 36 years after the plant’s decommissioning, used fuel rods of uranium are still stored on-site. Presently on the property is an 11 Megawatt solar installation and a 600 Megawatt gas fired power plant.
Research conducted by Vivian Ngyuen