Tribal Youth
Elevate Youth California
CHIRP’s Tribal Youth programming is a Culturally-rooted initiative that nurtures connection, Cultural identity, and wellness among Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan youth.
Through land-based learning, intergenerational storytelling, and hands-on Cultural engagement, the programming fosters a sense of belonging while addressing substance use prevention in a deeply holistic way.
Tribal Youth
CHIRP’s Tribal Youth programming is made possible through the Elevate Youth California (EYC) grant, an initiative funded by Proposition 64, which directs cannabis tax revenue toward youth substance use prevention and wellness in communities disproportionately impacted by the “War on Drugs” and systematic disenfranchisement. As a grant recipient, CHIRP carries this intention forward in a deeply Culturally-grounded way, rooting prevention not just in education but in reconnection to self, to Culture, to Elders, and to the land.
While the programming does include open conversations around substance use, its greater focus is on healing the intergenerational wounds of colonial violence that have historically contributed to cycles of addiction and disconnection commonly found in Indigenous communities. Designed specifically for Tribal Youth, this initiative creates space for Cultural reclamation, land-based learning, and identity restoration.
Through hands-on learning, engagement with Culture, and intergenerational storytelling and sharing, Tribal Youth participants experience what it means to be part of a healthy, thriving Indigenous community. These gatherings offer a vision of wellness that is rooted in joy, belonging, and remembering of Ancestral ways.
The Tribal Youth programming follows a seasonal rhythm that mirrors the cycles of the natural world, emphasizing an embodied, place-based curriculum that is responsive, relevant, and alive.
The gatherings have proved to be tender and transformative, grounding Tribal Youth in identity while providing a living example of holistic health and community connection.
TRibal Youth CUrriculum
In the colder seasons, Tribal youth explore their relationship to water through the lens of Traditional Ecological Knowledge. Gatherings centered around exploring the interconnected health of the Yuba watershed, from its origins in the Sierra snowpack and its flow into the Foothill creeks and streams.
Through reflecting on the relationship of the Tribe and land to these waterways, the Tribal Youth more deeply explored Cultural teachings of responsibility, reciprocity, and the sacred role water plays in sustaining life.
Spring: Water and Life
Summer: Land Stewardship and Sovereignty
In the summer, the focus turns to the land. Tribal Youth and Elders gather at Yulića, the recently rematriated land that has been a Cultural and community hub for the NCR Nisenan Tribe, to plant vegetables and Native plants, care for the soil, and deepen their understanding of food sovereignty.
During these gatherings, Tribal Elders facilitate organic, place-based lessons, sharing stories, medicinal plant knowledge, and Cultural memory, while Tribal Youth reconnect with the earth through gardening, planting, and simply being on the land.
This work is not only about health and nourishment, but about the reweaving of Cultural knowledge: learning how the land feeds the people and animal-kin, how the people care for the land, and how both are part of a healing process still unfolding.
Fall: Rooted Culture and Storytelling
The programming flows naturally into fall, a time of rooting into Culture, storytelling, and wisdom-keeping. Tribal Youth engage in workshops with Tribal Elders to explore oral history, family lineage, and Cultural teachings.
These teachings center community identity, foster healthy communities through connection, Cultural reclamation, and deep sense of belonging.
These seasonal transitions reflect an intentional arc: water flows into the land, the land nourishes the people, the people tend to the land, and these effects ripple out to create a continuous cycle of healing, nourishment, and collective thriving.
Cultural Reclamation
And Intergenerational Healing
While the EYC grant is rooted in substance use prevention, the true impact of CHIRP’s Tribal Youth programming extends far beyond that goal. These gatherings offer opportunities for deep Cultural reclamation, intergenerational bonding, and collective healing.
When Tribal Youth gather on rematriated land, both Yulića and the Nisenan Cultural Reclamation Corridor, they experience a powerful sense of belonging, through both reconnection to land and to Tribal community.
The Tribal Youth are reaffirmed that they belong to the Land, to the Tribe, to the Culture - and that they are Native enough simply in their existence.
Through these gatherings, Tribal Elders share stories, Tribal Youth ask questions, and together they rebuild a sense of identity and pride.
These are not just programmatic activities. They are sacred acts of remembrance, where the Tribal Youth witness the resilience of their Ancestors and realize their place in an unbroken line of survival, resilience, and strength.
From planting seeds and sharing meals, to storytelling circles and conversations in the garden, each Tribal Youth gathering affirms a simple truth:
when Culture is alive and practiced, when land is loved and stewarded, health and healing become possible: for the Youth, for the Elders, for the Tribe, for the future.