The Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation

Every year, the Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation hosts the Mariposa Pow Wow to celebrate heritage with song and dance. 

“Every time you’re out there dancing and you hear that drumbeat, and it hits really hard and you see the dancers raise their fan, it’s just giving a blessing for whatever you’re dancing for,” Nellie Tucker said.

Although tradition is very much alive, the federal government does not recognize them as a tribe.

“They’re saying that we aren’t a modern, distinct community,” said Tara Fouch-Moore, the secretary for the tribal council. “If you look here today, that’s a pretty ridiculous claim.”

No federal recognition prevents the tribe from accessing several programs, including the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA).

The act protects native children from being removed from their community if their parents were unable to raise them.

“The genocide that happened in California, it wasn’t just the horrific events,” said Fouch-Moore. “But it was also the removal of children from their native community. So that there was a break in culture, there was a break in language, there was a break in tradition.”

This splintering of families is making it increasingly difficult to preserve their culture and gain federal recognition.

Clay River, director of the Miwumati Family Healing Center, says that lack of access to ICWA and other programs is making it increasingly difficult to preserve their community, the one criteria they still need to gain federal acknowledgment.

“The tribe is over 800 members,” River said. “But a lot of them have had to move away because their needs aren’t getting met here.”