Our Native Community
Sacramento Native American Health Center

There are currently 109 federally recognized tribes in California. California is home to the largest Native American population in the country, including terminated, or non-federally recognized Tribes, and urban Indian communities. According to the California Census survey Sacramento is home to 5.7% of California’s Native people. Approximately 47,000 Native residents from both local and out of state tribes, currently call Sacramento home. According to the census, 76.3% or 340,000 California Indians live in urban areas such as Sacramento.

The history of the Sacramento area, and its people, is rich in heritage, culture and tradition. This area was and is still currently the tribal land of the Nisenan people (my side of the river) located throughout the central valley, the Foothills and Southern Madiu people, and the Valley Miwok and Me-Wuk people, located on the east side of the American River, known to tribal people as the “Moklolume” or Condor River. To the west of the American River and the south of the Sacramento River, are the Patwin people, the Wintun People and the Wintu people. These local tribes possessed an extraordinarily detailed understanding of the resources that were available to them and they passed this knowledge down from generation to generation and are still very much part of who we are today.

Before the “Round up” of California Indians, villages varied in size from two-dozen to as many as several hundred individuals. Between 1952 and 1972 over 100,000 plus, reservation Indian’s went through the BIA's (Bureau of Indian Affair’s) relocation program and resettled in metropolitan areas, including Sacramento. Several of these people live and work here and maintain their families and extended families here, and have continued to grow, thus adding to the Urban Indian experience. Organizations that serve Indian people such as the Sacramento Native American Health Center, Inc. help urban Indians to re-establish connections to culture, while caring for their holistic health needs.

While all areas of urban Indian country share similar challenges of housing, education, employment, healthcare, and maintaining united families, with cultural values and connection…… the Sacramento region is unique. The combination of local tribal people and welcomed tribal family from other states creates a cultural richness that is rare and distinct, to the Sacramento area.

This is what constitutes community. Indian people care about the community, and each other, whether they live in the city or on the reservation, whether they are home or this is where they have made their homes. Rather than simply occupying a space within the melting pot of mainstream urban society, we are trying to create our own unique position - as dual citizens of two nations - fully able to function in the modern world through a belief and reliance on traditional, tribal values.