Recognition as Resilience: How an Unrecognized Indigenous Nation is Using Visibility as a Pathway Toward Restorative Justice.

This article examines the resilience strategies of the Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe (NCRNT), a federally unrecognized Indigenous nation in Northern California that has faced genocide, land dispossession, and illegal termination of its sovereign status by U.S. government agencies. Challenging conventional international development definitions of resilience as a return to equilibrium, the NCRNT frames resilience as a process of historical redress, reconciliation, and the creation of a "new normal" that reflects Indigenous history and ongoing realities within a settler state. The Tribe’s efforts include establishing a nonprofit organization (California Heritage: Indigenous Research Project), creating a Tribal archive, and engaging in collaborative research and public art programs to increase visibility, assert self-determination, and seek both informal and formal recognition. These strategies highlight the limitations of existing resilience frameworks and offer a model for integrating Indigenous perspectives on sovereignty, justice, and cultural preservation into broader development and policy discourses.