Maidu/Hesperian Village was incorporated in 1989 by its developer, Robert C. Powell Developement.  A total of 49 single family homes are located in Maidu Village and there are 72 homes in Hesperian Village.  Front yard maintenance, exterior painting of homes and exterior fences, streets, gates,  and street lights are maintained by the association and is included in the monthly dues.  The annual meeting is the second Thursday in December at 7:30 PM in the Gold River Community Center.  The five Maidu/Hesperian Board of Directors are elected for a two year term and have monthly meetings held on the second Wednesday of the month, 5:30PM, at the Gold River Community Center. Members of this village may search or download their documents by clicking here. Maidu Village Maidu and Miwok people occupied much of the Mother Lode region and the adjacent valley floor before 1848.  Up to 9,000 Maidu lived north of the Cosumnes River, and approximately an equal number of Miwoks lived to the south.  Three groups of Maiduan people--Maidu, Konkow, and Nisenan--occupied the drainage areas of the Feather, Yuba, Bear, and American Rivers. The Maidu lived in village communities, rarely traveling far from their homes.  Food was abundant.  They hunted and fished, and gathered nuts, berries, roots, and seeds, always leaving some behind to preserve the food supply. The gold rush devastated the Maidu.  Overwhelmed by sheer numbers, disease, murder, and destruction of food sources, only a fraction survived.  By  1910, only 1,000 Maidu were left, and their culture was virtually destroyed. In recent years, Maiduan people have discovered a renewed interest in their culture and traditions.  Marie Potts of the Northern Maidu worked for Indian rights until her death in 1978.  She founded the Indian newspaper Smoke Signal and wrote a book about her people.  Other Maidu continue to work for the preservation of their rich heritage today. Hesperian Village "Hesperian", from the Greek word for the evening star, has been used poetically to describe residents of western lands such as California.  The state's first periodical published by and for women called itself The Hesperian, with the motto, "We will stand by the rudder that governs the bark, nor ask how we look from the shore."  From 1858 to 1863, the journal of art and literature also offered housekeeping and fashion news to transplanted Eastern women homesick for familiar culture. Vastly outnumbered by men and restricted by nineteenth century ideas of proper behavior, California women searched for employment and fulfillment.  Although usually limited to socially accepted fields such as teaching, laundering, cooking, or housekeeping, a hardy few tried mining, stagecoach driving, and even armed robbery.  The creative arts also provided personal satisfaction without outraging society. May women found writing served as an outlet for loneliness, a means of communication with family and friends, a vehicle for self-expression, and occasionally a way of making a living.  Artists, actresses, and singers, and women working at "men's" jobs all did what they could under difficult circumstances.  Hesperian Village recognizes these women adn their contributions to the West.