A handful of vocal members claim they were the park's first stewards and the Southern Sierra Miwok--highlighted in many of the visitor exhibits--have played down the Paiute role in the area.
For three years, Paiute activist David Andrews has scoured archives at the University of California, Berkeley, pored over Eadweard Muybridge's photos of Yosemite Indians and petitioned park rangers to change what he terms historical wrongs in the park's displays.
"Before they would tell us go to away, and that we shouldn't questions," said Andrews, who started the campaign. "Now we see we have a democratic society where we can access government records and request change. This looks like hope to me."
Miwok tribal officials did not immediately return calls for comment, but in the past have disputed the Paiutes' claims.
Both Paiute and Miwok peoples survived the Mariposa Battalion, the bloody massacre of 1851 in which white settlers drove out those living in Yosemite Valley.
For more on the subject, see Yosemite's Paiutes Mislabeled as Miwoks, Paiutes Call Miwoks Liars, and Who Were the Yosemite Indians?
I grew up here and will be very interested in how this plays out.
ReplyDeleteThanks for bringing it here.
"Both Paiute and Miwok peoples survived the Mariposa Battalion, the bloody massacre of 1851 in which white settlers drove out those living in Yosemite Valley."
ReplyDeleteThis is where the story is incorrect,
The Miwoks were the scouts for the mariposa Battalion and led the white people into the Valley. If there was a bloody massacre, it was the Miwok scouts called Cowchitty and Bautista's fault.
Today the descendants of Cow chitty and Bautista want the Government to believe they are the Ahwahneechee Band, but that is a falsehood. In Bunnells Book First Discovery of Yosemite, Chapter 18 cites Tenaya was born at Mono Lake and took 300 Mono Lake Paiutes into the Valley and created the Pah Ute Colony of
ReplyDeleteAhwahnee. Tenaya's story is erased the Park and they sanitize it as the Ahwahneechee were the Miwoks.
This is why the non profit Southern Sierra Miwoks American Indian Council of Mariposa decided with the Park Service to begin the Indian history of Yosemite at 1870 instead of 1851 which was Bunnells document the First Discovery of Yosemite.
ReplyDeleteThe Paiutes point is the Southern Sierra Miwok inc is a non profit association made up of current and former employees of the Park. Why would the Park Service build a roundhouse for the non profit and give them authorization for the grounds in a National Park? The Paiutes are Federally Recognized while the Southern Sierra Miwoks are not and the Paiutes object to the Park Service catering to their own employees non profit. The Park Service even pays their own employees non profit over $127,000 Dollars in Task Award Agreements. When confronted the Park Service Indian Agent denied the last Superintendents document and said the Southern Sierra Miwoks inc only received $200/$500/ and $400 Dollars. The question the Paiutes had was who was correct, the Superintendents documents or the Indian agents version. The Paiutes allege a cover up of Government funds from the Park Service to their own employees non profit. This seems to be a violation of the ethics clause.
ReplyDeleteUnder this current plan, You have the Miwok Scouts descendants claiming to be the descendants of Tenaya's Paiute Band of Ahwahneechee Band, but this is a falsehood. Lastly under the 1962 El Portal Sewer Plant is a massive Paiute cemetery. The Park Service wants to remove this old sewer plant 8 inches below the ground level. The problem the Paiutes have is that the Park Service allowed the Southern Sierra Miwoks Inc to claim these Culturally Unidentified Indian Remains in their Inventory. The wording in the Parks Inventory states the 1962 Fitzwater El Portal Indian remains could not be "Miwok" since the Miwoks arrived in the area 800 years before the Park was established, and these bones and remains were deposited prior to the Miwoks arrival to the area. So why did the Park Service allow their employees non profit to claim Indian remains when they the Park Service knew these bones were not Miwok!
ReplyDeleteThe Fitzwater Excavation recovered 23 full burial bundle remains but today the Park Service can not locate these 23 burial bundles. The Paiutes allege the Park Service is telling another falsehood. The Paiutes cite the massive amounts of Obsidian is directly traced to Mono Lake which is a Paiute Area. The Paiutes cite another objects excavated were "Owens Valley Brownware. The Paiutes claim Owens Valley has always been Paiute Area thus who ever is buried under the 1962 El Portal Sewer Plant is PAIUTE.
ReplyDelete"Miwok tribal officials did not immediately return calls for comment, but in the past have disputed the Paiutes' claims."
ReplyDeleteThey don't know what to say because they themselves don’t know the real history. There is much information that has surfaced and without a doubt can contradict what the NPS has been telling the general public all these years.
In meetings we have had with the NPS, they have been called to the mat on this new evidence which by the way has always been there.
Thanks to few who are addressing these issues and bringing to light all this information.
Imagine if these new facts are proved , wonder what going to happen to all the half –truths that have been printed.
Boycott the Yosemite Fund.
The Ahwahneechees, or Yosemite Band, were not a combination of Miwok and Paiutes.
ReplyDeleteThey were a combination of Paiutes and Monos. They speak the same language.
In early writings there is not one mention of them being Miwok, only Mono Paiute. Those groups that become the Miwoks; the Pohochinis, the Awals, and others were mentioned in historical accounts but never as the original Yosemite Natives. They were the ones who helped the white military in the area and signed the treaties to give up the land. Ahwahnees never gave up their lands.
The Miwoks moved in with the white military and settlers. Here is the proof from the only book written about everything we know about Yosemite Indians called The Discovery of Yosemite by Dr. Lafayette H. Bunnell who met Chief Tenaya and his band of Ahwahneechees.
“The names of the different objects and localities of especial interest have now become well established by use. It is not a matter of so much surprise that there is such a difference in the orthography of the names. I only wonder that they have been retained in a condition to be recognized. It is not altogether the fault of the interpreters that discrepancies exist in interpretation or pronunciation, although both are often undesignedly warped to conform to the ideality of the interpreter. Many of the names have been modernized and adorned with transparencies in order to illuminate the subject of which the parties were writing. Those who once inhabited this region (The Ahwahnees), and gave distinctive appellations, have all disappeared. The names given by them can be but indifferently preserved or counterfeited by their camp followers, the “California Diggers (Miwoks)”
Notice that the California Diggers were 'camp followers' who came in later and not the original Yosemite Indians. They followed the military and white settlers. In the same book after the death of Chief Tenaya the remaining surviving Ahwahnees were re-absorbed into the Mono Lake Paiute tribe in 1853.
So the Yosemite Indian bloodline is in the Mono Lake Paiutes NOT in the 'camp followers', the workers and scouts for the white military and settlers, the Southern Sierra Miwoks.