Some Food For Thought

[JRhoan]

Basic Facts

The Yosemite Valley Plan was recently approved and is in full swing within the boundaries of Yosemite National Park. The first of many projects centered within the Lower Yosemite Falls area has begun in one of the most heavily visited areas of the park. The National Park Service(NPS)who has promised to preserve the environment, history,and culture within the boundaries of the park has failed miserably at keeping their promise to the indigenous people of the Yosemite Valley.
Oral history tells us that the Yosemite Indians have been indigenous to Yosemite National Park since the beginning of time. Written history as well archaeological recovery data places the people in the parameter of Yosemite as early as 500 B.C. The NPS now claims this information is incorrect and is systematically trying to erase the oral history by replacing it with new data, which suggests the Yosemite Indians are extinct and that the last of them died due to plague brought on in the 1800's. Under the direction of Kathleen Hull PH.D.,Anthropologist(U.C.Berkley), the written history is being changed to fit the needs of the NPS. "
Though the NPS claims the Yosemite Indians have been wiped out,in a 1997 Memorandum of Understanding(MOU), the NPS has allowed remnants of this group to gather traditional native plants which include bracken fern as well as mushrooms. Now, they are removing these areas of traditional significance to make way for progress under the Yosemite Valley Plan, violating any and all agreements they made with the indigenous people of this area.
In the first project initiated by the National Park Service called "The Lower Yosemite Falls Corridor Project" so many losses to Indian culture as well as the environment will occur. Why? The National Park Service hides behind "enhancing the visitor experience" with a Disneyland atmosphere. Some of the main points not all of this project are listed below:
The Lower Falls project is located in an area once inhabited by Chief Ten-ie-ya, had one of the largest villages (Koom-I-Nee) which is under the area of question.The village is approximately 3 miles in length and is scheduled for total removal of obliteration. In previous archaeological discoveries(and on more than one occasion) the unearthing of human remins have been found in this area. These remains have been determined to be American Indian. The NPS denies that such remains exist even though Kathleen Hull, Anthropologist, has documented discoveries. Along with this , other discoveries have been found such as tools,obsidian flake, and beads used by Indians in the past.
This area also encompasses 56 sensitive acres of braided stream, black oak, and helimushrroms that cannot be reforested in other areas. These items are important traditional plant use.
Although awash in flood recovery money, the NPS allowed the Lower Falls area to degrade purposely to create a sense of urgency so they could begin this plan under a guise of a "Restoration Plan". This plan is far from a restoration plan-it is a total obliteration plan to American Indian history, native plants animal populations as well as sensitive ecosystems.
Widening and Adding Pathways: These pathways are actually being routed through untouched areas that contain rare bat roosting areas as well as sensitive ecosystems; also an ancient undisturbed archaeological site determined to belong to the Indians of the valley.
Disrupting,Degrading and Destroying History, Culture and Ethnographic areas belonging to the Yosemite Indian: Plans to create new trails through these areas in order to provide the visitor with a more urban landscape comes first instead of protecting Indian culture as outlined in a 1997 MOU.
The NPS has hidden the true devastation by shuffling the impacts:
Bridges: Six new bridges have been added which will prevent natural stream meandering.
A new bathroom constructed in a sensitive archaeological area that requires protection. This area will suffer because of the digging of new sewer lines when in reality the old lines can be replaced.
It is a total and absolute falsehood that the Yosemite Indians (the NPS, who have indicated don't exist) have agreed with the NPS plans to install this bathroom in this location even though at every opportunity the NPS claims this is true and precise information.
By relocating the shuttle bus stop you now spread visitors (as well as impacts) to again trample sensitive gathering areas, also impact historic, ancient and prehistoric sites, which have been well documented. The new shuttle stop will be located to allow passengers to disembark directly in front of sensitive gathering areas.
The Yosemite Valley Plan calls for allowing natural processes to revail yet this plan constrains hydrology and in turn upsets sensitive ecosystems continuity.
Today, this project is on the fast track to completion with the public remaining mostly clueless to the actual impacts that this plan will bring about. This plan does nothing but degrade,desecrate,and fails to enhance the natural beauty and pristine wilderness areas along with the long history of Indian occupation which is soon to be lost to bulldozers and $12,500,000 dollars donated by corporations such as Chevron Texaco. True Indian history will be removed from this area and replaced by fabricated NPS lies that accommodate only the Federal Government's quest to carry on their tradition of Indian Removal and Extermination.

[Coldwolf]

Thanks JRhoan. Anything that can be done to halt this?
If you read the first part of my journal you'll see that there is/was a similar battle waging inside of Oakhurst, and ..well, its not going well.

[BGW]

Update for the "inside Oakhurst" battle historical preservation papers are being filed soon!!! (I knew there was something I forgot to tell you ColdWolf!!) There will be a meeting of the minds after the holidays are out of the way to sit down and make sure all of the T's are crossed and I's are dotted.

JRhoan -- I have some dear friends that are very involved in the Preservation of Yosemite. They have also been wonderful helping me battle the local issues. You might already know them. But, if I can be of help PM me!

[JRhoan]

Hi-ho ,
Read the posts and found the journals all very interesting.
It was only just recently that we found about the village site in Oakhurst and was quite concerned in regards to what was being done to preserve this area.
I think and I have no verification on this, but Tony Brochini of the Southern Sierra Miwok Tribal Group was supposed to address this issue; don't know how or what the outcome was but I heard he attended one of the town's meeting regarding this issue.
Not to chastise the S.S.M; their track record for cultural preservation is pretty lax; and after to some degree it is they who have allowed the projects in Yosemite Valley to proceed.
If it is OK would would like to post this information on my site so other in the Mariposa Area can read it......


JR

[BGW]

Given the fact that The Brochini's are members here at OOF....perhaps you can address your questions to them. Couldn't hurt.

[Coldwolf]

f it is OK would would like to post this information on my site so other in the Mariposa Area can read it......
I have no problem with you copying from my journal.

[JRhoan]

Originally posted by bgirlsworld:
Given the fact that The Brochini's are members here at OOF....perhaps you can address your questions to them. Couldn't hurt.

Does no good only because he works for the NPS and knows everyone in the valley.
In fact, a majority of this plan was helped along by "tribal leaders of the Southern Sierra Miwok Nation".
Its pointless to address the issues with any of them only because they close themselves off and refuse to hear the facts.
I'm posting all over the net to get the word out and let everyone know what the heck is going on out there.

[JRhoan]

Here's a complaint that was recently read at one of the tribal meetings in Mariposa:

Grievances with tribal council

1. Secrecy by the board members. Holding or attending meetings without the knowledge of the board or tribal members. Making decisions without the approval of the board or tribal members.
2. No respect for the elders. Don’t ask the elders for input or when they do ask they then ignore what the elders have told the. Don’t want to hear the old traditional ways. Some are so hungry to be ‘Indian’ that even things that are not their traditional way are now considered the right way.
3. Members are not informed. The feeling of the board is that you must be at the meetings in order to know what is going on. However, due to the time of the meetings the elders usually can’t make it. Very late and they just don’t go out at night or do not drive in the dark. Working people aren’t too willing to go to the meeting as they must get up early in the morning and couldn’t get a good night sleep. No information is posted at the Health centers for the members to check on the boards’ activities.
4. Not a real interest in protecting the ancestors if they are outside of the Park. Even then not letting the Park run over the monitors when it comes to protecting those that are at rest in the valley floor. Native Americans have very close ties with their ancestors and must not let themselves become uninterested in them. By-laws say they will take the necessary action to protect and preserve all archeological sites and artifacts.
5. Some members think that it is OK to sell their culture to the public. Native Americans have very little culture and tradition left and must preserve it. The price of loosing the culture and traditions is a people with no values. The position of the organizations by-laws state that it is to maintain and preserve the historical, social, and cultural traditions of the Native Americans.
6. Not up front with the federal recognition paperwork. Told members that they can’t look at the current roll list that was sent to Washington because it is confidential. Showed members paperwork that had no connection with the paperwork requested. Always sidestepping the issues when asked to produce the documentation to support the request for proof of accuracy on materials submitted to Washington. Everyone wants to make sure they are still on the roll. In 1992 everyone was on the roll but since then it sounds as though several variations have been put together. If anyone was pulled off as suspected, we want to know who did it and the reasoning behind the action.
7. Non-profit status. This is an organization that must abide by the legal laws set up to form the group. Those who don’t follow the proper procedures need to be dealt with accordingly. They have not been up front about how non-profit affects the tribal members.
8. The by-laws are in place to make sure that everything is on the up and up and that none runs loose doing whatever they want. However, the board members have run their own agenda without any approval of the members and only use the by-laws when the situation fits their need.
9. Chairperson position used as a power position. Some feel it gives them the right to be titled ‘Chief’ after they have held this position. Some have used the position to only better themselves and forgotten why they were chosen to hold this position or what the job really is.
10. Chief Tenaya is the person to which everyone must have ancestral connection to say they are Native Americans from Yosemite. However, the council seems to not want the true descendants of the Chief to be a part of the federal recognition.




Pat Rhoan

[JRhoan]

Who are the true Ahwahneechees or Ahwahnees, Yosemite Indians?

Where did they go?



The earliest Indians of Yosemite were the Ahwahneechees or Ahwahnees.

Lafayette H. Bunnell was the only person to meet Tenaya to ever write about him. Lafayette H. Bunnell in his book “The Discovery of Yosemite, and the Indian war of 1851, that led to that event” wrote in Chapter XVIII (18), page 297:

“Ten-ie-ya was recognized, by the Mono tribe, as one of their number, as he was born and lived among them until his ambition made him a leader and founder of the Pai-Ute colony in Ah-wah-ne.[Ed. Note: Tenaya also spoke a Paiute Jargon] His history and warlike exploits formed a part of the traditionary lore of the Monos.[Ed. Note: Mono Paiutes did not fear Tenaya like the other surrounding tribes did] They were proud of his successes and boasted of his descent from their tribe, although Ten-ie-ya himself claimed that his father was the chief of an independent people, [Ed. Note: Ahwahnees, before the plague, were a independently different tribe from any other surrounding tribe] whose ancestors were of a different race. Ten-ie-ya had, by his cunning and sagacity in managing the deserters from other tribes, who had sought his protection, maintained a reputation as a chief whose leadership was never disputed by his followers, and who was the envy of the leaders of other tribes.”

In other words Tenaya’s band was made up of mainly Mono Paiutes with Ahwahneechee blood in their veins. That the Ahwahnees were from a totally separate INDEPENDENT tribe from any of the surrounding Indians, but the group made up of mainly Mono Paiutes. Chief Tenaya’s group was also made up of a handful of “outlaws” and “outcasts” from some of the western tribes. They never mention which western tribes those are.

[JRhoan]

For those who don’t know the story of Chief Tenaya here it is below:
“Chief Tenaya (?-1853) was a Native American chief in the Yosemite Valley people in California. Tenaya's father was the chief of the Ahwahneechee, which means "people of the Ahwahnee" (Yosemite Valley). The Ahwahneechees were a totally different tribe then any other surrounding tribes. Lafayette Bunnell, the doctor of the Mariposa Battalion, wrote that "Ten-ie-ya was recognized, by the Mono tribe, as one of their number, as he was born and lived among them until his ambition made him a leader and founder of the Pai-Ute colony in Ah-wah-ne."The Ahwahneechee occupied Yosemite Valley until a sickness destroyed most of them. The few Ahwahneechee left Yosemite Valley and joined the Mono Lake Paiutes in the eastern Sierra Nevada. Tenaya's father married a Mono Paiute woman and Tenaya was born from that union. Tenaya grow up amongst his mothers people and married a Mono Paiute woman and had several children. Fifty years later a medicine man advised Tenaya that it was time to return to the beautiful Yosemite Valley because the sickness was gone. Tenaya took about 200 people back into Yosemite Valley. The Ahwahneechee were a powerful tribe feared by the surrounding Miwok tribes. The surrounding tribes called them Yosemite meaning "they are killers."

By 1851, conflicts between the non-indigenous miners and the Native Americans in the Sierra started to increase. The state of California decided to send the Natives to reservations. The Mariposa Brigade was formed to carry out the relocation. Chief Tenaya agreed to move to the Fresno Reservation, instead of the destruction of his entire band. Many of his band left Yosemite Valley instead of following Tenaya. As they approached the Fresno reservation, they fled back to the Yosemite Valley. The Brigade then re-entered the Valley, captured Tenaya's sons, and killed his youngest son. Tenaya then agreed to go back to the reservation.

By the summer of 1851, Tenaya grew tired of the reservation. He gave his pledge that he would not disturb any non-indigenous people. However, in 1852, a group of prospectors were killed in the Valley. Tenaya and his band fled to join the Mono Paiutes. He returned to the Valley in 1853. He was stoned to death in a dispute with the Mono Paiutes over stolen horses.”

In another part of Lafayette Bunnell’s book he wrote:
"....when Ten-ie-ya left the tribe of his mother and went to live in Ah-wah-ne, he was accompanied by a very old Ah-wah-ne-chee, who had been the great `medicine man' of his tribe."

It was through the influence of this old friend of his father that Ten-ie-ya was induced to leave the Mono tribe, and with a few of the descendants from the Ah-wah-nee-chees, who had been living with the Monos and Pai-Utes, to establish himself in the valley of his ancestors as their chief. He was joined by the descendants from the Ah-wah-ne-chees, and by others who had fled from their own tribes to avoid summary Indian justice. The old "medicine man" was the counselor of the young chief. Not long before the death of this patriarch, as if endowed with prophetic wisdom, he assured Ten-ie-ya that while he retained possession of Ah-wah-ne his band would increase in numbers and become powerful. That if he befriended those who sought his protection, no other tribe would come to the valley to make war upon him, or attempt to drive him from it, and if he obeyed his counsels he would put a spell upon it that would hold it sacred for him and his people alone; none other would ever dare to make it their home. He then cautioned the young chief against the horsemen of the lowlands (the Spanish residents), and declared that, should they enter Ah-wah-ne, his tribe would soon be scattered and destroyed, or his people be taken captive, and he himself be the last chief in Ah-wah-ne.
For this reason, Ten-ie-ya declared, had he so rigidly guarded his valley home, and all who sought his protection. No one ventured to enter it, except by his permission; all feared the "witches" there, and his displeasure. He had "made war upon the white gold diggers to drive them from the mountains, and prevent their entrance into Ah-wah-ne."

From a few handful of Ahwahnees to a bigger group? Years after Tenaya’s father left Yosemite? Like Tenaya, who was now ½ Mono Paiute and his children were now 3/4s Paiutes the Ahwahnees could not have been full blooded Ahwahnees, but by then, like Tenaya a mixture of Ahwahnee and Mono Paiute.

Remember Tenaya was not even born when his father took a handful of Ahwhanees with him to Mono Lake. So for Tenaya’s father to find a Mono Lake Paiute bride and then have a family. Then for Tenaya to have grown up and then marry a Mono Lake Paiute woman and have children at Mono Lake would have to have taken years if not decades.

By then the Ahwahnees would have been assimilated into the majority Mono Lake Paiute community.

When Tenaya came in to meet with his terms of surrender with Major James Savage and the Mariposa Battalion who had gone up to capture him, Bunnell writes that Tenaya stated:
...."I will go with my people; my young man shall go with you to my village. You will not find any people there. I do not know where they are. My tribe is small--not large, as the white chief has said. The Pai-utes and Mono's are all gone. Many of the people with my tribe are from western tribes [Ed. Note: the outcast are from western tribes and not aligned with the western tribes] that have come to me and do not wish to return. If they go to the plains and are seen, they will be killed by the friends of those with whom they had quarreled. I have talked with my people and told them I was going to see the white chiefs sent to make peace. I was told that I was growing old, and it was well that I should go, but that young and strong men can find plenty in the mountains; therefore why should they go, to be yarded like horses and cattle. My heart has been sore since that talk, but I am now willing to go, for it is best for my people that I do so."

[JRhoan]

Tenaya, who Bunnell writes was a very smart person, I believe tried to persuade Savage to protect his people, to Savage give up chasing the rest of his people. I believe Tenaya thought if he told Savage this that he and the Mariposa Battalion would not go another further. I believe Tenaya did this to protect his people.

Notice that Tenaya states that many of the people with his tribe are from “unspecified” western tribes and did not wish to return to the western side because they would be killed. That would indicate that those “outlaws” and “outcasts” with Tenaya from the western tribes were not aligned with those Yokuts and Miwoks west of Yosemite.

Major Savages does not believe Tenaya and pushes ahead anyway. They go further east and capture of more of Tenaya’s people.
Lt. Moore goes close to Mono Lake to try to capture some of Tenaya’s people there. He always states that the place looked good for gold mining.

In Bunnell’s book The Discovery of the Yosemite, he writes about Tenaya’s death. Chapter XVIII (18), page 300:
“After his subjugation by the whites, he was deserted by his followers, and his supremacy was no longer acknowledged by the neighboring tribes, who had feared [Ed. note that would be Chief Bautista and the other groups] rather than respected him or the people of his band. Ten-ie-ya and his refugee band were so hospitably received and entertained by the Monos that they seemed in no hurry to return to their valley. [Ed. Note: Tenaya, instead of going to nearby Miwok areas in the lower Tuolumne crossed the Sierra Nevadas to go to Mono Lake?]

According to custom with these mountaineers, a portion of territory was given to them [Ed. Note: the Paiutes gave Tenaya and his band an allotment of land at Mono Lake] for their occupancy by consent of the tribe; for individual right to territory is not claimed, nor would it be tolerated. Ten-ie-ya staid with the Monos until late in the summer or early autumn of 1853, when he and his people suddenly left the locality that had been assigned to them, and returned to their haunts in the Yosemite valley, with the intention of remaining there unless again driven out by the whites. Permanent wig-wams were constructed by the squaws, near the head of the valley, among the rocks, not readily discernable to visitors. Not long after Ten-ie-ya had re-established himself in his old home, a party of his young men left on a secret foraging expedition for the camp of the Monos, which was then established at or near Mono Lake. According to the statement made to me, there had just been a successful raid and capture of horses by the Monos and Pai-Utes from some of the Southern California ranchos, and Ten-ie-ya's men concluded, rather than risk a raid on the white men, to steal from the Mono's, trusting to their cunning to escape detection.

Ten-ie-ya's party succeeded in recapturing a few of the stolen horses, and after a circuitous and baffling route through the pass at the head of the San Joaquin, finally reached the valley with their spoils.

After a few days' delay, and thinking themselves secure, they killed one or more of the horses, and were in the enjoyment of a grand feast in honor of their return, when the Mono's pounced down upon them. Their gluttony seemed to have rendered them oblivious of all danger to themselves, and of the ingratitude by which the feast had been supplied. Like sloths, they appear to have been asleep after having surfeited their appetites. They were surprised in their wig-wams by the wronged and vengeful Monos and before they could rally for the fight, the treacherous old chief was struck down by the hand of a powerful young Mono chief. Ten-ie-ya had been the principal object of attack at the commencement of the assault, but he had held the others at bay until discovered by the young chief, who having exhausted his supply of arrows, seized a fragment of rock and hurled it with such force as to crush the skull of "the old grizzly." [Ed. Note: Tenaya bragged that he liked that his enemies feared him and gave him and his band the name “Yosemites” or “the Grizzlies”. It was the Miwoks who gave him that name] As Ten-ie-ya fell, other stones were cast upon him by the attacking party, after the Pai-ute custom, until he was literally stoned to death. All but eight of Ten-ie-ya's young braves were killed; these escaped down the valley, and through the cañon below.

The old men and women, who survived the first assault, were permitted to escape from the valley. The young women and children were made captives and taken across the mountains to be held as slaves or drudges to their captors. [Ed. Note: The remaining childbearing members Tenaya’s band were taken and assimilated into the Mono Lake Paiutes] I frequently entertained the visitors at our store on the Merced with descriptions of the valley. The curiosity of some of the miners was excited, and they proposed to make a visit as soon as it could be made with safety. I expressed the opinion that there would be but little danger from Indians, as the Mono's and Pai-utes only came for acorns, and that the Yo-sem-i-ties were so nearly destroyed, that at least, while they were mourning the loss of their chief, and their people, no fear need be entertained of them.”

That means the remaining Ahwahneechee blood line is in the Mono Lake Paiutes who assimilated them into their population.

In Bunnell’s book The Discovery of the Yosemite, he writes about those who escaped the retribution of the Monos. Chapter XVIII (18), page 300:
“…that the murderers had gone to the Upper Tuolumne river and were banded with the renegades of the Tuolumne tribe that had once been under Ten-ie-ya.”

The Miwoks, who were never mentioned in the earliest account, were at the Big Creek area in the Lower Tuolumne while The Paiutes were in the Upper Tuolumne above Big Oak Flats.

Miwoks were not friendly with Paiutes as written, but had several wars with Paiutes. They had wars over Hetch Hetchy, Stoddard Springs and other areas. Brian Biddy even documents this in his book “Deeper Then Gold” when he writes a Miwok elders testimony about the animosity that the two groups had in the past.

In 1850 the first Europeans to enter Hetch Hetchy were the Screech brothers. They documented to C. F Hoffman, the first California state surveyor to survey Tuolumne and Yosemite, that the Big Creek Indians from the lower Tuolumne had a battle over Hetch Hetchy with the Upper Tuolumne Paiutes and that the Paiutes had won. The Paiutes still had returned to gather plants, roots and acorns even in the 1900s.

The Upper Tuolumne Indians during that time were the Paiutes and not Miwoks.
Then a year later after Tenaya’s death Bunnell writes in Discovery of the Yosemite. Chapter XVIII, (18) page 300:
“I expressed the opinion that there would be but little danger from Indians, as the Mono's and Pai-utes only came for acorns, and that the Yo-sem-i-ties were so nearly destroyed,…”

Chapter XVIII, (18) page 304 of the Discovery of the Yosemite:
“The nervous ones were still further alarmed by a general stampede of the miners on the South Fork of the Merced, which occurred in the summer of that year (1854). This was caused by a visit to their neighborhood of some Pai-Utes and Monos, from the east side of the Sierras, who came to examine the prospects for the acorn harvest, and probably take back with them some they had cached.” [Ed. Note: That means that the only Indians in Yosemite Valley in 1854, a year after Tenaya’s death were Paiutes.]

In other words Tenaya’s band were mainly Mono Paiutes before Savage went into Yosemite, the only Indians in Yosemite Valley in 1854, were Mono Lake Paiutes. The Screeches encounter Paiutes in Hetch Hetchy in 1850, a year before the Mariposa Battalion went after Chief Tenaya. There is no mention of Miwoks, Mewus in any of the first accounts until after 1900.

The old time Yosemite Indians were Chief Dick, his children Charlie and Sally Ann, The Charlies, The Ruebens, Captain Pete Jim, Big Jim, Billy Williams, Tom Hutchings, the first mailman of Yosemite, Bridgeport Tom, Captain and Susie Sam, Bill “Mono” Brown and his wife Lucy Sam-Brown, Pete Hilliard (the grandson of Lucy Brown), Lancisco Wilson, Old Rube, Captain John, and others are Paiutes or Paiute/Washoes.

[JRhoan]

So why is the Yosemite National Park Service going along with the story that the Ahwahneechees, Ahwahnees, Ahwahnis are Miwoks?

One thing that the Yosemite National Park Service does not know is that Major Savage had a confidant who a couple of years ago was in his enemy, but after had become great friends with Savage. That was a chief called Chief Bautista.

In a Stockton newspaper done around 1851 the paper writes something that was left out of Bunnell’s book.

Besides the Mariposa Battalion, Major Savage had taken, of what the newspaper reported, a 100 of “his” Indians. That without them they could not have found Chief Tenaya. Those Indians got a shirt, a scarf and a pair of ‘pantaloons’ for their service.

cc: National Park Service

[JRhoan]

Here's what some of the improvement money from the valley plan goes to.
This new restroom facility is built on top of an old village site also a new shuttle stop put within a gathering area.
Question: How is this cultural preservation?

[JRhoan]

"Save Yosemite Valley Campgrounds"
Dear Friends,

I have just read and signed the petition: "Save Yosemite Valley Campgrounds"

Please take a moment to read about this important issue, and join me in signing the petition. It takes just 30 seconds, but can truly make a difference. We are trying to reach 1,000 signatures - please sign here: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/187771649

Once you have signed, you can help even more by asking your friends and family to sign as well.

Thank you!

Jeanne Aceto


http://www.thePetitionSite.com

[JRhoan]

Yosemite Native Artist published - the reality vs the myth
Submitted by Yosemite_Indian on Wed, 2008-04-23 22:34.

Posted in History/Culture | Yosemite_Indian's blog »

Today I received an email from the Chairman of the Yosemite-Mono Lake Paiutes. He was extremely pleased that one of our people, Roger Salas, was published in the News from Native California. The Chairman sent out emails to the Paiute people highlighting the artistry and history of the Yosemite - Mono Lake Paiute people.

Roger Salas, a direct descendent of the Yosemite - Mono Lake Paiute people and a direct descendent of important historical Yosemite Indian people.

Roger's artwork appeared in the 2008 Spring issue of News from Native California. See artwork below;



The Paiute people would like to congratulate Roger for honoring one of the most recognizable Native Americans by drawing her. Not only is Tabuce Howard one of the most recognizable Natives in Yosemite National Park history, but in the history of California, Maggie "Tabuce" Howard, Yosemite-Mono Lake Paiute.

David Andrews also did a great job for supplying the historical text.



Roger Salas in front of the statue of a Pony Express rider in Sacramento's Old Town. Ironically the Pony Express riders were frequently attacked by Paiutes who were angered by their treatment at the hands of the U.S. government.

Even though many of the Paiute people were pleased, including the Chairman, I on the other hand noticed something that was odd in the magazine.

Interestingly a couple of pages after Roger's art honoring Maggie "Tabuce" Howard was this ad for these books about Yosemite Miwok "legends";



In the many, many years of reading News from Native California I have never seen the magazine promote these two certain books in a full page color ad. These books were printed by Heyday Press, which also publishes News from Native California. Interestingly when they published Roger's art of Tabuce the magazine decided to promote THESE TWO books out of hundreds of Native books that they have published. Why is that?

I laughed at how they described the second book "Populated with characters BASED ON REAL SIERRA ANIMALS...", WHAT?, compared to FAKE Sierra animals? These books are not like Roger's art which is based on REAL Yosemite (Paiute) Indians and Andrews' text which is based on REAL Yosemite (Paiute) Indians, not about 'fables' and 'myths' of "Yosemite Miwoks". I didn't know bears winnowed acorns, but I sure know Yosemite Paiutes did.

Note about the "Yosemite Miwok Legends" years later C. Hart Merriam, the man who collected the 'legends', later acknowledged that the legends he collected were in fact Western Valley Yokut tales, and not Miwok.

Meanwhile the art of Roger Salas and the genealogical text of David Andrews is done by descendents of Yosemite Indians, the two "Yosemite Miwoks" books were written and drawn by NON-Yosemite Indians, who have no tribal or ancestral ties to Yosemite.

This is the true irony of all this. So where is Heyday's books about the Paiutes of Yosemite, like Chief Tenaya and his band?

"Fables, Myths and Legends" are different then true historical facts and ancestry of the Indians of Yosemite area.

Congrats to Roger Salas and David Andrews, but just something that caught my eye.

CC: YNP

[JRhoan]

2 Meetings scheduled for May 21 2008
See Attached Bulletins:

[JRhoan]

Tribes clash over their roles in Yosemite history
By Garance Burke
The Associated Press
Sunday, June 15, 2008


YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK — For decades, visitors to Yosemite Valley have been taught the history of the Southern Sierra Miwok, whose ancestral ties to the park are venerated in books, brochures and a replica Indian village built near the park's roaring falls.

Now, a second band of American Indians is calling that story a total invention.

Joe Rhoan, who traces his ancestry back to Paiute peoples from the park's eastern edge, is one of potentially hundreds claiming that his elders were the park's first stewards and that the Miwok play down the Paiute role in the park's records.

"The park manufactured a lot of its history," said Rhoan, of Roseville, a suburb of Sacramento. "You've got living direct descendants of the people in old photos displayed in exhibits telling the park they have the wrong signs up, and they're not listening to us."

Yosemite historians chafe at the suggestion their exhibits could be wrong, and say they've been crafted over years, drawing from academic research, geological records and careful consultations with seven American Indian tribes that advise the park on its interpretive programs, including two Paiute bands in the Eastern Sierra.

Reconciling brutal events

Yet as the country's parks start to reconcile the sometimes brutal events that helped to create cherished wilderness, these kinds of fights over recognition are beginning to surface, said Bob Sutton, the National Park Service's chief historian.

"In the past, we operated with this idea that great men made American parks what they were, so we wrote stories about a lot of great white men," Sutton said. "In some instances, the history we have on the books may not be accurate, and we need to take a lot of care in making sure we're telling it correctly."

Rhoan's great-grandmother Maria Lebrado was one of the few survivors of a massacre in 1851, in which white settlers drove out the native families living in and migrating through the valley. Five years later, tourist magazines were promoting Yosemite as a pleasuring ground for the moneyed classes of San Francisco.

Last Indian village

By 1892, when conservationist John Muir founded the Sierra Club, most surviving Indians had left the area, or had taken jobs working as maids, tree fellers or dancers to entertain visitors.

Tony Brochini, chairman of the 800-member Southern Sierra Miwok tribe, was born in the last Indian village in the valley in 1951, and he grew up exploring the park's flowering meadows and swift rivers that were his backyard.

He says the Miwok have been cautious not to overstep their leadership in keeping Indian cultural and spiritual traditions alive in Yosemite.

"We're the indigenous people of Yosemite Valley and have the most lineal descent to this area, and are the spiritual leaders for all tribal activities," he said. "The disgruntled ones want that whole history changed."

Rhoan and another Paiute activist, David Andrews, have sent Yosemite's tribal liaison reams of information they say demonstrates the park's improprieties.

Early inhabitants were Paiute

Andrews, a member of the Walker River Paiute reservation in Nevada, says firsthand accounts from the mid-1800s invasion prove Tenaya, the Ahwahnee Indian chief, was Mono Lake Paiute. He cites Eadweard Muybridge's early photos of Yosemite as further evidence that early inhabitants were Paiute.

Brochini, a park service employee who also has Italian and Paiute blood, acknowledges that tribal intermarrying means some early valley residents were Yokut, Chukchasi, Mono — as well as Paiute.

Until recently, Rhoan, a distant cousin of Brochini, was also a member of the Miwok tribe.

Paiutes are already mentioned in three-dimensional displays at a refurbished visitor's center that opened last year, on signs in the native museum.

But Andrews wants the park to go a step further: he'd like to see signs rewritten and photographs relabeled to say the park's original stewards were all Paiute. He also objects to the payments for cultural services the park has made to the nonprofit the Miwok tribe formed as they seek federal recognition.

"They're angry that a decision was made to replicate a Miwok village. It's one topic. No more, no less," said Yosemite spokesman Scott Gediman. "We're not going to pull the books off the shelves according to one person that calls us on the telephone."

Still, officials said the group's critiques have in part spurred park historians to consider taking a second look at its Indian historical materials when funding is available.

Gerard Baker has been overhauling Mount Rushmore's exhibits since he became the park's first American Indian superintendent in 2004. This spring, he organized a summit of Lakota, Nakota and Dakota elders to discuss, in part, how to change programming and help heal wounds stemming from the country's violent history with American Indians.

Tribe was ceded park land

In Death Valley National Park, members of the federally recognized Timbisha Shoshone Tribe are working under a park service grant to map out sites of cultural and historical significance. In 2000, after decades of negotiation, the tribe was ceded acres of park land as a part of their ancestral territory.

Pat Parker, chief of the agency's American Indian liaison office in Washington, lauded such efforts, and said the park service planned to issue new guidelines detailing how parks should work with tribes to ensure visitors are told a complete history.

http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/jun/15/tribes-clash-over-their-roles-in-yosemite/