Yosemite Indian History - "Yosemite Indians are Outlaw Paiutes" from historical account.
From the Pony Express Periodical that dealt with Gold Mining History and Western Pioneer accounts. The Pony Express was published from the town of Sonora in Tuolumne County and dealt with all aspects of Mariposa, Tuolumne and other mining areas, plus early pioneer life through out the west
Here is the transcribed version of the story of the original Yosemite Indians that appeared in the periodical on March 1956. The Pony Express had many more references to Yosemite Indians being Paiutes, and not just this one.
YOSEMTIE INDIANS ARE
OUTLAW PIUTES
Camp Barbour in 1851 produced
the great frontiersman. Major
James D. Savage, leader of the
Mariposa Battalion, who with
Andrew D. Firebaugh, chased out-
law Piute Indians back into Yose-
mite Valley, which led to its dis-
covery. It is obvious they were
not Miwoks and Diggers. They
were peaceful, certainly not war-
like enough to go out raiding Fort
Barbour (later Fort Miller) built
with soldiers armed with cap and ball
muskets. Also, this is refuted by
the testimony of veteran David
Williamson to the Pony Express
the late Williamson (born at Fort
Churchill in the 1860s) whose
father was an army officer, was
told differently by Johnny Calico,
son of Chief Winnemucca. Johnny
as a kid in 1860, witnessed White
Man's route up the Truckee River
from Lake Pyramid, in the so-
called battle of Lake Pyramid
which was not a "battle" but a
very fast route, so fast as the
soldiers could get away on horse-
back. His father told him that
all unruly renegades in the tribe
(The Piutes had no jails) had
been exiled for generations over
the mountains west of the big
lake (which was Mono Lake).
So there are your tough out-law
Yosemite Indians that Savage and
Firebaugh chased with their Mari-
posa Battalion in 1851.
*They were renegade Paiutes. The common people of the Mono Paiutes bragged about their exploits. They were like Robin Hood in their eyes. Chief Tenaya's band was made up of Paiutes from different bands. They were a warrior renegade band and not docile Miwoks.
*There is a town called Firebaugh that now exists in the area.
Here is the actual article;
The Yosemite Indians were outlaw Paiutes.
http://esnips.com/web/YosemiteIndiansWebResearch
If you download this book on the website linked above and follow the instructions you will "Discover the Yosemites".
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Old 1904 Yosemite Souvenir and Guide Book of Yosemite page 64.
Here is something interesting also. You see the only person to meet and write about Chief Tenaya and the Yosemite Indians was Lafayette H. Bunnell, the doctor for the Mariposa Battalion. He documented that he met MONO PAIUTES IN YOSEMITE, not Miwoks.
http://esnips.com/web/YosemiteIndiansWebResearch
In 1853, Chief Tenaya was killed by his follow brethren, the Mono Lake Paiutes, who had taken him and his band in after they escaped the reservation. Some of Tenaya's men had stolen the Monos horses and they were so incensed that their hospitality had been paid with theft that they killed almost all of his band, including Chief Tenaya. Then the Monos took the remaining surviviors BACK to Mono Lake were they were absorbed into the tribe. The true blood of Ahwahneechees runs in the veins of the Paiutes of Mono Lake. It was even reported that the next year, 1854, the only Indians In Yosemite were Paiutes looking at the acorn corp.
That was documented in Bunnell's book. It took Bunnell years to do his memoirs and his book didn't come out until the 1880s. Meanwhile men like Kroeber and others ran up to Mariposa and Sonora and recorded the tales of Miwoks. The same Miwuks who helped Jim Savage. That is why they were STILL THERE in Mariposa. The real Yosemite Indians were over on the other side of the sierras. So their informants were Miwoks. They hurridly wrote their books to get the acclaim that they were the first to document the "Yosemite Indians" who they now proclaimed were the Miwoks, James Savage's workers.
Not until Bunnell's first and only account, which is the "bible" of Yosemite Indian history, came out, that the true written story revealed. By than many believed the lie.
Here is a great example. Taken from an old 1904 Yosemite Souvenir and Guide Book page 64;
"Of the orinigal Yosemite band of Indians that once owned this Valley, and numbered its braves by the hundreds, there are now remaining but about a dozen. These are the Digger tribe, and they remain here only during the warm moths. At other times they move down the river below the snow line. Many of the Indians now here belong to their enemies, the sturdy Paiutes, from across the Sierras. All of both tribes are fairly industrious, the bucks doing all sorts of work, while the sqauws spend their time making baskets. The elder of the former usually follow trout fishing. The present leader of the Yosemites is Captain Dick, whose "quarters" are near the foot of the Yosemite Falls."
As you can see the guide book writer was looking for the "original" Yosemite Indians, as written by Kroeber and Powers, what he found was mainly Paiutes (the true original people of Yosemite). He even wrote that the "handful" of Miwoks did not live in Yosemite year round, but in 1880 the census shows Paiutes in Yosemite.
Even Chief Dick was a Paiute, but they couldn't tell one Indian from another. So the "Myth of Yosemite Miwok" has been kept alive now by certain workers at Yosemite National Park. They have even changed old timers, who were Paiutes, into Miwuks. That is a disgrace to teach children and the general public false history, but than again Yosemite Park employees and former employees are going for a tribe. Yosemite National Park should be about integrity, especially when it comes to History of the Indians of Yosemite, not about assisting it's employees to become a tribe.
This account even stated that Paiutes and Miwoks could not have had "friendly trade", because they were enemies. The trade, which was falsely written to explain why only Paiute items were found in Yosemite.
Fort Miller Barracks and Stables - Reference to Yosemite Indians
Here is another reference. This time in describing Fresno County's Fort Miller Barracks and Stables.
"About July 27, 1853 after Bill Henderson had run down Joaquin Murietta, and cut his head off, and the hand of "Three Fingered" Jack, he arrived with Capt. Harry Love and his posse at Fort Miller. It was a scorching hot summer's day. They wanted to preserve their souvenirs in alcohol, in order to claim Governor Bigler's offer of $1000.00 at the State Capital at Benica. Dr. Edgar Leach, attached to the fort provided the "keg of alcohol." Note the port holes in the old Fort and even in the stables, in order to shoot carbines and muskets at outlaw Piute Indians from Yosemite Valley who often raided any place they could find.
This fort was originally Camp Barbour, built by Major James D. Savage, and named after U. S. Indian Commissioner, A. W. Barbour, in 1851. It was good crossing of the San Joaquin for mail route to Texas and Santa Fe. Ft. Miller, in 1852, was named for Major Albert S. Miller, who replaced Savage, killed by Walter Harvey in Tulare County. It was built near Camp Barbour. All this was in the huge Mariposa County, where Mariposa Battalion was in charge. Fresno County was created in 1856. Tulare County was carved out in 1852. A Texas bear hunter and his wife, Nathaniel and Salia Vice, and brother, Abner, with them, established Visalia (named after his wife Salia Vice backwards). During Civil War Fort Miller was abandoned, property sold at auction to Judge Charles Hart, later becoming Charles Green Ranch. The Friant dam now covers old Fort Miller, with about 100 feet of water.
Sketches made by "Brown's Flat" Jack Brotherton in 1935. (See detailed story by him in April 1945 issue, and Nov. '53)"
This one page has many historical references from the killing of Joaquin Murietta and "Three-Fingered" Jack, who captured him, the reward, Benica was the State Captial at the time, who was the Governor during that time, that Paiutes (Not Miwoks) were the original Yosemite American Indians, who built the fort, who the forts were named after, who replaced James Savage of the Mariposa Battalion, who killed him, the pony express mail routes in Central California, when Fresno County and Tulare County were created, how the town of Visalia got its name, and more.
Of course since I am discussing the Native Americans of Yosemite Valley my focus is more on that detail, but for other California historians these small paragrahs have a lot of information about early California pioneer life.
The photo below is "The Old Piute - Valley of the Yosemites" by Muybridge
I enhanced the title, so people can read it. Photo by Eadweard Muybridge who photographed many Paiutes in Yosemite. The marjority of Muybridge's Native American subjects in Yosemite Valley were Paiutes. He also took the famous "Piute Chief's Lodge" in Yosemite.
Ahwahnee, You got great evidence.
hey
great details...
Conservatorship in Los Angeles.