Hetch Hetchy Native American history and archealogy. Restore Hetch Hetchy

Paiute making pictographs/petrogyphs. Numic tradition also located in Hetch Hetchy Valley.

I received an email today from a friend who is in Restore Hetch Hetchy and she asked me what I thought about it.

I was certainly surprised that on page 3 of the Restore Hetch Hetchy newsletter they had gotten a new Administrative Assistant named Debbie Colston. I thought that is great because the group has new blood in the non-profit. Than I read her small biography regarding her. She seems like a very knowledge person. I can't wait to have a good working relationship with her.

She was a paid archeological consultant for the Tuolumne Mewuk Rancheria. In the newsletter it states that she found mostly Central Mewuk remains and helped develop the Tuolumne Mewuks Cultural Resources Department. Than the newsletter goes on to say that Hetch Hetchy was part of the Tuolumne Mewuks ancestral homeland.

We Paiutes wonder where is our history in the Restore Hetch Hetchy newsletter? We Paiutes were a main part of Hetch Hetchy Valley.

We know that most archaeologists that we have spoken to have advised us that they cannot tell the origin of most materials in the high sierras because of the high acidity of the soil. The obsidian points are explained off as being "traded" with the Mono Paiutes and the pictographs are written as Miwok (I will get to that point later). 

In Handbook of the American Indians, 1906, the book designates a definite Paiute village and band of Numaltachi along the Upper Tuolumne which was a Paiute area in olden times.

In archeology, which when we speak to archeologists, they say that it is not an exact science. That archeology is very subjective. That most of the time they rely on informants as indicators. As I posted early, it was too hard for archeologists to definately tell what tribe was in Hetch Hetchy going by certain factors because of the acidity of the soil of the high Sierra Nevada.

But there are other factors.

Now, lets look at the history of the Tuolumne Mewuk Rancheria and it is an interesting one.

Thorne B. Gray did extensive research of the Indians of the northern San Joaquin Valley and published "Stanislaus Indian Wars". He looked through many notes and documentation concerning the Indians of that area. He wrote "...the Indians of the Tuolumne Rancheria, where many descendents of the Knight's Ferry band now live, have recently voted to spell their tribal affiliation "Mewuk", a choice that other rancherias may also adopt"

Robert Reed of the Tuolumne Rancheria traced the rancheria records at the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs that many of the them came from Knight's Ferry.

Frank Latta, in his Handbook of the Yokuts has Tuolumnes as Yokuts. So there is heavy Yokut influence in Tuolumne.

Which led me to find Indians of Survival on the California Frontier by Albert L. Hurtado. In the book he mentioned Chief Moximo of the Galt area. Moximo was a Miwuk chief, who with his people helped at Sutter's Fort. That is even mentioned in "An Aged Indian Chief", Sacramento Daily Record Union, May 25, 1885, 4.

Miwoks at McFarland Ranch - Galt California.

Here is the mention of Chief Moximo in the biography of Chief William "Bill" Fuller, the creator of the Tuolumne Rancheria of Mewuks. Chief Fuller had his biography done in the Pacific Historian where he discusses where they originated. Cover with Chief Bill Fuller in pan-Inidan headdress;

 

Cover of Pacific Historian with Chief William "Bill" Fuller.

Note that Chief Fuller states in his own biography that he from a 1/2 Irish-German father (Albert Fuller) and 1/2 Chilean-Indian mother (Jenita). Chileans had a large presence during the gold mining days. His mother Jenita's half brother was Chief Charlie Moximo. In the biography you can see that the Moximo and his band were originally from the Lockeford - Clements area, northeast of Lodi and southeast of Galt. Fuller formed the official Tuolumne Rancheria from Indians who were living around the Sonora area around the late 1920s. They were Mewuks originally from Knight's Ferry and other tribes who went to work in the foothill area.

Some of the other Tuolumne Mewuk families were originally from Calaveras County. In News from Native California, 1990 is an article on Dorothy Stanley. In the article it states that the Carsoners are from Calaveras and the Georges are from West Point.

After gold was discovered in the foothills a few enterprising Anglos realized that it would be better to have a cheap workforce, than go dig gold by yourself. This is documented in The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, 1888, vol XXIII, pgs 76-74 and in Coulterville Chronicle, the Annals of a Mother Lode Mining Town by Catherine Coffin Phillips and Sam Ward in the Gold Rush, edited by Carvel Collins.

One of those men was Charles Webber, who had worked as an overseer at Sutter's Fort and saw how Sutter had Chief Moximo's people work for him. Charles Webber was the main founder of Stockton and wanted to be the Sutter of Central San Joaquin Valley. Webber made an agreement with Chief Jose Jesus to have his people from Knight's Ferry go up the Sonora Foothills to dig gold for him. The chief agreed and there was a good working relationship with the Knight's Ferry Miwoks and Webber. He provided them with provisions in exchange for them going to work in Sonora. Later many of the Miwoks stayed in the area. The Miwoks also fought along side the Americans against the Mexicans for independence of California.

One man had a better plan to become rich. That man was James Savage who had also been around Sutter's fort and decided to take his control over the Indian miners one step further. In early times he had fought with some of the Indians, but after awhile he made peace with them. Savage "married" many of the daughters of the foothill and San Joaquin Valley Miwok and Yokut tribes to make alliances with them. James Savage had made great friends with once enemy Chief Bautista, documented in Sam Ward in the Gold Rush. Bautista was a Mission Indian runaway and became Savage's overseer. In another written account Bautista helped capture Indian runaways who tried to escape the gold mines. James Savage had a large work force by promising them provisions and protection from drunken miners. That is documented in the History of Tuolumne County, California, complied by B. F. Alley, San Francisco, 1882, page 54. See below:

 

James Savage even helped the Mewuks in their battle with the Indians of the high Sierra Nevada (Paiutes). James Hutchings writings.

James Savage built a trading post close to the entrance of Yosemite Valley. Than in December 1850 the Ahwahneechees burned and destroyed his trading post. (Lafayette H. Bunnell documents in Discovery of the Yosemites, 1851 that the Ahwahneechees were primarily made up of Mono Paiutes).

Also in 1850, a year before James Savage went after Chief Tenaya and his band, Joseph, Nate and William Screech were the first non-Indians to enter Hetch Hetchy Valley. There they met a chief and his family. In Charles F. Hoffmann (1838-1913), "Notes on Hetch-Hetchy Valley," Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences (San Francisco: CAS, 1861), series 1, 3:5, pp. 368-370, Hoffmann wrote that the Screech brothers told him that the Paiutes and the Big Creek Indians had a battle and that the Paiutes were victorious in retaining their ownership of Hetch Hetchy Valley. In other words the two groups did not trade, but fought, and that the ownership of Hetch Hetchy was in Paiute hands in early times. C. F. Hoffmann was the first person to survey the area for the State of California. You can see more here on this website;

http://thehive.modbee.com/?q=node/180

It was also noted by Charles Augustus Stoddard, who had Stoddard Springs named after him in his book 1849-1900, Beyond the Rockies; A Spring Journey in California, Chapter XXII - Hetch Hetchy Valley, pgs 139-140 that Hetch Hetchy was a hiding place and acorn gathering area of the Paiutes.

Famous Yosemite and Hetch Hetchy Geologist, Francois E. Matthes assistant was documented as writing in The Sierra Nevada: The Range of Light edited by Roderick Peattie, a collection of writers, pg 304, that they encountered rock morters used by Paiutes around Hetch Hetchy.

But things started to change when more Non-Indian miners started to invade the high Sierra Nevada and the Paiutes had resented the influx of whites into their territory. Paiutes were know to steal horses and mules and loved the taste of horse flesh. We had heard tales of this and was even documented by C. Hart Merriam in his notes on the Paiutes. Here is Pokotucket (Captain John) his name denotes the Paiutes love for horse flesh. Poko or Pogo (depending on the Paiute dialect) and Tucket (eater). So the name he was identified is Paiute for "Horse Eater".

The Ahwahneechees, who were mainly Paiutes, burned James Savages trading post. Savage and his Indian miners of Bautista's band chased the Ahwahneechees, but found it to hard to enter Yosemite. That was in Dec. 1850. 

More attacks persisted and the whites asked James Savage to bring in the all the foothill and valley floor tribes in the area to sign a peace in Feb. 1851. The Indians of the area called James Savage their "White Chief" in A French Journalist in the California Gold Rush, edited by A. P. Nasatir. James Savage called upon his old friend Chief Bautista to demand that all the chiefs come in and sign. The whites did not trust Bautista, but after he complied they respected his advice. He and Russio had told the whites that they could get all the tribes to come in and sign except two, in Lafayette H. Bunnell's book Discovery of the Yosemites, 1851, Bautista calls them the Chowchilla and the Yosemites. They explained that Yosemite meant "The Killers" or "the Grizzlies" in their language. In a Stockton newspaper of the day wrote that Bautista called them the Chowchillas and the Monahs. You can see the story here by download the PDF of Lafayette H. Bunnell’s book:

http://esnips.com/web/YosemiteIndiansWebResearch

In his book, Lafayette H. Bunnell writes that some Yosemites tried their hand at gold mining, but when one was killed in an accident they left by the Hetch Hetchy Valley trail, which by the way leads to Piute Creek and Piute Mountain and to Bridgeport. In fact the "Joe" in Bunnell's book later shows up in C. Hart Merriam's notes about Paiutes in Hetch Hetchy. Joe was once the husband of Besa-Yoona, daughter of Bridgeport Paiute Captain Jim. He was also mentioned as going into Hetch Hetchy in Merriam's notes.

The people of upper Tuolumne were Paiutes, by the name locations of Piute Creek and Paiute Mountain, C. F. Hoffmann, Charles Stoddard and François Matthes assistant written accounts, the name "O-wai-a-nuh", the pictographs, "Joe" appearing in Bunnell's and then in Merriam's notes. The fact that the Mewuks were already friendly with whites before this date and after, (They were recorded as helping scout for the Mariposa Battalion). The fact that they fought with Paiutes and did not trade, so the obsidian was Paiutes and many more factors. In Bunnell's book when Tenaya states that the two groups that left him had gone back to Mono Lake and up the Tuolumne which leads to Bridgeport. That was the path the Bridgeport Paiutes entered Yosemite. The Mewuks were not fighting the whites.  In fact they already had a working relationship with many of the white settlers and miners when they were brought up to work for them. John Muir mentions that the Mewuks started to move up higher because they felt safer because of their friendship with white settlers and mountain men.

That is why in Gold Spring Dairy, the Journal of John Jolly from the Tuolumne Historical Society, Jolly wrote that "their" Indians were the ones who were not killing and attacking whites, ditch diggers, water masters and early dam tenders who were trying to tame the waters around Hetch Hetchy and the Upper Tuolumne. He wrote that it was was Paiutes high up in the head waters of the Tuolumne River. They formed vigilante groups to go get them. That was the Mono Paiutes who were up in the high Sierra Nevada, the Upper Flats. The area of Hetch Hetchy.

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/6306/johnjolly10ed.jpg

 http://img374.imageshack.us/img374/6532/johnjolly24zg.jpg

Oldest intact Indian Basket found in Hetch Hetchy, Paiute (wono) burden basket. From Tradion and Innovation by Craig Bates and Martha Lee. Said to have been traded from the Paiutes...the same Paiutes they were fighting. I don't think so. Sorry, but in early times Miwoks, Paiutes and Yokuts had running battles with each other over resource areas like Hetch Hetchy Valley.

Many people believe Paiutes did not inhabit the western side of the Sierra Nevada, but that is unture. In earliar times Paiutes was the tribe that lived in the upper western Sierra Nevada. The encrouching whites had pushed them over to the other side. Here is a letter dated June 4 1860 to Gov. John Downey from Augustus Miller showing that Paiutes were indeed the people of the high western side Sierra Nevada around Hetch Hetchy. This letter is from the Military Papers at the State Archives.

That is why we Paiutes should also have consultants because the evidence that was done in early times shows Paiutes camped, lived and held Hetch Hetchy Valley. It would only be fair because we Paiutes did retain Hetch Hetchy and visited the area up until it was flooded. All the tribes in the area should be represented and their history in Hetch Hetchy Valley remembered and also acknowledged. I am sure that with new blood in Restore Hetch Hetchy like Debbie Colston she can help ALL tribes that had historical ties to Hetch Hetchy.

We hope.