Yosemite Indians - "Chief Tenaya, Founder of the Paiute Colony of Ahwahnee"

In 1851, Lafayette H. Bunnell was one of the first persons to meet and write about Chief Tenaya leader of the Ahwahnees or Ahwahneechees.

Bunnell was the doctor for the Mariposa Battalion and documented the first encounter of non-Indians and the Indians of Yosemite.

In Chapter 18 of Dr. Lafayette H. Bunnell's book called "Discovery of the Yosemite, and the Indian War of 1851, which led to that event." he writes;

"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."

http://www.abovecalifornia.com/lib/Houghton/18.php

All through the book it talks about Tenaya and his band being Yosemite-Mono Lake Paiutes. Interesting that the Yosemite National Park Service did not mention that in the story of the Indians of Yosemite.

Then the rest of the child-bearing Ahwahneechees or Ahwahnees were taken back to Mono Lake and assimilated into the Mono Paiute population.

The blood line of the Ahwahnees or Ahwahneechees is in the Mono Lake Paiute Indians.

Even those handful of Ahwahnees who escaped were Paiutes.

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.

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