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[Yosemite]

Our Chairman"hereditary chief" of Miwoks

Discussion about Yosemite National Park history, including Native Americans, Euro-American pioneers and settlement, and establishment as a national park.

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Our Chairman"hereditary chief" of Miwoks

Postby Yosemite_Indian » Fri Mar 06, 2009 12:33 am

According to Yosemite National Park Service and their former Indian ethnologist our Mono Lake Paiute chairman is the "hereditary chief" of the Southern Sierra Miwuk. :lol:

The chairman of our group retold us a story that happened June 2007 two summers ago. While viewing an exhibition of Yosemite paintings and baskets at the Oakland Museum he ran across one of the elders of the Southern Sierra Miwuk non-profit also called the American Indian Council of Mariposa. Pleasantries were exchanged then after awhile the Miwok elder stated “Everyone knows that Young Charlie was the son of a Yosemite Miwok.”. Previously while visiting Yosemite’s Indian Museum we had noticed that this elder had the book “Tradition and Innovation” written by Craig D. Bates lying next to her.

Craig D. Bates worked for several decades as Yosemite National Park Service’s Indian ethnologist and museum curator. During that time he was married to a Mewuk and they have a Mewuk son together. Bates is not a Native American, but has danced and dressed in ceremonial Miwok attire in the early 1970s and 80s. He was very instrumental in creating the Yosemite “Miwok” program for the Park.

In his book Tradition and Innovation Craig D. Bates wrote that Nellie and Tina Jim, sisters and daughters of Captain Jim, were married to the son of a Yosemite Miwok royal line. The person that Bates claims was the son of a Yosemite Miwok chief was a man named Young Charlie. Yet in the book there was no reference or source for this claim.

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Craig Bates, Yosemite National Park Service Indian ethnologist and musuem curator wrote that Mono Paiute Young Charlie was a Yosemite Miwok from a 'royal line'.

Young Charlie’s father was Dick Charlie and not one of the Charlie family’s paperwork indicates that they were Miwoks. All general population census, Indian census rolls, early family probates, government documentation and 1929 California Indian Applications show the family to be full blooded Mono Lake Paiutes.

Our group submitted Young Charlie’s paperwork to Yosemite National Park to show them this mistake because other authors have republished Craig Bates line that Young Charlie was a Miwok. We requested the Park prove to us that Young Charlie was the son of a Yosemite Miwok

In Craig Bates’ book Tradition and Innovation where he wrote that about Young Charlie, unknowingly he also had a photo and biography of Jennie Sam. In the same book that Bates wrote Young Charlie was the son of a Yosemite Miwok chief he also wrote Jennie Sam was a Mono Lake Paiute. Well apparently Bates did not know who she was. Jennie Sam’s maiden name was Charlie. Jennie was the sister of Young Charlie. They have the same parents. So how is it possible that Jennie is a Mono Lake Paiute, but Young Charlie is the son of Yosemite Miwok royalty?

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In the same book that Bates wrote that Young Charlie was a Yosemite Miwok, he wrote that Jennie (Charlie) Sam was a Mono Lake Paiute. Jennie is Young Charlie's sister.

Recently in a telephone conversation with Yosemite National Park’s Indian Liaison, who by the way is Non-Indian, told our chairman that the Park had reviewed what we had sent them and they do not believe anything that we have submitted. That they consider the paperwork that we submitted as untrue even though the documentation are government documents. He tried his best to convey that to the Park that Young Charlie’s information was wrong, but the Liaison was extremely rude too him.

Well here is something the Indian Liaison for Yosemite National Park does not know. Our chairman, who the Liaison had disrespected, is from a person named Pretty Charlie. Who was Pretty Charlie? Pretty Charlie was the older brother of Young Charlie and Jennie Charlie and their other siblings.

So in using the logic of Yosemite National Park Pretty Charlie is also the son of the same Yosemite Miwok royalty as Young Charlie. Here is another point Pretty Charlie was the older brother of Young Charlie. That would mean that according to Miwok tradition Pretty Charlie’s line would be considered the hereditary chief of the Yosemite Miwok people, since he was the oldest. Unlike Maria Lebrado and Mary Wilson who the Southern Sierra Miwuks claim was one of their hereditary chiefs no Miwoks had female chiefs in early time. Not when there were sons of Yosemite Miwoks still living.

Even though our chairman has told Yosemite National Park Service that the information Craig Bates and the Southern Sierra Miwuk non-profit has supplied them is not correct, they still choose to go with theirs.

If that is the case, if we are to believe the Park Service and Bates, then our chairman of the Yosemite-Mono Lake Paiutes is also the hereditary chief of the Southern Sierra Miwuks, which of course is totally ridiculous. It is as ridiculous as the Indian history that Yosemite National Park Service is force feeding the general public.

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Young Charlie's 1929 California Indian Application, first page.

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2nd Page of Young Charlie's Applications showing he is a full blooded Paiute from Mono County and so are his parents.
Chief Tenaya was the founder of the Paiute Colony of Ahwahnee
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Postby Yosemite_Indian » Wed Mar 11, 2009 5:17 pm

You can verify that at least two major books on Yosemite, that discuss Yosemite Indians, use the reference that our Paiute chairman's relative, Young Charlie was a son of a Yosemite Miwok chief.

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That is how it works and how it spreads, the lie becomes the truth after awhile because it is now 'written'.
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