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[Yosemite]

Yosemite Indian basket making families and the Mono legacy

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

Moderators: Wickett, dan

Yosemite Indian basket making families and the Mono legacy

Postby Yosemite_Indian » Wed Jan 09, 2008 12:16 am

This was forwarded to me. It has great Paiute basket history. Lots of good stuff and photos. I already have the Captain Sam one, but like the one with the Yosemite - Mono Lake Paiute ladies. I didn't know they held Yosemite Indian Fields at June Lake early on? Will you learn something everyday. Great job on the history, instead of the phony stuff you go off books written by others.

Got to give a shout out to my Paiute peeps who were in Yosemite and Mono Lake.


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Carrie Bethel Basket – Full blooded Yosemite-Mono Lake Paiute.

The Baskets of Yosemite and the basket makers: What people see on the internet is not always what the truth really is.

What we are going to do today is a lesson for all you Paiutes out there about misinformation that is on the web concerning the tribal identification of the baskets of Yosemite, which by the way are tied directly to the Paiutes of Mono Lake and eastern Sierra.

San Francisco Chronicle July 29th 1923 photo and article of Hazel Townsley, Yosemite Chief Ranger Townsley's daughter and Bertha Dolbow holding Mono Lake Paiute baskets. Article says "…Chief Ranger Townsley, who returning from the Mono Lake country where the basket weaving Indians now live…"

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At the height of the early Yosemite Indian Field Days, basket makers from Mono Lake, Nevada and along the other Paiute and Washo areas brought their best baskets to the celebration to win prizes and money. Early Chief Ranger Townsley had an idea to generate more interest in Yosemite. He went to Mono Lake to drum up the local Paiutes to create baskets for sale for tourists who visited Yosemite. Unlike Miwoks of that time, Paiutes still created baskets. The park service created a basket and bead competition and other Indian contests so the tourists would come and visit. The majority of winners of the basket competitions were mainly Paiutes from Mono Lake, Washoes and some Yokuts. There were never any known Miwok basket makers during that time. This was during a height of the basket making Renaissance of Yosemite-Mono Lake Paiutes. Famous Paiute baskets makers Carrie Bethel, Minnie Mike, Nellie Jamison, Nellie and Tina Charlie, Daisy Mallory, Alice Wilson, and other Paiutes from Mono Lake, Benton, Coleville, Bishop and Bridgeport made some of the most impressive baskets in California Indian history…yet no one would ever know this. That is because their talents and mastery went unnoticed because the Park Service was pushing the story of the Yosemite Miwoks, who did not make any of those large baskets you see in Yosemite Indian Museum today. The Park Service went with the lie that the baskets were done by Yosemite Miwoks, the Paiutes were always placed secondary, and sometimes the Paiutes were not mentioned at all. The Park Service instead went with the myth of the great Yosemite Miwok basket makers, when there were none during that time.

What we are going to do is examine the information of one particular well known basket making family in Yosemite, who are really Paiutes from Mono Lake and how many writers started to add "Yosemite Miwok" to all their stories and books. Yet the majority of the baskets were done by Yosemite-Mono Lake Paiutes.

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Yosemite-Mono Lake Paiute basket makers at Yosemite Indian Field Days basket competition 1925. Most of the winners were Mono Lake Paiutes. From Left to Right: Tina Charlie, Carrie Bethel, Alice Wilson, Leanna Tom and Maggie "Taboose" Howard - Mono Indians with Chief Ranger Townsley.

So let's look at this site. This one really had bad information.

http://www.kstrom.net/isk/art/basket/yosemite.html

The site above says:"Lucy Parker Telles (1870-1956) was of Yosemite Miwok and Mono Lake Paiute descent. Shortly after her son Lloyd was born in 1902, her husband Jack Parker, Paiute, died."

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Lucy Telles, famous Yosemite-Mono Lake Paiute with one of her prize winning baskets

Lucy Telles' maiden name was Tom, she was Lucy Tom. Lucy Tom's father was full blooded Yosemite-Mono Lake Paiute Bridgeport Tom and her mother full blooded Yosemite-Mono Lake Paiute Louisa Sam-Tom. Lucy Tom's mother's grandparents were full blooded Yosemite-Mono Lake Paiute Captain Sam and his wife Susie Sam who died on August 1903. Lucy Tom married a Paiute named Lloyd Parker, but he died and then Lucy married a Mexican-American named John Telles.

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Photo of Captain Sam at June Lake located in Mono County where he spent the majority of his life. Full blooded Paiute Captain Sam spent half year in Yosemite and the rest of the year in Mono County. He was a famous guide and fisherman for the local Yosemite hotels.

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Above is Captain Sam's 1928 California Indian Application,

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This is the second page of Captain Sam's application stating he is full blooded Paiute and so is his wife Susie Sam.

Here is Lucy Telles' mom, Louisa Sam-Tom's 1929 California Indian Application;

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Second page of the application showing her tribe and where she was born; Paiute from Mono Lake.

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So how is Lucy (Tom) Parker Telles a Yosemite Miwok? There has been stories that Susie Sam was a Yosemite Miwok, which there were none, but let's say she was, who much Miwok blood would Lucy Telles have?

This means Lucy Telles would be 3/4ths Mono Lake Paiute…so why is she a Yosemite Miwok …and Mono Lake Paiute. She should be Mono Lake Paiute with some Miwok blood, and that is IF Susie Sam was a Yosemite Miwoks and as you can see Captain Sam, her husband, said differently.

The website http://www.kstrom.net/isk/art/basket/yosemite.html goes on to say;

"Unlike other California weavers, Miwok-Paiute women concentrated on tiny rod foundations, as well as close coil stitching, an overall effect of great fineness,"

There was no proof that any Miwok made any of those huge beautiful baskets in Yosemite. The only ones who made those big baskets were Mono Lake Paiutes.

"After Lucy Telles died in 1956, the Park Service asked Julia Parker to take over as a cultural demonstrator. She continued her studies with Carrie Bethel, Minnie Mike and Ida Bishop (local Miwok-Paiutes),"

Local Miwok-Paiutes?…NO, Mono Lake Paiutes and a western Mono, Numic people, not one of those mentioned, Carrie Bethel, Minnie Mike or Ida Bishop were Miwoks, but Mono and Mono Lake Paiutes. In fact there were no Miwok basket makers in Yosemite during that time.

"To support her family, Lucy turned to basket weaving, which she had learned as a child. Her innovations had a large and continuing influence on the styles of Yosemite weavers. She modified traditional Miwok shapes."

The basket tradition was not Miwok, but of eastern Sierra Paiute and Washoe construction and design.

Then let's look at this site.

http://www.yosemite.ca.us/forum/images/posts/28_famdy.html

The site says: "Julia Parker is a Kashaya Pomo who primarily practices her husband's family traditions - Yosemite Miwok, Miwok and Pauite - and weaves Pomo style. She also teaches honoring songs that celebrate people and nature. Lucy Parker, a descendant of the Yosemite Indians, is Miwok, Paiute and Pomo and practices those traditions. She was brought up as a youngster in Yosemite in a traditional cradle basket."

Note in this quote in the second sentence Paiute is last as the identification of Julia Parker's husband's tribe.

The fourth line in the quote from the same quote Paiute is after Miwok.

Here is LLoyd Parker's 1929 California Indian application stating he is Paiute. Lloyd Parker is the father of Ralph Parker, Julia's "Yosemite Miwok" husband. Note he is a "Piute – from Mono County".

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Here is the second page which shows what tribe Lloyd Parker was from and his wife, Virgina Murphy, is also a Mono Lake Paiute and she is the mother of Ralph Parker.

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Note that all of them are "PIUTE". You can see Lucy Parker Telles on this same application stating she is a "PIUTE" from Mono Lake, Mono County.

Let's look at this website;

http://www.californiabaskets.com/juliaparker.html

The site says: "After Lucy Telles died in 1956, the Park Service asked Julia Parker to take over as a cultural demonstrator. She continued her studies with Carrie Bethel, Minnie Mike and Ida Bishop (local Miwok-Paiutes),"

Once again "Local Miwok-Paiutes"?…NO, Mono Lake Paiutes and a western Mono, Numic people, not one of those mentioned, Carrie Bethel, Minnie Mike or Ida Bishop were Miwoks, but Mono and Mono Lake Paiutes. In fact there were no Miwok basket makers in Yosemite during that time.

Julia Parker in other articles is written as "married a Yosemite Miwok", but on the same website her husband Ralph Parker is written as he really is "the last FULL-BLOODED Mono Lake Paiute", which by the way there were others;

"When she was 17 she married her husband Ralph and moved to live with his family in Yosemite. Ralph is the last full-blooded Mono Lake Paiute Indian. Ralph's grandmother, Lucy Telles, was a very famous basket weaver and worked in the visitor's center museum in Yosemite."

Then this site which states;

http://groups.msn.com/bayareaindiancalendar/natnlexhibits.msnw?action=get_message&mview=0&ID_Message=2799

"Parker has emerged as preeminent in her field. She is an expert in several Native basketry traditions, including her own Pomo traditions and the traditions of her husband's people, the Sierra Miwok."

Sorry, the baskets were the tradition of the Yosemite-Mono Lake Paiutes and Ralph is not Miwok. Mono and Inyo County basketry was the real tradition of the Yosemite area.

Here are two June 1927 Indian census rolls showing the Tom, Telles and Parker families as Mono Lake Paiutes, living at Mono Lake, Mono County;

Here are is Bridgeport Tom and his two wives, Louisa and Leanna with their children as Paiutes living at Mono Lake. They are the parents of Lucy Telles.

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Here is the Lucy Telles, mother of Lloyd Parker, father of Julia Parker's husband Ralph Parker showing they are Paiutes from Mono Lake, Mono County;

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This one is from the prestigious National Endowments of the Arts foundation.

http://www.nea.gov/honors/heritage/fellows/fellow.php?id=2007_08

"Julia Parker has spent most of her years living and working in Yosemite Village in California. Although she was born in her native Pomo territory, her early teachers were elder Indian traditionalists and basketweavers of the Sierra Miwok and Mono Lake Paiute people."

In the passage above Mono Lake Paiute people play second fiddle to the art of Mono Lake Paiute basketry, when Sierra Miwuks were not known to make those big round baskets. That is the tradition of the Mono Lake Paiutes.

This even appears in popular books, like this one called It Will Live Forever: Traditional Yosemite Acorn Preparation, by Bev Ortiz.

http://www.heydaybooks.com/public/books/iwlf.html

In the book review it says this;

"It Will Live Forever looks at Julia Parker, a Kashaya Pomo woman who married into the Yosemite Miwok tribe and is still practicing this traditional art as Indian women have done for generations."

Once again saying that Julia Parker married into the mythical Yosemite Miwok tribe, which there was none. Ralph Parker, her husband is a full blooded Yosemite-Mono Lake Paiute. Now even if he had Miwok blood it would be 1/16th Miwok, yes 1/16, and the rest would be 15/16ths Mono Lake Paiute, the tribe that made those huge baskets in Yosemite. The same tribe who were the original people of Yosemite in what Bunnell calls the Paiute colony of Ahwahnee. His grandchildren would be 1/64th Miwok, but have more Paiute blood.

Also in the book It Will Live Forever: Traditional Yosemite Acorn Preparation, it has Young Charlie and Chief Dick as Miwoks…they are Paiutes.

Here is what was written about Lloyd Parker, Ralph's father, husband of Julia Parker in the book by John Bingaman who knew them personally. This from his book The Ahwahneechees, which you can see here by scrolling down to Lloyd Parker;

http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/the_ahwahneechees/chapter_3.html#kalapine

LLOYD PARKER


"Born 1902, near Mono Lake. A Piute. His father was Jack Parker, his mother Lucy Tom. His wife was Virginia Murphy, of Mono Lake. They had three sons. Ralph lives and works in Yosemite for the Road Department. Clarence died about three years ago in an automobile accident. Kenneth lives in Bootjack; near Mariposa; his wife is Dorothy Bolton and they have three children.
Lloyd has lived and worked in Yosemite Valley most of his life, on road and trail crews, and at this date he is making his home in the Indian Village."



Let's look at Yosemite Ranger Bingaman's book. Bingaman writes that Lloyd Parker is a Paiute from Mono Lake and not a Yosemite Miwok. His wife Virgina Murphy is a Paiute from Mono Lake and not a Yosemite Miwok. So how is their son a Yosemite Miwok?

In Tradition and Innovation, Craig D. Bates and Martha Lee, a supposed book of the basketry of the Yosemite – Mono Lake area, the book barely mentions the real baskets makers families, the Murphys, Stevens, Harrisons, James, McBrides, and other Paiutes, instead it focused on several supposed Miwoks, who by the way were really Yokuts, as basket makers and of those women several where not known to make baskets at all, but their descendants are going for federal recognition as "Yosemite Miwoks".

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Photo of the Yosemite Indian Fields Days basket competition held NOT in Yosemite Valley, but at Paiute June Lake, in Mono County, where the Mono Lake Paiutes lived. Featured in the photo is Maggie "Taboose" Howard and Tina Jim – Charlie, Mono Lake Paiutes.

So my Paiute people, the next time you see that the "traditions of the Yosemite Miwok basketmaking is still being carried on" on the internet and in books, remember it was really the basketry tradition of the Yosemite-Mono Lake Paiute Indian people, no matter what some of these people tell you.

So be proud of your legacy my Paiute people, a legacy that was almost co-opted, co-opted by others until now and now you know the truth. That the great basketry in the Renaissance of Yosemites early Indian Field Days was that of our people, the Paiute people of that area.
Last edited by Yosemite_Indian on Thu Jan 10, 2008 3:53 am, edited 4 times in total.
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Fixed the above post

Postby dan » Wed Jan 09, 2008 12:41 pm

I fixed the above post by removing a HTML paragraph </P> tag and extra space in one of the URLs, then removed the code tags
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[url]http://www.nea.gov/honors/heritage/fellows/fellow.php?id=2007_08</P> [/url]
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Postby Yosemite_Indian » Thu Jan 10, 2008 3:07 am

Thanks Dan. I couldn't figure out what the problem was. :wink:

I also fixed the article above too. :)
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