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Yosemite Online Library—Yosemite Indians (Ahwahneechee “People of Ahwahnee”)

Ahwahneechee Yosemite Indians called themselves Ahwahneechee “People of Ahwahnee” Ahwahnee, their name for Yosemite Valley, their home, Ahwahnee means “mouth” because the valley walls resemble a gaping bear’s mouth. Ahwahnee does not mean “deep, grassy valley.” For details see the article “Origin of the Word Yosemite.” Books and articles about the Ahwahneechee are available online, with the complete text and usually the original illustrations. The Ahwahneechee during discovery by Europeans was a mixed tribe of Northern Paiute, Southern Sierra Miwok, and other Native Americans.

The Southern Sierra Miwok (Me-wuk), which means “people”, originally lived in present Yosemite National Park and central western Sierra Nevada foothills in California.

The Northern Paiute or “Western Mono” originally came from the eastern Sierra Nevada area and settled in Hetch Hetchy Valley and, as part of Chief Tenaya’s tribe, Yosemite Valley. The word Paiute came from Fremont. Paiute call themselves Numa in their language, which means “people”

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• “How the Yo-Semite Valley was Discovered and Named,” Hutchings’ Illustrated California Magazine (May 1859) by Lafayette H. Bunnell
• Sam Ward in the Gold Rush (1861, 1949) by Samuel Ward. Only the chapter relating to events after the Mariposa Indian War are reproduced online. Includes a map of San Joaquin River area Indian Reservations, 1852, by Indian Agent Johnson.
• “Notes on Hetch-Hetchy Valley” (1868) by Charles F. Hoffmann. Includes notes on Miwok and Paiute people, and early European settlers.
• “The California Indians: No. VII—The Meewocs,” Overland Monthly 10(4):322-333 (April 1873) by Stephen Powers.
• Tribes of California, “Miwok,” “Yosemite,” and “Pai-u’-ti” [Paiute] chapters by Stephen Powers (1877)
• Life Among the Piutes (1883) by Sarah Winnemucca. Written by a Northern Paiute princess about her people, who lived east of the Sierra Nevada.
• Granite Crags (1884) by Lady Constance F. Gordon-Cumming. Includes commentary on Yosemite Indians in chapters 7, 8, 10, & 12.
• Discovery of the Yosemite and the Indian War of 1851, Which Led to That Event, by Lafayette H. Bunnell (1892)
• “Basket Makers” (1901) by George Wharton James
• Census of Non-reservation California Indians, 1905-1906 (1971) by Charles E. Kelsey. Robert F. Heizer, ed. Only Yosemite-area counties are on this web edition
• The Dawn of the World; Myths and Weird Tales Told by the Mewan [Miwok] Indians of California by C. Hart Merriam (1910)
• In the Heart of the Sierras; the Yo Semite Valley, both historical and descriptive: and Scenes by the Way. Big Tree Groves. The High Sierra, . . ., by James Mason Hutchings (1888)
• Yosemite Indian Petition to the United States (circa 1891) by Anonymous.
• Indians of the Yosemite Valley and Vicinity, by Galen Clark (1904)
• “The Geography and Dialects of the Miwok Indians,” University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 6(2):333-368 (February 1908) [PDF] by S. A. Barrett Includes a map.
• “On the Evidences of the Occupation of Certain Regions by the Miwok Indians,” University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 6(3):369-380 (February 1908) [PDF] by A. L. Kroeber (Rebuttal to Dr. Merriam’s 1907 article.)
• “Distribution and Classification of the Mewan [Miwok] Stock of California,” American Anthropologist 9(2):338-357 (April/June 1907) [PDF] by C. Hart Merriam. Includes a map.
• “The Miwok” chapter from Handbook of Indians of California by A. L. Kroeber (1919)
• Miwok Myths, by Edward Winslow Gifford (1917)
• “Indian Village and Camp Sites in Yosemite Valley” by C. Hart Merriam (1917)
• “Indian Myths of South Central California” (Pohonichi Miwok Myths) by A. L. Kroeber (1907)
• “Myths of the Southern Sierra Miwok” by S. A. Barrett (1919)
• Guide to Yosemite: a handbook of the trails and roads of Yosemite valley and the adjacent region (1920) by Ansel F. Hall. Includes several Indian place names and locates them relative to modern features and place names.
• “Indians of Yosemite” chapter in Handbook of Yosemite National Park by A. L. Kroeber (1922)
• The North American Indian v. 14, “The Miwok” chapter by Edward S. Curtis (1924)
• The Last of the California Rangers (1928) by Jill L. Cossley-Batt. Biography of William Howard, including information on the California State Rangers, Mariposa Battalion, discovery of Yosemite, and Joaquin Murieta.
• Yosemite Valley: An Intimate Guide (1929) by Ansel F. Hall
• The Last Survivor by Mrs. H. J. (Rose Schuster) Taylor (1932). Biographical sketch of Maria Lebrado “To-tu-ya” (ca. 1840-1931), granddaughter of Tenaya, chief of the Yosemite Indians.
• Miwok Material Culture: Indian Life of the Yosemite Region by S. A. Barrett and E. W. Gifford (1933)
• “The Yosemite Indians,” Yosemite Indians and Other Sketches by Mrs. H. J. (Rose Schuster) Taylor. Biographical sketches of early pioneers and artists and Yosemite Indians. (1936)
• Yosemite Indians; Yesterday and Today by Elizabeth H. Godfrey [1941]
• “The Geography of the Mariposa Indian War,” Yosemite Nature Notes 30 (1951) (PDF, 4 parts) by Carl P. Russell
• “Yosemite and Tamalpais,” Names by Madison S. Beeler. This article discusses the origin of the word Yosemite. (1955)
• “Yosemite Indians are Outlaw Piutes,” The Pony Express (March 1956)
• Central Sierra Miwok Dictionary with Texts by L. S. Freeland and Sylvia M. Broadbent (1960)
• “Yosemite Indians” chapter, Guardians of the Yosemite by John W. Bingaman (1961)
• Southern Sierra Miwok Language (1964) by Sylvia M. Broadbent
• The Ahwahneechees: A Story of the Yosemite Indians by John W. Bingaman (1966)
• “Indians,” Wawona’s Yesterdays by Shirley Sargent (1961)
• “Names and Meanings for Yosemite Valley,” YNN 47(3):42-44 (1978) by Craig Bates. Discussion about the origin of the Ahwahneechee words Yosemite and Ahwahnee.
• Recommended books in print (and not online)
  • Northern Paiute Bibliography and Sierra Miwok Bibliography (California Indian Library Collections, 1994) Comprehensive bibliographies; most are out-of-print and not online—use a library!
  • Legends of the Yosemite Miwok (Yosemite Association, 1993) by Frank La Pena, Craig D. Bates, & Steven P. Medley. Authentic Miwok legends, with color illustrations. For children or adults.
  • The Miwok In Yosemite (Yosemite Association, 1996) by Craig D. Bates. Brief description of the Miwok in the words of Miwok people. Photos, and English and Miwok text.
  
  
• The Yosemite Museum building, located next door to the Visitor Center in Yosemite Village, Yosemite Valley, houses the Indian Cultural Exhibit. Additionally, a reconstructed Indian village, Ahwahnee, with interpretive signs, is located behind (east of) the museum
• The Southern Sierra Miwuk are represented by the American Indian Council of Mariposa County (AICMC)
• Sierra Mono Museum in North Fork, California has information about Mono Paiutes
• Yosemite Indian Captains has photographs and short biographies of some Yosemite Indian leaders, mostly Paiute.
• Hetch Hetchy Valley Indian history, Mono Lake Paiute.

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Copyright © 2004-2007 Dan Anderson. All rights reserved.
Last updated 10 July 2011.

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