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The Ahwahnechee are a Native American people who traditionally lived in the Yosemite Valley and still live in surrounding area. They are the seven tribes of Yosemite Miwok,
Northern Paiute Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a r ...
,
Kucadikadi The Kucadikadi are a band of Northern Paiute people who live near Mono Lake, California, Mono Lake in Mono County, California. They are the southernmost band of Northern Paiute.Fowler and Liljeblad 437Arkush, Brooke S"Historic Northern Paiute Wint ...
Mono Lake people. As one of the most documented tribes the tribe still fights for Federal Recognition. The Ahwahnechee people's heritage can be found all over Yosemite National Park.


History

The Ahwahnechee lived in Yosemite Valley for centuries. It is believed that they may have lived in the area for as long as 7,000 years. According to NPS historians, they were primarily Southern Miwok, with related Miwok tribes living North and South and West. They routinely traded with both Paiute and Mono tribes across the mountains to the east, and intermarried with those people.


Initial contacts

European-American contact began after 1833. In 1850 a settler named James D. Savage set up a mining camp down below the valley, and spent most of his time mining for gold and trading with the few other white men in the area. He took several Indian wives and developed influential relations with the nearby natives. Later that year, Savage's camp and post were attacked by the Ahwahnechee. Savage had moved into the Ahwahnechee land and effectively disrupted the lives of every Ahwahnechee. The Ahwahnechee raided his supplies, and killed two of his men. This, in turn, sparked the Mariposa Indian War of 1850 to 1851. In 1851, during the Mariposa War,
California State Militia The California National Guard is part of the National Guard of the United States, a dual federal-state military reserve force. The CA National Guard has three components: the CA Army National Guard, CA Air National Guard, and CA State Guard. ...
troops of the Mariposa Battalion burned Ahwahnechee villages and took their food stores. The state militia with Savage as their major and the Indian Commissioners from Washington were called out to either convince or force the natives to sign treaties. Six tribes made agreements with the government to accept reservation land further down into the foothills. One of the tribes that refused to meet was the Ahwahnechees. When the soldiers, led by Savage, moved towards their camp to force them out, their chief, Teneiya, finally appeared alone and attempted to conceal the location and number of his people. Major Savage told Teneiya that he would travel to the valley to find his people. Chief Teneiya said that he would go back and return with his tribe. When the chief appeared again Savage noticed that there were very few of the natives present. He asked the chief where the rest of his people were, and Teneiya denied having any more people than were there at the moment. Savage was convinced that if he found the rest of the tribe he could persuade them to come with him back to the negotiations. The Major took some men with him to the north through the mountains and came upon the valley. This was the first entry into Yosemite Valley by any white men. Camping that night the men debated what to call the valley they had just discovered. They agreed upon the name that the white men had already called the tribe, Yosemite. The date was March 25, 1851. Once they reached the village of Teneiya's people a search was made but no more Indians were found there or in the valley at all. The soldiers returned to the meeting place but Chief Teneiya and the part of the tribe that was already in their custody escaped and returned to the mountains. That May, a second expedition of militia travelled north to capture the old chief and his band once and for all. Only a few braves, among them two of Chief Teneiya's sons, were found. The chief was eventually brought in to find that his sons had been shot for trying to escape. Within a few days the chief also tried to escape by jumping into the river. With the recapture of Chief Teneiya the rest of the band was easily found and brought to the Fresno reservation in the foothills where they stayed long enough to regain their strength and petitioned for their freedom to return to their mountain home. This was granted and they returned to their secluded valley of “Ahwahnee.” In 1852, a Mariposa expedition of US federal troops heard a report that Ahwahnechee Indians killed two European-American miners at Bridalveil Meadows. Soldiers were again dispatched and the troops executed five Ahwahnechee men. Later, the tribe fled over the mountains to shelter with a neighboring people, the Mono tribe. They stayed the year and then returned to their native valley taking with them horses stolen from the hospitable Monos who soon followed seeking revenge, killing Chief Teneiya and all but eight of the young braves and taking all the women and children captive.


Later history

Chief Teneiya Tenaya (died 1853) was a leader of the Ahwahnechee people in Yosemite Valley, California. Background Tenaya's father was a leader of the Ahwahnechee people (or Awahnichi). The Ahwahneechee had become a tribe distinct from the other tribes in the ...
(d. 1853) was a leader in Yosemite Valley. His father was Ahwahnechee. He led his band away from Yosemite to settle with Paiutes in eastern California. Tenaya has descendants living today. The US federal government has evicted Yosemite Native people from the park in 1851, 1906, 1929, and 1969.Mazel, 162 Jay Johnson, an alleged Ahwahnechee leader in the Mariposa Indian Council, hopes to get federal recognition for Miwok Indians.


Plant use

The Ahwahneechee burned undergrowth in the Valley to protect the oak trees. Acorns were a central staple of their diet, Black oak acorns providing almost 60% of it.Schaffer, Jeffrey P
"The Living Yosemite–The Ahwahnechee."
''100 Yosemite Hikes.'' (retrieved 8 Dec 2009)
The acorns were lain on a slab of rock in the sun to dry. Then they were ground up in small holes atop big granite slabs also called a mortar and pestal. Once they had been sufficiently ground down to a fine powder, the acorn “flour” was put into a shallow depression at the edge of the river. This depression was lined, often with nearby ferns, to keep the acorn powder from being lost in the sand. Rocks were then heated in a fire and placed into the small depression with the acorn flour to heat and potentially boil the bitter taste out, to make it more palatable. When soaked and edible, the flour, now turned to a mush due to the water, was taken out and put into willow cooking baskets. It was heated over a fire, and consumed either as a mush, or baked into a flat bread.Wilson, Herbert Earl. The Lore and Lure of Yosemite. n.d. National Park Service naturalist, Will Neely created a list of the plants commonly used by the Ahwahnechee. Black oak,
sugar pine ''Pinus lambertiana'' (commonly known as the sugar pine or sugar cone pine) is the tallest and most massive pine tree, and has the longest cones of any conifer. The species name ''lambertiana'' was given by the Scottish botanist David Douglas, ...
,
western juniper ''Juniperus occidentalis'', known as the western juniper, is a shrub or tree native to the Western United States, growing in mountains at altitudes of and rarely down to . It is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List because it is a widesp ...
,
canyon live oak ''Quercus chrysolepis'', commonly termed canyon live oak, canyon oak, golden cup oak or maul oak, is a North American species of evergreen oak that is found in Mexico and in the western United States, notably in the California Coast Ranges. This ...
, interior live oak, foothill pine, buckeye, pinyon pine nuts provided acorns and seeds for food. Other plants provided smaller seeds.
Mariposa tulip ''Calochortus'' is a genus of flowering plants in the lily family. The group includes herbaceous, perennial and bulbous species, all native to North America (primarily the Western United States). The genus ''Calochortus'' includes mariposas ( ...
,
golden brodiaea ''Triteleia ixioides'', known as prettyface or golden star, is a monocotyledon flowering plant in the genus ''Triteleia''. It is native to northern and central California and southwestern Oregon, where it can be found in coastal and inland conif ...
,
common camas ''Camassia quamash'', commonly known as camas, small camas, common camas, common camash or quamash, is a perennial herb. It is native to western North America in large areas of southern Canada and the northwestern United States. Description It ...
, squaw root, and
Bolander's yampah ''Perideridia bolanderi'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Apiaceae known by the common name Bolander's yampah. It is native to the western United States, where it grows in many types of habitat. It is a perennial herb which may appr ...
provided edible bulbs and roots. Greens eaten by the Ahwahnechee included
broad-leaved lupine ''Lupinus latifolius'' is a species of lupine known by the common name broadleaf lupine. It is native to western North America from British Columbia to Baja California to New Mexico, where it is common and can be found in several types of habita ...
,
common monkey flower ''Erythranthe guttata'', with the common names seep monkeyflower and common yellow monkeyflower, is a yellow bee-pollinated annual or perennial plant. It was formerly known as ''Mimulus guttatus''. ''Erythranthe guttata'' is a model organism fo ...
,
nude buckwheat ''Eriogonum nudum'' is a perennial shrub of the wild buckwheat genus which is known by the common name naked buckwheat or nude buckwheat. Description The ''Eriogonum nudum'' plant is a tall, bare, leafless stem, bifurcating into more stems, ...
, California thistle,
miner's lettuce ''Claytonia perfoliata'' ( syn. ''Montia perfoliata''), also known as miner's lettuce, Indian lettuce, winter purslane, or ''palsingat'' (Cahuilla), is a flowering plant in the family Montiaceae. It is an edible, fleshy, herbaceous, annual plan ...
,
sorrel Sorrel (''Rumex acetosa''), also called common sorrel or garden sorrel, is a perennial herbaceous plant in the family Polygonaceae. Other names for sorrel include spinach dock and narrow-leaved dock ('dock' being a common name for the genus '' ...
, clover, umbrella plant,
crimson columbine ''Aquilegia formosa'', the crimson columbine, western columbine, or (ambiguously) "red columbine", is a common wildflower native to western North America, from Alaska to Baja California, and eastward to Montana and Wyoming. Description ''Aquileg ...
, and alum root. Strawberry, blackberry, raspberry, thimbleberry,
wild grape Wild grape may refer to: * ''Vitis'' species; specially Vitis vinifera, ''Vitis vinifera'' subsp. ''sylvestris'' (the wild ancestor of ''Vitis vinifera''), ''Vitis californica'' (California wild grape), ''Vitis girdiana'' (desert wild grape), and ' ...
,
gooseberry Gooseberry ( or (American and northern British) or (southern British)) is a common name for many species of ''Ribes'' (which also includes currants), as well as a large number of plants of similar appearance. The berries of those in the genu ...
, currant,
blue elderberry ''Sambucus cerulea'' or ''Sambucus nigra'' ssp. ''cerulea'', with the common names blue elderberry and blue elder, is a coarse textured shrub species of elder in the family Adoxaceae. Description ''Sambucus cerulea'' is a large, deciduous ...
, western choke cherry,
Sierra plum ''Prunus subcordata'', known by the common names Klamath plum, Oregon plum, Pacific plum and Sierra plum, is a member of the genus ''Prunus'', native to the western United States, especially California and Oregon. Description ''Prunus subcordata ...
, and greenleaf manzanita provided berries and fruits. The Ahwahnechee brewed drinks from whiteleaf manzanita and
western juniper ''Juniperus occidentalis'', known as the western juniper, is a shrub or tree native to the Western United States, growing in mountains at altitudes of and rarely down to . It is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List because it is a widesp ...
. Commonly used medicine plants included Yerba santa, yarrow, giant hyssop, Brewer's angelica, sagebrush, showy milkweed, mountain dogbane,
balsamroot ''Balsamorhiza'' is a genus of plants in the family Asteraceae known commonly as balsamroots. These are perennials with fleshy taproots and caudices bearing erect stems and large, basal leaves. Atop the tall stems are showy yellow sunflower-like ...
,
California barberry ''Mahonia pinnata'' (Synonym (taxonomy), syn. ''Berberis pinnata'') is a species of shrub in the Berberidaceae, barberry family. Common names include California barberry, wavyleaf barberry, and shinyleaf mahonia. It is similar to the Mahonia aqui ...
, fleabane, mint,
knotweed Knotweed is a common name for plants in several genera in the family Polygonaceae. Knotweed may refer to: * ''Fallopia'' * ''Persicaria'' * ''Polygonum'' * ''Reynoutria japonica ''Reynoutria japonica'', synonyms ''Fallopia japonica'' and ''Poly ...
, wild rose, meadow goldenrod, mule ears, pearly everlasting, and the California laurel. The tribe used
soap plant The common names soap plant, soaproot and amole refer to the genus ''Chlorogalum''. They are native to western North America, with some species in Oregon but they are mostly found in California. Common names of the genus and several species deri ...
and
meadow rue ''Thalictrum'' () is a genus of 120-200 species of herbaceous perennial flowering plants in the buttercup family, Ranunculaceae, native mostly to temperate regions. Meadow-rue is a common name for plants in this genus. ''Thalictrum'' is a taxonom ...
to make soap. They used fibers from Mountain dogbane, showy milkweed,
wild grape Wild grape may refer to: * ''Vitis'' species; specially Vitis vinifera, ''Vitis vinifera'' subsp. ''sylvestris'' (the wild ancestor of ''Vitis vinifera''), ''Vitis californica'' (California wild grape), ''Vitis girdiana'' (desert wild grape), and ' ...
, and
soap plant The common names soap plant, soaproot and amole refer to the genus ''Chlorogalum''. They are native to western North America, with some species in Oregon but they are mostly found in California. Common names of the genus and several species deri ...
for cordage. Baskets were woven from splints of American dogwood, big-leaf maple,
buckbrush Buckbrush is the common name for several species of North American shrubs that deer feed on, including but probably not limited to: *''Cephalanthus occidentalis'' *'' Phyllanthopsis phyllanthoides'', maidenbrush (south-central U.S.) * Some western N ...
, deer brush, willow, and
California hazelnut ''Corylus cornuta'', the beaked hazelnut (or just ''beaked hazel''), is a deciduous shrubby hazel with two subspecies found throughout most of North America. Description The beaked hazelnut can reach tall with stems thick with smooth gray b ...
Additional bracken fern would add black colors to the basket and
redbud ''Cercis'' is a genus of about 10 species in the subfamily Cercidoideae of the pea family Fabaceae, native to warm temperate regions. It contains small deciduous trees or large shrubs commonly known as redbuds. They are characterised by simpl ...
would provide red. The tribe made bows from
incense-cedar ''Calocedrus'', the incense cedar (alternatively spelled incense-cedar), is a genus of coniferous trees in the cypress family Cupressaceae first described as a genus in 1873. It is native to eastern Asia and western North America. The gener ...
, and Pacific dogwood. They built homes from Incense-cedar.


Dwellings

The people lived in camps at the bottom of the valley, in huts known as ''o-chum''. These small homes were built with pine for the framing and supports, using the wood in a teepee like structure with a diameter of about twelve feet. For the insulation of the homes, cedar bark was used to cover the pine poles to create a sturdy and durable covering for the family housed inside. There were two openings in the huts: One was big enough to be used as an entrance, and the latter is a small opening at the top of the teepee to allow some ventilation for smoke. A small fire was built in the colder months for warmth. These ''o-chum''s were able to provide housing to a family of six. To make the bedding, the natives would often use the skins of small animals. The mattress was made from the skins of larger animals such as bear and deer. The blanket was - like the bedding - made from the skins of the smaller animals, cut into strips and woven together for extra warmth. Another sort of building that the Ahwahnechees often used was a sweat house. These structures were somewhat similar to the ''o-chum'' except for the fact that the top, instead of being at a point, was rounded and the entire structure was covered with mud. The sweat houses were used by the young hunters, before they went on a trip, to rid their bodies of the human smell that could betray their presence to the prey. And provided the men with a way to relax and cleans themselves for religious and health purposes.


Hunting

The natives had a wide range of quarry. They hunted everything from deer and large game, to worms and small insects. Apart from eating the flesh of the animals, their skins were used for clothing, sinews for tying and other purposes. Any leftover meat was hung to dry and made into jerky for later consumption. The braves went on hunting trips that could take days or even weeks, trying to get enough to take back to the tribe without diminishing the future game supply.


Paiute Ahwahnechee place names

Some Ahwahnechee tribal names for areas around Yosemite Valley include the following: * Ahwahne: Yosemite Valley * Tesa'ak (Teh-sa-ahk'): Half Dome (South Dome) - name of a
Mono Mono may refer to: Common meanings * Infectious mononucleosis, "the kissing disease" * Monaural, monophonic sound reproduction, often shortened to mono * Mono-, a numerical prefix representing anything single Music Performers * Mono (Japanese b ...
woman for whom Half Dome was named. Half Dome resembled a Mono woman's head and shoulder because they traditionally bobbed their hair and had bangs. The dark vertical dripping stripes of lichens resembled tear stains, and her tears were said to form Mirror Lake. * Loya:
Sentinel Rock Sentinel Rock is a granitic peak in Yosemite National Park, California, United States. It towers over Yosemite Valley, opposite Yosemite Falls. Sentinel Rock lies northwest of Sentinel Dome. How it was formed Sentinel Rock formed when masse ...
* Tutocanula or Tool-tock Awn-oo-lah: El Capitan * Ahwayee: Mirror Lake * Patillima or Ernating Lawootoo: Glacier Point * Pohono:
Bridalveil Fall Bridalveil Fall is one of the most prominent waterfalls in the Yosemite Valley in California. The waterfall is in height and flows year round. Geology The glaciers that carved Yosemite Valley left many hanging valleys that spawned the waterfa ...
* Piwyack: Tenaya Lake * Yonapah: Vernal Fall * Yowihe:
Nevada Fall Nevada FallThe official spelling is singular, see is a high waterfall on the Merced River in Yosemite National Park, California. It is located below the granite dome, Liberty Cap, at the west end of Little Yosemite Valley. The waterfall is wide ...
* Chookoneh:
Royal Arches (Yosemite) The Royal Arches refers to a cliff containing natural occurring granite exfoliation arches, located below North Dome and rising above Yosemite Valley, in Yosemite National Park, California. (). The Royal Arches are located on the north side of t ...
* Tokoyee:
North Dome North Dome is a granite dome in Yosemite National Park, California. It is the southernmost summit of Indian Ridge, north of Washington Column and the Royal Arches on the northeastern wall of Yosemite Valley. It can be reached by trail from th ...
* Wakalmata:
Merced River The Merced River (), in the central part of the U.S. state of California, is a -long tributary of the San Joaquin River flowing from the Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada into the San Joaquin Valley. It is most well known for its swift and st ...
* Tahachee: Indian Canyon * Yayan: Cascade Falls * Yawachkee: Yosemite Museum - name of village where museum is currently located * Mahtah: Liberty CapJackson, Helen Hunt
"Bits of Travel at Home (1878)."
''Yosemite Online Library.'' (retrieved 10 Dec 2009)


Namesakes

The Ahwahnee Hotel and Ahwahneechee Village, a recreated 19th-century tribal village in Yosemite Valley, are both named for the tribe, as are the Ahwahnee Heritage Days. Ahwahnee, California and Ahwahnee Estates, California are also named after the tribe.


Notes


References

* Mazel, David
''American Literary Environmentalism.''
Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2000. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Ahwahnechee People Native American tribes in California History of the Sierra Nevada (United States) Yosemite National Park Mono tribe Paiute History of Mariposa County, California