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Historically attested Native American populations, such as the Sierra Miwok, Mono and Paiute, belong to the Uto-Aztecan and Utian phyla. In the mid-19th century, a band of Native Americans called the Ahwahnechee lived in Yosemite Valley. The California Gold Rush greatly increased the number of non-indigenous people in the region.
Chief Teneiya (d. 1853) was a leader in Yosemite Valley. His father was Ahwahnechee. [4] He led his band away from Yosemite to settle with Paiutes in eastern California. [11] Tenaya has descendants living today. The U.S. federal government evicted Yosemite Native people from the park in 1851, 1906, 1929, and 1969. [12]
When encountered by immigrants of European descent, the neighboring Southern Sierra Miwok tribe referred to the Yosemite Valley residents as "killers". [15] It is from this reference and a confusion over the word for "grizzly bear" that Bunnell named the valley Yosemite. The native residents called the valley awahni. Today, there is some debate ...
To learn more about the Native people of Yosemite, park visitors can stop by Wahhoga Village, the last American Indian village in the valley that was dismantled in 1969 with its residents evicted.
European American settlers first entered the valley in 1851. Other travelers entered earlier, but James D. Savage is credited with discovering the area that became Yosemite National Park. [10] Native Americans had inhabited the region for nearly 4,000 years, although humans may have first visited as long as 8,000 to 10,000 years ago. [11] [12]
The first non-Native Americans to see Yosemite Valley were probably members of the 1833 Joseph Walker Party, which was the first to cross the Sierra Nevada from east to west. [14] The first descriptions of Yosemite, however, came nearly 20 years later.
Tenaya's father was a leader of the Ahwahnechee people (or Awahnichi). [1] The Ahwahneechee had become a tribe distinct from the other tribes in the area. Lafayette Bunnell, the doctor of the Mariposa Battalion, wrote that "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 Paiute ...
Barrett, S.A. and Gifford, E.W. Miwok Material Culture: Indian Life of the Yosemite Region. Yosemite Association, Yosemite National Park, California, 1933. ISBN 0-939666-12-X; Cook, Sherburne. The Conflict Between the California Indian and White Civilization. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1976. ISBN 0-520-03143-1.