Yosemite Native Peoples and Practices

Well before European Americans came to Yosemite, Native Americans called the Southern Sierra Miwok, or also known as the Ahwahneechee, inhabited and lived in Yosemite Valley for nearly 4000 years. The Southern Sierra Miwok tribe lived and thrived off the Yosemite Valley land and knew how to maintain the Valley well before European Americans came. An example of this would be during the winter seasons when the southern Sierra Miwok tribe would leave the valley for the winter and set the forest on fire so as to allow new growth for the upcoming spring. As European Americans came through the gold rush they believed that fire was not beneficial for this environment and started the practice of fire suppression. In the National Park Service, we've seen drastic changes from fire suppression since it allowed debris, down trees, old brush and etc. to stay on the valley floor which allowed other plants and trees to thrive compared to certain natives species in areas all over the park. Today in the National Park Service we have a modified version of control burns in which we set certain parts of the park on fire during the winter months so as to clear out debris and fuel for what we now see in large modern fires.

Imagine strangers invading your neighborhood, burning your house to the ground, and ransacking your local grocery store, and taking over your town. Could you make a living in a foreign culture that invaded your world? Could you hold your family together? Could you survive? Miners by the thousands invaded the Sierra Nevada foothills during the gold rush from 1849 to 1851. Some Indians struck back and raided a trading post, killing several miners. In 1851, a band of volunteers formed the Mariposa Battalion, sanctioned by the state of California, to rid the area of the perceived threat of Indians. When they entered Yosemite Valley, they systematically burned villages and food supplies and forced men, women, and children away from their homes. When the Indians returned, Yosemite was no longer theirs. New settlers had claimed it as their own. The Yosemite people did whatever they could to survive in this strange world in which they find themselves.

Some Ahwahneechee slowly returned and established small communities in the Valley. Survivors from other tribes also settled here where a better living could be made. By 1910, over 90% of the original Ahwahneechee inhabitants were dead or missing.

Beyond Yosemite Valley, seven traditionally associated American Indian tribes and groups have ancestral connections to Yosemite National Park: the American Indian Council of Mariposa County, Inc. (aka Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation), Bishop Paiute Tribe, Bridgeport Indian Colony, Mono Lake Kutzadikaa, North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians of California, Picayune Rancheria of the Chukchansi Indians, and the Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians.

Today in the surrounding communities of Yosemite National Park there are still people from the seven associated tribes that still hold rituals in Yosemite National Park in certain areas where they can practice their traditions. Yosemite National Park also has a full indigenous village replica with buildings that the natives would use when living in Yosemite behind the Yosemite Valley Museum in Yosemite Valley where you can see a bark houses, Miwok cabins, Chiefs House, sweathouse and a Ceremonial Roundhouse.

For more information about the Native People of Yosemite: https://www.nps.gov/yose/learn/historyculture/yosemite-indians.htm

Credit to Yosemite National Park Website