A couple years ago a family member called some of my uncles to investigate something. He informed them that while on his yearly family visit to Yosemite National Park he came across a new interpretive sign located by the Yosemite waterfalls. He them called because he was surprised that he saw a photo of our ancestor Tom Hutchings on the new interpretive sign labeled as a Miwok.

Tom Hutchings was a Mono Paiute who was the first mailman in the Yosemite Valley. He and his family moved to Bridgeport California on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada after he worked for James Hutchings, one of the first white settlers of Yosemite. Today many of Tom Hutchings descendents are situated in several Paiute tribes in California and Nevada. There are none of Tom Hutchings descendents in the Southern Sierra Miwuk tribe. It was confusing to us to see an ancestor of ours labeled by the Federal Park system as being from a different tribe other than Mono Paiute.

My family had always visited Yosemite, which we consider part of our ancestral homeland, because it was in our tribal territory, so two of my uncles decided to visit Yosemite National Park to investigate this matter.

They located the interpretive sign and were surprised to see that the sign said that Mono Paiute Tom Hutchings was a Mewuk. My uncles noticed that the sign was about Miwok life in Yosemite, but the signs had photos of Paiutes on them. The sign that had our ancestor Tom Hutchings had a photo of the Dicks who were also Paiutes. The photos were superimposed on a photo of a Paiute woman doing laundry in Yosemite. They moved on to the next Yosemite Park interpretive sign and it had photos of Paiute Chief Dick’s cabin, a photo of Mono Mary daughter of Captain John, and Paiute Maggie “Taboose” Howard cleaning acorns. Their photographs were superimposed on a photo of another relative, Susie McGowan and her daughter Sadie, in Yosemite Valley. The story that accompanied the photo of the Yosemite – Mono Lake Paiutes was that of Miwok people, but there was not one mention of them being Paiutes.

So my uncles took photos and decided to talk to a park ranger who told them to visit the Yosemite Research Center and Library located in the Park. They proceeded to that place and spoke to the woman in charge of the library section. She informed my uncles that they get all their information from the white Park Indian ethnologist and he was out that day, but she took them to the card catalog to show them the photo of our ancestor. There was the photo of our ancestor, Tom Hutchings, and when they turned the photo card over it said “Tom Hutchings – Mono Indian”. It did not say anything about him being Miwok. So then the Park’s librarian took them into the Park’s Indian ethnologist office and said “he probably got his information from those boxes above his desk”. One of my uncles noticed there was a film reader next to his desk. He also recognized the boxes. They were the 1928-1929 California Indian rolls used by many tribes to identify people. We asked if we could see them and the librarian said you could order them or view them at the National Archives at San Bruno.

They then went down stairs to see the Park’s Indian Museum which holds one of the best collections of Yosemite – Mono Lake Paiute baskets. The baskets are some of the largest baskets made in Native American culture. While there they saw a woman sitting demonstrating basketry. The woman was not the famous Julia Parker who usually does the basketry demonstrating. My uncles started a conversation with her and said “There are quite a few Paiute baskets in here”, and the woman quickly replied “I hate Paiutes”. This surprised my uncles and they quickly pointed out to a photo right next to her of Maggie “Taboose” Howard and said “but she is a Paiute”. She quickly changed her tune and said “but look at her face, she could never harm anyone”. My uncles left a little stunned and later on came to realization that the Park Service had hired a woman to demonstrate basket making in Yosemite that hated Paiutes in the land that was once our homeland. The ancestral homeland of Paiute people, this is like a museum docent saying they hated Lakotas at the Wounded Knee memorial.

One of our family members went to the National Archives to view the 1928-1929 California Indian rolls to verify what the Yosemite National Park librarian had told them. We know that Tom Hutchings had died before 1928, but that maybe on the rolls there was a mistake and it said that one of Tom Hutchings descendents said he was Miwok. We combed through every family member and not one said he was Miwok, only that he was a Paiute. On every early Indian census, that was done yearly when he was alive, Tom Hutchings was a Mono Paiute.

So my uncle called the Park Service to ask why the Park had did this, but they told him that they trusted the Park’s white Indian ethnologist over the family of Tom Hutchings. They informed us that the white guy knew more than we did about our own ancestor and they hung up on him.

We wrote a letter to Jon Jarvis, the regional director of the National Park Service, asking them if they could please correct the mistake on the sign. We sent family documentation and Indian census rolls to verify what we were saying was true. Mr. Jarvis wrote us back saying that he trusted the Park’s white ethnologist over the family members and descendents of Tom Hutchings. He told us to write a book and that in his opinion the matter was closed.

We told other Paiutes who are descendents of the Yosemite – Mono Lake region and then we started to investigate the Park’s white ethnologist other writings and Indian genealogy. In his 30 plus years as Yosemite National Parks official Indian ethnologist he had written over 100 publications using his title while working at the Park. We ordered the majority of the 1929 California Indian rolls and Indian census of the area and discovered something shocking. We discovered that major parts of the Yosemite National Park’s Native American history was incorrect and that a lot of Indian genealogy had been “modified”. Many of our Paiute people around Yosemite, especially the men, had been changed to Miwoks. That included our very own ancestor.

Hopefully with the new administration in the white house the descendants of the Paiutes of Yosemite can regain our ancestors and that Yosemite National Park can live up to it’s motto that their work is of the highest integrity, because as of today, it is not. Hopefully then Yosemite National Park can give us back our Paiute history and ancestors.

See photos.