Many tourists enter Yosemite National Park every year to see the grand vistas and beautiful scenery. One of the sites tourist encounter in the Park is to educate the general public who visits Yosemite. The site is a reconstructed Indian Village that was created by the National Park Service and is located behind the Indian Museum in the Park. The Indian Village which was created in the 1970s supposedly represents an old Southern Sierra Miwuk village with a roundhouse.

Yosemite National Park also created interpretive signs in the Yosemite Indian Village to teach the public how the Miwoks lived. Inside the Village is this sign, (see photo), that supposedly tells you about life in the Park before whites arrived.

The sign reads “At the turn of the century, Miwok people remembered Kau’tcitti (also known as Captain Lewis) as the last professional bowyer in the Yosemite area.”

Now the sign says the Miwok people remember Kau’tcitti, but oddly they don’t remember Chief Tenaya, who was the original chief of the Yosemite Valley Indians.

Here is something that the whites running Yosemite National Park apparently don’t know and have no clue. Who was Kau’tcitti, the Miwok chief? Kau’tcitti, also called Cowchitty, was the Indian scout for Indian fighter James Savage and the white Mariposa Battalion militia. Cowchitty was a sworn enemy of the original Native people of Yosemite Valley led by Chief Tenaya and his Ahwahneechee band. Cowchitty, along with his brother Ponwatchee, assisted the whites in hunting and tracking down Tenaya and his people. The U.S. military heaped praise on Cowchitty for his assistance and dedication. They wrote “…it was Cowchitty and his scouts, not the Americans, who located the Yosemite. Without their assistance, acknowledged Bunnell, ‘we probably would have gone back without seeing an Indian”. How Cowchitty and his men “…had performed important service voluntarily and cheerfully, making themselves generally useful, particularly in catching the scattered Indians after surprising the rancheria”.

Later on after his dutiful service to the whites Cowchitty changed his name to Captain Lewis. He and his family changed their name to Lewis. Some of the descendents and members of his tribe are now in the leadership of the American Indian Council of Mariposa, also known as the Southern Miwoks, claiming to be part of Chief Tenaya’s band. The same band they assisted the whites in hunting down and capturing.

Some people might think that was just a simple mistake that the Park honors Cowchitty, the Indian scout for the white militia over the original Indians of Yosemite Valley, but that is not the end of the story.

When you enter the Miwok Indian Village you will find a small booklet called “The Miwok of Yosemite” created by Yosemite National Park’s Indian ethnologist who happens to be white (see photo). The booklet is a guide to the Indian Village. It is supposed to describe the life, history and langue of the Miwoks of Yosemite. The booklet is done in both English and the Southern Sierra Miwuk language, the supposed language of the original Yosemite Indian people. The person the Park found to do the Miwuk language was a woman named Isabel Howard-Jimenez. She died around the same time the booklet was published and is dedicated to her. She appears to be a very sweet woman and very knowledgeable about her language. Mrs. Howard-Jimenez says in the booklet that she is from the Southern Sierra Miwuk chief and leader Joe Howard. Joe Howard is from the direct line of the chief of that tribe. His father was Robert Howard the chief of the Southern Sierra Miwuks. Before Robert Howard he went by another name, and that name was Chief Bautista, also known as Keechee or Vowchester. In a recent book by California Indian ethnologist Brian Bibby called “Deeper Than Gold” he wrote that modern day Southern Sierra Miwuks consider Bautista one of their early principle chiefs.

Who was Chief Bautista? He is also a historical figure. While it was true that Bautista was once an enemy of the whites years before gold was discovered in California, that was short lived. James Savage, the leader of the white militia and “entrepreneur” befriended Bautista and had his people work for him. Bautista’s men dug gold for James Savage making him a well off man in exchange for provisions and protection from other tribes. This brought Bautista great prominence amongst the tribes of the foothills. Bautista along with other chiefs, like Cowchitty, had given some of their women to James Savage, which he took as wives. Savage was reported to have many wives from these tribes. Bautista taught Savage his language, even the royal language of his tribe. Bautista was also James Savage’s cook. He would assist Savage in capturing Indian runaways. In December of 1850 James Savage’s trading post was burnt down. The U.S. government asked James Savage to bring in the tribes in the area to sign a treaty, give up their lands, and go live on reservation. Bautista did what he was told. He, along with another chief named Cypriano, sent runners to the other tribes to come in and sign and agree to the terms. Bautista said that two “hostile” tribes would not agree to come in and sign the treaty. They were the Chowchilla Yokuts and the Yosemites. Bautista was the person who coined the term “Yosemite” which in their language meant “They are Killers” because they feared the Indians of the Yosemite Valley. Bautista offered to send some of his men to capture the Yosemites led by Chief Tenaya.

In a strange twist of fate the descendents of Chief Bautista now claim to be the original Yosemite Indians and the Park honors the memory of Bautista believing him to be an Ahwahneechee, but he was not. He was their enemy.

In the Yosemite store they sell a book about the Indians of Yosemite with a photo of the daughter of another chief (see photo) His name was Cypriano. Cypriano was the other chief that assisted James Savage. He was one of the first to make alliances with the whites. Cypriano did this because he thought that whites would leave his people alone, but sadly that was not the case. He was also not a Yosemite Indian, but his descendents are now honored as and claim to be the original Ahwahnees of Yosemite Valley.

So you would have thought that the Indian ethnologist that Yosemite National Park Service hired some 30 years ago would have caught this error before the Park had created signs, pamphlets and books with the wrong information. Not only was the information incorrect but it was like they honored the Indian scouts at the massacre at Wounded Knee, instead of those who died.

So if you were visiting the Yosemite Indian Village and store, and if you didn’t know the history of the early Native Americans of the Yosemite Valley you would be fooled into thinking that the Park honors the original Indians, but you would be mistaken. Not only did they honor the scouts for the white military, but they removed Chief Tenaya. Not once in the Yosemite Indian Village is Chief Tenaya, who bravely stood his ground and refused to sign any treaty with the whites, mentioned, but you will find the Indian scouts of the white militia who forced the original Indians out of Yosemite praised. The same scouts who were afraid to enter Yosemite Valley. Their tribal name and language is prominently enshrined with a make believe pre-contact Miwok village, which incidentally was patterned after Paiute photos taken by Edweard Muybridge the famous British photographer.

No mention of Chief Tenaya. No Paiute and Mono language that was spoken by Tenaya and his band in the Indian Village. Instead Yosemite National Park honors the white militia’s Indian scouts as the “original Indians of Yosemite”. This is a true injustice. I guess in their minds all Native Americans resemble another, but we Indians know better.