On April 13 2007, Yosemite National Park opened their new Visitor Center. The new Visitor Center cost 1.3 million dollars. It was funded by assistance from the Yosemite Fund and with help from the Yosemite Association. The new center was supposed to include more information about the Native Americans of Yosemite Valley.

A couple of months after the grand opening several of our elders went to the new Yosemite Visitor Center to see how it looked, and what they saw was lacking one thing. What caught their eye was not what was written, but what was not written or identified. The odd omission that leads people to assume something that is really unknown.

The first thing that greeted them in the Indian section of the new Yosemite Visitor Center was a story of the Southern Sierra Miwuk people. There were drawings of Native life in Yosemite before whites entered the Valley accompanied with Miwok legends, interestingly no mention of Chief Tenaya and his people. (See Photo 1)

As they went along the Indian section they saw a painting above of white men burning acorn caches and the Indian village as was told in Dr. Lafayette H. Bunnell’s book “The Discovery of the Yosemite”. What the artist left out of the painting was the Indian scouts and guides, who were from the Miwok tribe. That was also written about in the first account.

Next was a photo of Captain Paul, who was an Indian from a town about 30 miles away. His only child Julia, which is not mentioned, we believe ended up married to a Mono Paiute and living in Paiute territory.

The next photo is Maria Lebrado Yrdte. The line that is now promoted by Yosemite National Park is “Maria Lebrado’s Miwok name was Totuya”. Maria is reportedly the granddaughter of Chief Tenaya. If Maria was the grand daughter of Chief Tenaya she would not have been Miwok, but Paiute. Tenaya's father was from a tribe unlike any surrounding tribe, that would include Miwoks, and his mother was a Mono Lake Paiute. Tenaya was born at Mono Lake and raised amongst his mother’s Paiute people until he was old enough to marry. Later in life he married a Mono Lake Paiute woman and had children. Later a medicine man advised Tenaya it was safe to return to Yosemite Valley where he took 200 to 300 people from Mono Lake back into Yosemite and he established the Paiute colony of Ahwahnee. Tenaya also spoke Paiute. The photo does not have any information of Maria Lebrado’s famous Paiute grandfathers past. (See Photo 2, a)

The next Indian photos in the series at the Yosemite Visitor Center were in a group, and this is what Paiute people have a dispute with this exhibition. Where was the tribal identification of the Indian people in photos on display? Many of the photos also have no personal names, yet the Indian people in the photos are known to the Park.

The next photo states “Some Ahwahneechees slowly returned and reestablished small communities in the Valley”. What the Park did not mention was where they “returned” from. In the book by Dr. Lafayette H. Bunnell he wrote that the Ahwahneechee were absorbed back into the Mono Lake Paiute population in 1853 after the death of Chief Tenaya. Meaning the Ahwahneechees were returning back from Mono Lake. The accompanying photo is of an Indian woman doing laundry for a Yosemite hotel. What is missing is the title of the photo which is “Piute squaw, Yo-Semite”, ca 1875 by J. P. Soule. The Paiute tribal identification is missing. (See Photo 2, b)

The next photo shows and Indian family. The sign says “The Tom family was one of the Indian families that lived in the Valley during the 1900s”. No tribal identification accompanied the photo. The photo was of Mono Lake Paiute Bridgeport Tom and his wives Leanna and Louisa Sam, with children. The women are daughters of Mono Lake Paiute Captain Sam. (See Photo 2, c)

The next photo is of Calepena or Callepina, which is Spanish for half-breed, and Lena Rube-Brown-Wilson. Calepena was married to one of the Mono Paiute Captain Johns and Lena was a Chukchansi Yokut, Washo-Paiute woman. No tribal identification. (See Photo 2, d)

The next photo is of a family that we have seen in books written by Yosemite National Park’s former ethnologist Craig D. Bates as a “Miwok” family. Yet when we found the photo at the State library, on the back of the photo, in handwritten text, was the tribal identification as “Mono Indians”.

Then when they looked on the opposite side and there were more photos. One of was of Mono Lake Paiute Maggie “Taboose” Howard and her family. Taboose, which is Paiute for nut-grass-bulbs, demonstrated basket making for decades in the Yosemite National Park, until her death. She was not identified and had her tribal affiliation of Paiute was not added. (See Photo 2, e)

Behind Taboose Howard and her family were two photos. One photo was of Mono Paiute Tom Hutchings. Tom Hutchings was Yosemite National Park's first mailman. Yosemite National Park has markers in the park with Tom Hutchings identified as a Miwok, which is not correct. His descendents have told Yosemite National Park this but they refuse to listen to them. In the new Yosemite Visitor Center he is not identified and neither is his tribe. (See Photo 2, f)

The other photo behind Taboose’s head is a copy of an old flyer created by Yosemite National Park in the early 1920s. On the flyer it states that if local area Indians dressed up' in Plain outfits they would be paid and given phony titles. This was for the pleasure of the Yosemite white tourists, many Paiutes declined. (See Photo 2, f)

The next unidentified photo is a photo of an older Indian man with his catch of fish. The man was Captain Sam, a full blooded Mono Lake Paiute, who worked as a hunter and fisherman for the local hotel. He would get paid for hunting and catching fish for Yosemite hotels. He was one of the Yosemite-Mono Lake Paiute leaders and father of Leanna and Louisa Sam-Tom. Yet his photo had no name or tribal affiliation. (See Photo 3, a)

The next photo is of Yosemite Indian Field Days, with the winners of the Yosemite Native American basket makers, which were always Yosemite Mono Lake Paiutes, many of them from Mono Lake not Mariposa. Once again they are not identified. The Yosemite Mono Paiutes in the photo were from left to right; Carrie Bethel, Alice Wilson, Leanna Tom, and Maggie Taboose Howard, all Paiute women. Those huge beautiful baskets in Yosemite National Park Indian Museum were mainly made by full blooded Yosemite Mono Lake Paiute Indian women. Yet you would not know that by viewing this exhibit. (See Photo 3, b)

Then you wind around the exhibit and see three Indian women from old times to contemporary.

The first woman in the group is Yosemite-Mono Lake Paiute basket maker Minnie Mike. She has no name and no tribal identification. (See Photo 3, c)

The next woman in the series is Lucy Parker Telles. She was identified by name, and here is what is written about her “Lucy Telles lived in Yosemite Valley most of her life”. But they don’t say she is a Mono Lake Paiute. Lucy was born at Mono Lake and spent her early life at Mono Lake. (See Photo 3, c and d)

Just to the left of Lucy Telles is Julia Domingues Parker who now works in Yosemite National Park. Julia Parker still works as a basket demonstrator inside the Yosemite National Park’s Indian Museum. Julia Parker is married to Ralph Parker, Lucy Telles grandson. The Parker name is also Mono Lake Paiute. Oddly Julia Parker is the only one who is both identified and has a tribal identification, but that is where is somewhat strange. On her biography is says “Julia Parker has lived and worked in Yosemite for more than 50 years. A Coast Miwok and Kashaya Pomo, Parker is known for her intertribal style of weaving. She is also a teacher, storyteller, and cultural historian who has shared her knowledge with thousands of Yosemite visitors”. In older writings her biography read she was half Pomo and half Mexican. Only recently has Julia Parker had the title Coastal Miwok been added to her biography. (See Photo 3, d)

This means of all the Indian people who have ancestral ties to Yosemite Valley, most were not identified and all of them did not have any tribal identification. The majority of the Native people in the photos were Paiutes. The only person who was identified by name and tribal affiliation was Julia Parker, who is not from the Yosemite area. That is interesting for an exhibit about Yosemite Indian people.

Then the elders looked down and saw a photo, a photo of one of the Mono Lake Paiutes greatest historical chiefs. The photo was of Captain John. Captain John did not have any identification as a Mono Lake Paiute Chief and one of the historical chiefs of Yosemite. He distrusted white people and told his people not to fight in their wars. He took control of the Yosemite Mono Lake Paiute people as a very young teen and was reported to have killed Chief Tenaya for his betrayal to his own brethren. He was not only a chief but a powerful medicine man. In the newly remodeled Yosemite National Park Visitor center he is just some unknown Indian, but to us Paiutes, he is one of the greatest men in our history, the history of Yosemite and Mono Lake Paiute Indian people. (See Photo 3, e)

Right before the elders left they saw a little video on the wall of the "Annual Indian Trek". This "trek" was created about 19 years ago to prove to the BIA's Branch of Federal Acknowledgement that the non-profit "Southern Sierra Miwuks" had an annual celebration, but this Annual Trek was started by a Mono Lake Paiute. (See Photo 3, f)

Oddly the "Annual Trek" that the Southern Sierra Miwuks do yearly is from Yosemite Valley to Mono Lake. The Annual Trek is not to the Miwok areas of Mariposa, or to Tuolumne or to Sonora. The trek is the same route that the Paiutes took from Yosemite to return home to Mono Lake. If the Southern Sierra Miwuks, also known as the American Indian Council of Mariposa, were to do a traditional walk to their ancient homeland why are they going to Mono Lake? That is in the wrong direction. It was never recorded that Miwoks went in groups to Mono Lake. Only Paiutes went between Yosemite and Mono Lake. In early time Paiutes and Miwoks were fighting.

If a person who didn’t know the tribal identification of the Indians in the photos as they went through the Indian part of the new Yosemite Visitor Center would first start off with a Miwok Indian legend and then walk around and see photos of the Native Yosemite Indian people. From the Miwok legend they would assume that the Indian people represented in the photos were Miwoks. Most people don’t know tribal people, but the Indian people themselves, and would be fooled into believing they were looking at Southern Sierra Miwuks.

So we decided to stand up for our Paiute ancestors and others as we Native people should do. We wrote letters to Yosemite National Park addressing this problem. We also sent copies to other Paiute tribes who have ties to Yosemite, which is several. We did this because of tribal pride and our ancestors because they were not getting the recognition our people deserve. The Park should use early Yosemite Miwok photos instead, but interestingly there are none.

Yosemite National Park finally relented, but oddly only added the names of those who had family members in the Southern Sierra Miwuks, but not the others.

After all how can you have a Southern Sierra Miwuk ‘story’ and have mostly photos of Yosemite-Mono Lake Paiutes, since the 1.3 million has already been spent on false history. We Paiutes recommend using simple clear tape with name and tribal identification. How much would that cost? That would be about 5 dollars.

That is why we are writing this story. This article is for our people, the original Native people of Yosemite. So the next time you visit the new Yosemite NPS Visitor Center you won’t be fooled into thinking that you were viewing a bunch of Miwok people, when in fact the faces staring back at you are mainly Yosemite-Mono Lake Paiutes.

When I was preparing this article I heard from some of our Paiute members who have a Youtube account showing Yosemite-Mono Lake Paiute videos. They received an email from a Non-Indian husband of one of the members of the non-profit Southern Sierra Miwuks. He told us to “Stop Complaining”. He also wrote that their daughter would later on be working at the National Park Service steering matters to assist them. Well apparently they don’t need any help because Yosemite National Park is already “assisting them”. As for “complaining” if he was Native American wouldn’t he be upset at this effort to erase his people, who were the original Indians of Yosemite, out of their rightful place in history and homeland? But then again he is not indigenous to Yosemite and has no ties to the land, a land that was once home to the Yosemite-Mono Lake Paiutes.