With the internet at our finger tips we Yosemite - Mono Lake Paiutes discovered something amazing that would have gone unnoticed if left to Yosemite National Park Service and their official Indian ethnologist Craig D. Bates. Something that has historical significance to Yosemite, California and cinematic history, and also photographic significance. Something that we Paiutes believe would've been buried if the false history of Yosemite Miwoks would have continued.

Several of our people had collected photos for years of our ancient homeland Yosemite. We would look for them on sites like eBay and other places. One elder had a photo of one of our early leaders Captain John in a group in front of a cedar bark house in Yosemite with a white man painting them. The photo was taken by famous early cinematic pioneer and British photographer Eadweard Muybridge.

While looking through a book by Yosemite National Park's Indian ethnologist Craig D. Bates called Innovation and Tradition, we noticed something interesting in one photo describing a cedar bark house in Yosemite Valley. It was the same bark house of Captain John, the early Yosemite - Mono Lake Paiute leader as in the other photo. (See 2nd photo in Gallery) Under the picture in Bates' book was another photo describing a Miwok Captain in Yosemite.

So we went to the Park and to the Yosemite Research Library and requested to see the photo. The librarian showed us the photo, but all the information and description was cropped off, but on the back it was labeled "Chief's lodge". But the photo in the book had the location of where Yosemite Research Library acquired a copy of the photo. Bates' book says the original photo came from the Bancroft Library located at the University of Berkeley. So using he internet we found the photo at the Bancroft Library and the photograph was labeled "Piute Chief's Lodge" (See photo on main page) solidifying what we already had known.

http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/tf9b69p5cb/?layout=metadata&brand=oac

Interestingly at the Yosemite National Park's Research Library the identifier of "Piute" had been cropped off. Why would that be cropped off when the Bancroft Library had the title "Piute Chief's Lodge"? The photo was used to describe Miwok Chiefs.

Then one of our other members noticed something that no one noticed before, especially those who are paid quite well in Yosemite to do so.

Eadweard Muybridge's photos were numbered.

So we started to look around for the rest of the photos. We found the majority of them and came across something remarkable. They were all numbered. When you put them together using the serial numbers on the photos you can see the mind of one of the early pioneers of movie making and cinematography.

Not only did Eadweard Muybridge document early Paiute life in Yosemite, but he did so by creating a flowing, movie storyboard view of Paiutes along the Merced River. Muybridge started off far away and then like a movie director he took you right into the Yosemite Paiute camp capturing how they lived during the 1870s.

When we put together Muybridge's photos by their serial numbers located on the photos the eye could see how the genius of this early pioneer of photography and motion pictures took us into the world of my people and early Yosemite Paiute life. Two of the photos had tribal identifiers as "Piute".

You can view the Muybridge photographs here:

http://thehive.modbee.com/?q=node/1620

Not only did Eadweard Muybridge experiment with capturing moving scenes using photographs, but he also captured the famous German born painter Albert Bierstadt. In a couple of photos you can see one of the most famous early Yosemite Valley painters, Bierstadt, painting Paiutes in Yosemite Valley.

Since Yosemite National Park is trying to ensure that they keep the story of the Southern Sierra Miwoks intact they almost bypassed this gem of history. It took the Yosemite - Mono Lake Paiute people to find this treasure of early cinematography because the Park stubbornly refuses to acknowledge that the camp was Paiute. Even though the Muybridge photos are labeled "Piute Bucks on a Log" (See 3rd Photo in Gallery) and "Piute Chief's Lodge" the Park's Indian Liaison said she does not believe us. Yet the truth is right on the photography. A photo that someone cropped the title "PIUTE Chief's Lodge" at the Park's Research Library.

We also believe Yosemite National Park Service used these early photos of our people to create the 'fabled' Yosemite Miwok Village behind the Yosemite Indian Museum.

Yet this is a significant find in history. Something you will only see here. A great find in the history of early photography, pioneering cinematography, and especially of the Native American history of Yosemite, the Paiutes.