A person calling themselves Destoya wrote "Photos and written history are moot in establishing the Paiutes as the original inhabitants of Yosemite. Archaeological finds dating back several centuries are more accurate than recent documentation".

First Destoya is an area in Nevada, and as if the earliest photos and written history were not enough evidence now some want to discredit the Paiute presence by throwing up archeology. Well we Paiutes will step up to meet that challenge.

Years ago a Paiute archaeologist spoke to the head of Yosemite National Park's archeological department and she explained to him that because the soil in Yosemite was high in acidity that it was hard to determine who were the original Indians of the area. She stated to him that they go by testimony of early informants and what they can recover at sites to determine the original inhabitants of Yosemite and the area. Because of the harsh climate and acidity of the soil in Yosemite only fragments of items remain.

If that is the case lets examine what material they did find intact in Yosemite to show who the original Native inhabitance were.

One major find was done around El Portal in the early 1960s when the Park Service was digging for a new sewer plant and discovered an ancient burial site that predated many of the "historical" sites. Historical means after whites entered the area. The Park excavated 23 burial bundles with whole skeletal remains and funerary items that some how disappeared, but the lead archaeologist excavating the El Portal site, Robert J. Fitzwater, wrote a report of items found at the site. The report is called: Final Report on Two Seasons Excavations at El Portal, Mariposa County, California, published in 1962. In his report Fitzwater specifically writes that the three major items found were obsidian from Paiute Mono Lake, portable millings stones often used by Paiutes and Monos, and "Brown ware" pottery from Paiute Owens Valley. The site was an ancient site. Almost every piece of obsidian found in Yosemite has been carbon dated and identified as coming from Paiute Mono Lake using scientific methods (See video and Photo 3 in Gallery). Paiutes also received shells from the Chumash.

Later on in the 1980s Yosemite National Park gave all items found at the El Portal site to the Southern Sierra Miwuk, yet the items found at the site prove that it was Paiute. The Park described the site to be culturally unidentifiable, so why give it to the Miwoks? Yosemite National Park explains the items as "trade" items, yet during the time before whites entered the area Miwoks and Paiutes were warring with each other.

Also found in a Hetch Hetchy Valley cave was the oldest almost intact pre-historic burden basket found in Central California. Even Yosemite's Craig D. Bates confirmed it was Paiute, yet he said it was probably "traded" and that is why it was found there. Meanwhile all early written evidence showed that Paiutes were the tribe found in Hetch Hetchy and were fighting Miwoks. So the myth of trade is just that, a myth. (See Photo 2 in Gallery)

In and around the Yosemite area is Rock Art called pictograph and petroglyph. Anthropologists and archaeologists have determined that the ancient rock art pictographs - petroglyphs is Great Basin in origin. Great Basin is another word for Paiute and Shoshone. Miwoks are not Great Basin Indians. (See Photo 1 in Gallery)

Anything Mono Lake Paiute that is found by Yosemite National Park Service's paid archaeologists is labeled "trade items", yet how do they explain the Rock Art? Did they trade rock art carvings? How do they explain trade during the time Miwok and Paiutes were warring? There are several documented reports of western "Diggers" entering the eastern Yosemite sierra around Mono Lake and they were attacked and killed.

The earliest Yosemite Indian photos are of Paiutes, the earliest documented contact with Yosemite Indians was of Paiutes, the ancient pictograph and petroglyph rock art in Yosemite is Paiute, and the items found at ancient burial sites in Yosemite are Paiute. When you add up all the evidence it confirms that the Paiutes were the original people of Yosemite, and not the Miwok.

Here are the other parts of the video about obsidian and the Paiute people.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnfU6Pch2SQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co17eotBNV8