You might have seen signs in Yosemite National Park paid for by the Yosemite Fund with help from the Yosemite Association that say that the early Yosemite Ahwahnichi or Ahwahneechee were Miwoks. That is actually incorrect. The early Native Americans were Paiute Indians, and the Southern Sierra Miwuks were the workers for the gold miners in California. The early settlers wrote that the Southern Sierra Miwuk were friendly and very docile. They had been working with the settlers for years before the Mariposa Battalion entered Yosemite Valley to capture Chief Tenaya and his band of Ahwahneechees.

In the early years there was a historical periodical published in the town of Sonora in Tuolumne County called the Pony Express. The Pony Express published early accounts and stories of pioneers and settlers.

One account caught our interest because we Paiutes know that Yosemite National Park Service is giving the general public a false story of who the original Indians of Yosemite were. This short article in the Pony Express described early accounts of the Ahwahneechees being Paiutes and was printed in March 1956. You can see the original article in the photo gallery.

Here is the transcribed article:

YOSEMTIE INDIANS ARE
OUTLAW PIUTES

Camp Barbour in 1851 produced
the great frontiersman, Major
James D. Savage, leader of the
Mariposa Battalion, who with
Andrew D. Firebaugh, chased out-
law Piute Indians back into Yose-
mite Valley, which led to its dis-
covery. It is obvious they were
not Miwoks and Diggers. They
were peaceful, certainly not war-
like enough to go out raiding Fort
Barbour (later Fort Miller) built
with soldiers armed with cap and ball
muskets. Also, this is refuted by
the testimony of veteran David
Williamson to the Pony Express
the late Williamson (born at Fort
Churchill in the 1860s) whose
father was an army officer, was
told differently by Johnny Calico,
son of Chief Winnemucca. Johnny
as a kid in 1860, witnessed White
Man's route up the Truckee River
from Lake Pyramid, in the so-
called battle of Lake Pyramid
which was not a "battle" but a
very fast route, so fast as the
soldiers could get away on horse-
back. His father told him that
all unruly renegades in the tribe
(The Piutes had no jails) had
been exiled for generations over
the mountains west of the big
lake (which was Mono Lake).
So there are your tough out-law
Yosemite Indians that Savage and
Firebaugh chased with their Mari-
posa Battalion in 1851.

According to old accounts from people who knew them, the Ahwahnichis were renegade Paiutes. The regular Mono Paiutes bragged about their exploits. They were like Robin Hood in their eyes. Chief Tenaya's band was made up of Paiutes from different bands. They were a warrior renegade band and not docile Miwoks.

The Calico name is a well known Paiute/Washoe last name and there are Calicos in the Paiute and Washoe tribes today.

There is a town called Firebaugh, named after Andrew Firebaugh, located in the San Joaquin Valley today. He was an early pioneer, military man, and settler.

So the story of the 'war like' Miwoks of Yosemite is not true. They were docile and friendly, while the Paiutes were the ones who were war like in the Yosemite area.

In other words the Paiutes were the original Yosemite Native people and the Park is giving out the wrong information.