Someone responded to this older story:
Was Mary Wilson a Yosemite Miwok Chief?
with this;
Quote
The author of the above whining rant is the one who is muddying the historical waters of early Yosemite People. The record of Yosemite people being Southern Sierra Miwok began in the writings of people studying the indians of Yosemite Valley in the 1800s. The idea that Craig Bates single handedly revised history is a completely off the mark. One of the spiritual leaders of the mariposa group, Jay Johnson, is a descendent of Chief Tenaya and he self identifies as Miwok.
He makes a good point and argument. One that should be examined and clarified.
History sometimes does get muddled as the decades go by, especially if there aren't qualified people to document this history and that is why we mention Craig D. Bates. Bates was specifically hired by Yosemite National Park service to 'clarify' all the documentation and put together the true history of Yosemite's Indian past. But as you can see we believe he had his own agenda.
We ask this of white American History; did Robert E Lee fight under Abraham Lincoln? Did George Washington fight on the side of King George? Was Sitting Bull a scout for Gen. Custer at the Little Big Horn? Of course not. Then the history of one of America's most famous parks, Yosemite, should also have the true history, not one that was made and then perpetrated incorrectly for years.
In fact Dr. Lafayette H. Bunnell specifically wrote at the beginning of his book that he had to write "The Discovery of Yosemite" because many people prior to his writing his accounts were making up and getting the story incorrect..like the person who first wrote about Miwoks of Yosemite; Stephen Powers. Who btw was not from the area. Powers wrote this "story" for the Overland Monthly as reporter when he went a trip for a day or two into Yosemite around 1860 when the Paiutes had already been pushed out and the workers for the settlers, the Miwoks, had moved in.
This point "One of the spiritual leaders of the mariposa group, Jay Johnson, is a descendent of Chief Tenaya and he self identifies as Miwok" was very interesting. Because the well known and written about Jay Johnson has been touted a "Yosemite Miwok" and a descendent of Chief Tenaya, yet no one ever did his ancestry before. In fact that is what we believe Craig D. Bates was hired by YNP as the official Park's ethnologist. We are not saying that Jay is not a nice person. He is probably a very nice guy, but does that mean we are supposed to ignore history? Yosemite History? No.
Some say we are 'making this all up' or lying, but we can back up what we say. In fact any of you can find it if you really look for the documentation and accounts. That was Bates' job for the Park and we believe he didn't do it.
So did today's well known elders of the Southern Sierra Miwuk always go by the tribal identification of Miwok, well not when they were in high school;
Helen Hogan-Coats - Yosemite Paiute
Jay Johnson in his high school photo - Yosemite Paiute
Even today:
Yosemite Indian prepares acorn mush
Della Hern - Yosemite Paiute
Here she is giving the prayer at a Mariposa county meeting
"Mariposa Indian Elder"
No doubt the prayer was in Paiute, because we know she does not speak Miwok.
Paiutes are not Miwoks and vice-versa.
