Edward Curtis, famous Indian and Western photographer
While surfing the internet I came across a picture of a girl named Tenaya and as I searched further I saw a picture of a dog named Tenaya. As a Paiute I found it rather strange that a woman, especially a dog, would have the masculine name of Tenaya.
If you are a frequent visitor of Yosemite or if you are a California historian you would recognize the name Tenaya. Tenaya, actually Tenieya, is what the chief of the Ahwahneechees, the original Yosemite Native people was called.
So what does Tenieya or Tenaya mean in Southern Sierra Miwuk? It actually doesn’t mean anything in their language.
For over a hundred years many historians were baffled and befuddled by many of the names in Yosemite and the surrounding area. That is because they were asking the wrong people for the definitions. Tenieya or Tenaya has no meaning in Miwok, but it has a big meaning in Yosemite – Mono Lake Paiute.
Old photo of Lake Tenaya, named after Chief Tenaya, or Tenieya, called Pa-weah to Mono Lake Paiutes.
For decades historians and ethnologists were asking Miwoks what the name of places in Yosemite were, that they never asked them what does Tenaya mean in Miwok.
Lafayette H. Bunnell, one of the only men to meet Chief Tenaya or Tenieya, and wrote everything we know today about him, wrote in his book, Discovery of the Yosemite, that Chief Tenaya was a Paiute and spoke a Paiute jargon. He also wrote that Tenaya was the founder of the Paiute colony of Ahwahnee. Bunnell wrote that in 1853 the remaining Yosemite Indians, after being decimated, were taken back to Paiute Mono Lake and absorbed back into the Paiute population. So why does the Park and historians believe that the original Indians of Yosemite were Miwoks is beyond us?
Today Yosemite National Park employees believe that the original Natives of Yosemite were Southern Sierra Miwuks, but according to the first contact with the Indigenous Yosemite Indians they were Paiutes.
If Tenaya or Tenieya means nothing in Miwuk, what does it mean in Paiute? The definition of Tenieya is easy to explain. I have never heard of the Miwoks or the Park’s explanation or definition of the word Tenieya, the most famous known chief of the Yosemite American Indians by those who claim him as their leader.
They should've asked the Mono Lake Paiutes instead because here is the word Tenieya and its explanation and definition;
Edward Curtis notes of Mono and Paiute words.
The famous photographer Edward Curtis, as he roamed the West taking photographs of Indians, also took linguistic notes. When Curtis was taking photos of Indians along the eastern slope of the California Sierra Nevada he also took notes from the Paiutes and Monos in the area. Here is a list of Bishop Paiute and Mono Paiute words. Remember according to Dr. Lafayette H. Bunnell the Mono Paiutes made up the majority of Yosemite’s Chief Tenaya’s band.
Note the word for "Our Father" in the notes. Paiute bands were often times large family units. These groups were led by the patriarch of the band who was often times their father. Many times the chief of a certain Paiute band was just called "Father".
Here is the word up close;
Among the Paiute "Our Father" in the Mono/Bishop Paiute and Paiute language looks just like the word Te-na-ya or Tenieya.
So it would make sense that Chief Tenaya's name was "Our Father" out of a sign of respect by his Paiute band of Ahwahneechees.
If Yosemite National Park and the Southern Sierra Miwuk, have a better definition or explanation for the name Tenaya we Paiutes sure would like to hear it...since they claim he was their chief.
*Also note the Mono word for "Sequoia".
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Chief Tenaya was the founder of the Paiute Colony of Ahwahnee
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/01/2011 05:17PM by Yosemite_Indian.
