My great nephew Nathan returned to Yosemite since he was a baby. Even though we visit Yosemite quite often it is harder for some of our other family members to visit, especially those who live further away. This week we took our niece and her family to Yosemite to visit our ancestral homeland and in this photo our great nephew, Nathan, really loved the waters of Tenaya Lake. This is the same place the Mariposa Battalion captured some of the hiding Ahwahneechee at their Tenaya Lake rancheria camp. Tenaya Lake has historical significance to the descendents of Yosemite-Mono Lake Paiutes.

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Chief Tenaya was the founder of the Paiute colony of Ahwanhee - Dr. Lafayette H. Bunnell.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 07/09/2012 07:17PM by Yosemite_Indian.

A very nice photo of your great nephew.

Thank you.

The kids really loved Tenaya Lake, but what caught their facsination was when they turned around a caught a glimpse of three rock climbers scaling the southern part of Polly Dome across from the lake. They watched for several minutes as a group of climbers scaled the side of the rock. We told them that is how we got the name "Mono" (which some Paiutes and Monos disagree on). Because the Indians on the other side would see Mono Paiutes crawling all over the rocks like monkeys. The Battalion was shocked to see the Ahwahneechees escape them by rapidly climbing up, what appeared to them, unscalable granite rocks. Which today many rock climbers do. Mono is the Spanish word for monkey. But some Paiutes don't like that term because they consider it demeaning and believe it to be something different. That definition is very controversial among our own people. Mona is love grass in Paiute, but we also know the Yokuts called Paiutes "Monos" because they would climb all over the rocks like flies and many of them spoke Spanish. You cannot even mention that Mono means monkey in Spanish to some of the Monos and Mono Lake Paiutes without getting into a heated "debate"...lol

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Chief Tenaya was the founder of the Paiute colony of Ahwanhee - Dr. Lafayette H. Bunnell.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/10/2012 09:44AM by Yosemite_Indian.

You great nephew is a real cutie and I bet in 10 years the phone is going to ring off the hook with all the girls calling him. It is good to hear that your family is passing on your culture and stories to the next generations. I wish that my family had done that. Thank you for sharing your stories with us.

My family used to camp in the summer at the west end of Lake Tenaya for two weeks every year my whole childhood. I have great fondness for that particular place on earth, and for Yosemite as a whole.

Even so, I don't know the former history of the lake, do you know where the actual place was where the Ahwahneechee camped? Was it on either end of the lake or in the meadow south of the outlet, or somewhere else? Do you know whether your ancestors camped there prior to when the battalion captured them?

Thanks for the history lesson, I do miss being able to camp there, but I am glad the area will be better perserved because of this.