A couple of years ago a friend and I were visiting Yosemite National Park when we decided to ride the Yosemite bus that transports people around the Park to different locations. An elderly woman with her grown daughter and young grand daughter got on the bus. I asked the elderly woman if she was enjoying her visit and she replied that she had been coming to the Park for years and wanted to show her grand daughter the Park she loved. I asked her what part she liked the best and she replied the Yosemite Indian Museum. Since we were descendents of the original people of Yosemite Valley we were extremely pleased and asked what she liked best in the Indian Museum and she said the Indian baskets.
She stated that for years she would visit the Indian Museum to see the beauty of the Yosemite Indian baskets. Being Paiutes we smiled with pride because this elderly woman recognized and acknowledged the artistry that is the craft of our Yosemite - Mono Lake Paiute people. The majority of the huge baskets on display are Paiute. The elderly lady turned to her young grand daughter and said she wanted to show her the beauty of the early Yosemite Native American culture, especially the Yosemite MIWOK baskets. Our mouths dropped open in surprise.
My friend said to the woman there was another tribe who made baskets in Yosemite Valley and they were also displayed. The elderly woman smiled and she said "Oh yes, that is right there was another tribe that made baskets in Yosemite." We both replied at the same time "Paiute". She said "No, no the tribe starts with a letter M". We then said "Mono Lake" which means basically Paiutes and she replied "No, not them, what was their name again? Oh yes, MAIDU". Since the woman was elderly and with her family we just looked at each other and realized that this is what is wrong with Yosemite National Park, the Yosemite Association, the Yosemite Fund and the United States Park Service. The family met their stop and with a smile and wave told us to enjoy ourselves in the Park. How could we now after that. We knew it was not their fault that they were given the wrong information. Information that all taxpayers pay for.
So here we were in our ancestors homeland going to re-visit the Yosemite Indian Museum to see our people's baskets only to be reminded that the Yosemite National Park had participated in the destruction of our culture. The culture of the original people of Yosemite, the Paiutes. The Park teaches people lies that are repeated until even generations of visitors start to believe that the only Indians of Yosemite were Miwoks. The same Southern Sierra Miwuks who were the scouts for the white militia and were afraid to enter Yosemite Valley.
Not one of those large intricate beautifully crafted round baskets in the Yosemite Indian Museum was created by a Southern Sierra Miwok, not one. The baskets displayed were made by Yosemite - Mono Lake Paiutes and one Casson Yokut woman. The baskets that have Miwok on them are misidentified and mislabeled.
There are baskets created by Carrie Bethel, Maggie "Taboose" Howard, Nellie Charlie and her sister Tina Charlie in the Yosemite Indian Museum and there is no question they are Yosemite - Mono Lake Paiute. Their Paiute lineage cannot be questioned by anyone in the Park. It is the other baskets that the Park's history is off.
In an attempt to falsely introduce "Miwok" as the dominate tribe in Yosemite, Yosemite National Park has falsely labeled Leanna and Louisa Tom's baskets as Miwok - Paiute and Jennie Washington's baskets as Miwok - Yokut. Not one of them are Miwok.
Leanna and Louisa Tom, were sisters. They were married to full blooded Yosemite - Mono Lake Paiute Bridgeport Tom. Leanna and Louisa were the daughters of full blooded Yosemite - Mono Lake Paiute Captain Sam. Captain Sam and the majority of his children and grand children in 1929 stated on their California Indian applications, which are used by the Bureau of Indian Affairs as proof, that he was full blooded 4/4 Paiute and so was his wife Susie. Only a handful of Captain Sam's descendents said they were part Miwok, through Susie Sam, to get free housing and plum jobs in Yosemite National Park in the early days. In early times of Yosemite National Park the Park was incorrectly looking for indigenous "Yosemite Miwoks", which there were none, to give employment and free housing. So a few of the descendents of Captain Sam said they were part Miwok.
But the old government documents reveal the truth. Captain Sam and the majority of the family stated on their applications, Indian census rolls and other government documents they were Paiutes and not Miwoks. All a person has to do is look online to find the documentation.
On Jennie Washington's old paperwork she and her husband George stated that she was half white and half Casson Yokut and not from Yosemite and not Miwok.
The Southern Sierra Miwuks have not created baskets in generations. They had given up that craft when they moved into the general white population, but now the Park is claiming our Paiute baskets as Miwok ones. This cannot stand.
This site goes even further into the lie that is being perpetrated by Yosemite National Park. This blog goes in depth into the injustice that is going on in Yosemite.
The United States Park Service, with the assistance of the Yosemite Fund and the Yosemite Association, is trying to erase the history of the Paiute people out of the park in favor of the Parks fellow Indian employees, the Southern Sierra Miwuks, also called the American Indian Council of Mariposa.
Hopefully if you visit Yosemite you won't be misguided like the elderly woman and her family. So the next time you are visiting Yosemite National Park and happen to go into the Yosemite Indian Museum to see those large beautiful Indian baskets remember who made them. It was the Paiute people. The original people of Yosemite Valley.
Comments
Don't be taken in by this guy's blog. The baskets in the Yosemite Indian museum are not mislabeled. they are labeled based on style of construction and patterns. Method of construction is fairly conservative (unchanging). So when a child learns how to weave a basket she learns to do it exactly as her teacher. No national park sigh or employee ever said Southern Sierra Miwoks were the sole inhabitants of the valley. The above photo from the 1920s (75 years after miners invaded the valley). At that time the National Park Service encouraged people from all tribes to compete in a number of contests, including basketry. Of course there were Mono Lake Paiutes there.
Remember this is generations after the Yosemite Valley people and their culture was disrupted by the Mariposa Battalion. It was in the generations that followed that indian people from all over the place (including many Paiutes) took advantage of the situation in Yosemite Valley. Indian people in the valley were treated better than most anywhere else in the country. They were even allowed to go to school with the white kids. Jobs were reasonably good.
The problem these days is that people like the above author wants his version of history to be true. Some of it probably is, but the facts - ALL of the facts - don't support his conclusions. What this poor fellow has is simply a daydream.
To the person who posted "Indian Baskets". Is that photo not correct? Are you an Indian from the Yosemite area?
NAME ME ONE MIWOK BASKET MAKER, ONE DISPLAYED IN THE INDIAN MUSEUM?
I can name you several Yosemite - Mono Lake Paiute baskets whose baskets are on display, just like they are in the photo: Maggie "Taboose" Sam-Howard, Alice Tom-Wilson, Leanna Sam-Tom, Carrie McGowan-Bethel, Lucy Tom-Telles, Tina Jim-Charlie, and Nellie Jim-Charlie and a couple of baskets made by Casson Yokut/half white Jennie Washington.
Not one of those baskets displayed in the Indian Museum can anyone put a name of any supposed Miwok on it, not one.
Tell me which Miwok, by name, made a basket on display in the Yosemite Indian Museum.
I have seen the names of the winning contestants of the Yosemite basket making contestants and there was not ONE Miwok on the lists, mainly Paiutes, a couple of Yokuts and Washoes, but no Miwoks.
If you can show me, with proof, who the Miwok basket makers were and their family line. I would like to see it, but if you can't then your argument is in invalid until you can. I have shown proof in just one photo and could produce more, but others can't show they were Miwoks.
Just because YOU say there were Miwok basket makers during Yosemite Indian days does not mean it is true UNLESS YOU CAN SHOW ME WHO THEY WERE. You can't have "Miwok basket makers" without Miwoks. That is unless you work for the Park and make it up.
Miwoks did not make round baskets or baskets of that size.
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