“Old Yosemite poem book identifies Paiute - Indian Country Today”

Old Yosemite poem book identifies Paiute - Indian Country Today

Posted: 10 Dec 2009 09:33 AM PST

Recently one of our Yosemite - Mono Lake Paiute elders found an old book of poems about the first Native people of Yosemite. The book she found was a very old book called Tisayac of the Yosemite, by M. B. M Toland, published in Philadelphia by the J. B. Lippincott Company in 1891. Tisayac is the name given to Half Dome and it is a variation of "Crying Girl" in the Paiute language after the legend of the creation of Yosemite.

The book was of interest to the Paiute people because the poems had similar meanings to Paiute legends in the area of Yosemite and Mono Lake. But one very important find in the book was a lithograph in the book of a group of Paiute women and children by the shores of a river or lake in Yosemite. You can see the lithograph drawing on this main page. What is important about this find is that in previous drawings the Native people in the Yosemite area had no tribal identification and were mainly generalized depictions of California Indians, but this one was different. This lithograph drawing, if a person knowing tribal culture, would see very important items showing the tribal identification of Yosemite Indians. Some things that are so distinct that it clearly shows the Paiute presence in the Valley.

The book was published in 1891, but it probably took years in the making. The artist whose name appeared to be Boyle had painstakingly drawn a group of Paiute women and children going about collecting water in Yosemite Valley. First and foremost is the young woman kneeling in the front, to the right, is wearing a Paiute basket hat. These type of basket hats were worn by Paiute and Shoshone women throughout many parts of the Great Basin and Eastern California, see photo 2 in gallery. The shape and design is clearly of Paiute - Shoshone origin. The young woman is kneeling and collecting water in a typical Paiute - Shoshone water jug, which are mainly made of willow. In our dialect we call them Pah-osa (water jug). The jugs are smeared with pine pitch to make them water proof and gives the water a delicious distinct pine flavor. In the back is another Paiute woman carrying a large water jug in the traditional manner with a strap that goes around the forehead. Basket hats were used by Paiute women in early times to protect the forehead from the trump line of a baby cradleboard or burden basket when carrying or gathering. This left the hands free to do other tasks and to carry other items at the same time. They prevented their foreheads from being marked up. They were also used as portable drinking bowls that you could carry around and kept your head cool in the summer in the blazing desert. These type of hats were only worn by Mono Paiute women in the Yosemite area, and these type of water jugs were only made by Mono Paiutes and Monos.

So Tisayac of the Yosemite was one of the first and earliest books, pre-1900, that specifically identified Mono Paiute Native Indian people in a drawing in Yosemite Valley. Paiute basket hats were called tsotu'a, but were called different names by different bands depending on their own dialect.

Now was this the only instance of Paiute baskets around Yosemite? No. There were others like this excerpt of Mariposa Indian life, which shows Paiute women were working in the area.

Coulterville Chronicle;

The annals of a mother lode mining town by Catherine Coffin Phillips, 1942

Chapter 8: The Turbulent Sixties (1860)

"One day an Indian woman who had made a beautiful basket cap for Mrs. Smith noted that her mistress was using it as a darning basket. Laughing heartily, the housemaid pointed to the socks in the basket and then to her own head. "You use it for a foot basket," she said, in explanation of her laughter."

Even in small excerpts like the one above you can decipher that the Indian woman in the story is Paiute because in the area they were the women who made and wore basket hats.

From an old 1902 newspaper about a Yosemite Native American funeral of an Indian man who was executed for killing a white man.

The only Indians who attacked and fought back against whites in the area were Paiutes and Monos;

"Mrs. Hill when asked particulars concerning a funeral, told of one she witnessed at an Indian camp (in Yosemite) when she was sent for by the chief and requested to write invitations to various Indians of the Piutes, Mono and the Yosemites." "The ch----- mourner was a woman, whose husband had been executed at San Quentin for the murder of a white man. She was dressed in white, and wore a head basket, such as would bring a hundred dollars in a curio shop to-day."

The woman was a Paiute because of the basket hat and the story is reminiscent of Paiute George who had killed a white man around Yosemite about the same time.

There was another account, this time it was the burial of well known Yosemite-Mono Lake Paiute icon Suzie McGowan, who was married to Poker Bill. This is an excerpt from C. Hart Merriam's August 5, 1903 notes. Burial traditions were changing with the times;

"I am told that a Paiute woman (wife of the Paiute called Poker Bill) died in childbirth a short time ago and was buried here. A fine basket bowl was put over her head when she was buried".

Poker Bill was the husband of Suzie McGowan who was in the famous photo of her carrying her daughter Sadie in a cradle board in Yosemite Valley. And Merriam was describing her burial. Once again she was buried wearing a Paiute basket hat.

Later on Paiute women replaced the basket hats with scarves to cover their heads.

These accounts of Yosemite-Mono Lake Paiutes were never introduced into any early Indian history of Yosemite National Park's Indian cultural programs. This might be the first time many people who study Yosemite history have seen these accounts. Someone educated in the difference between tribal groups would have come to the same conclusion when they saw or read these works. This is because around Yosemite the only persons who wore basket hats were Mono Paiutes. The Park had non-Indians and Miwoks in charge of the Indian cultural programs and we believe they were not looking for Paiutes, but we believe were looking to validify the Miwok presence. Yet there were no clearly identifiable early drawings or photos of Southern Miwoks in Yosemite Valley. The Paiutes and Monos are in fact the original people of Yosemite, and these prove the presence of Paiutes in the Park as the first people as written by Dr. Lafayette H. Bunnell's first accounts of the discovery of Yosemite.

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