Why go
Yosemite is a living Indigenous homeland, and the valley's names, villages, trade routes, and museum interpretation reveal relationships that continue beyond early settler accounts. Use Native Yosemite: Ahwahneechee and Associated Tribes to frame the subject, then let Native Yosemite: Ahwahneechee and Associated Tribes separate broad patterns from visitor choices. Return to Native Yosemite: Ahwahneechee and Associated Tribes when deciding what belongs in one realistic Yosemite day.
The full story
As revealed by archeological finds, the Yosemite Valley has been inhabited for nearly 3,000 years, though humans may have first visited the area as long as 8,000 to 10,000 years ago. The indigenous natives called themselves the Ahwahneechee, meaning "dwellers in Ahwahnee." They are related to the Northern Paiute and Mono tribes. Many tribes visited the area to trade, including nearby Central Sierra Miwoks, who lived along the drainage area of the Tuolumne and Stanislaus Rivers. A major trading route went over Mono Pass and through Bloody Canyon to Mono Lake, just to the east of the Yosemite area. Vegetation and game in the region was similar to that present today; acorns were a staple to their diet, as well as other seeds and plants, salmon and deer. The California Gold Rush in the mid-19th century dramatically increased travel by European-Americans in the area, causing competition for resources between the regional Paiute and Miwok and the miners and hangers on. In 1851 as part of the Mariposa Wars intended to suppress Native American resistance, United States Army Major Jim Savage led the Mariposa Battalion into the west end of Yosemite.