Customer Reviews

Legends of the Yosemite Miwok

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This book was compiled by NPS Ethnologist Craig Bates and contains authentic Southern Sierra Miwok legends. Frank La Pena provided the illustrations. It's a well-written book for children or adults interested in Miwok legends.

So many books on Native American legends, including Miwok, contain "fabricated" legends that romanticize Native Americans or otherwize bend legends to the writer's agenda (whether it's environmental, cultural, or historic). Legends of the Yosemite Miwok is authentic and a good first book on Miwok legends.

The other reviewer apparently has an ax to grind about surviving present-day Miwok. The original Ahwahnees died in the early 1800s from some European disease. Chief Tenaya's band in the mid-1800s was composed of Miwok, Paiute, and other Native peoples. Tenaya was half Miwok through his mother. From the 1900s the remaining Miwok married outside their tribe, but that's a red herring. The legends in this book told are authentic.

If you've ever visited Yosemite National Park, or even seen pictures, you know that there are many interesting formations that make this valley unique in the world. The resident Ahwahneechi, of course, had many legends about how the valley came to be, and these are collected and retold here by respected Wintu elder Frank LaPena, longtime Yosemite museum curator Craig Bates, and illustrated by native artist Harry Fonseca.

Although the stories differ slightly from the way I heard them as a girl in the hangi in Yosemite valley, the familiar characters and stories are brought to life here. They're presented in a way that makes them perfect for reading aloud, which is the way they're meant to be heard and learned. If my son had his way, I would tell him the story of Tu-tok-a-nu-la every single night before bedtime!

Where the stories were obtained is an interesting addition, as is the annotated bibliography. The color pencil drawings and tactile heavy linen paper complete this warm, wonderful experience. Highly recommended, especially if you're going to be reading them to others in Yosemite valley, perhaps around the campfire.

This Review by another poster said it all. I believe it.

Concerning this book about "Miwok" Tales. This quote below was taken from Handbook of the Yokut Indians by Frank Latta concerning the "Miwok" tales:

"One very definte evidence that the Yokuts occupied the entire Delta Area is the series of folklore stores recorded by Dr. C. Hart Merriam, published in book form in 1910 and titled "THE DAWN OF THE WORLD". A number of these stories were obtained from self-styled Mewalk informants. But, with the exception of Mewalk names for the mythological characters, the accounts ARE AS IDENTICAL with the Yokuts accounts as variant Yokuts statements are among themselves. I recorded an identical myth (see Dawn of the World, page 45) from George Rivercomb, half blooded Chuckhansi Yokuts, who credited it to Chowchilla Yokuts of the Lower Chowchilla and Fresno Rivers.

In the 1930s, when I interviewed Dr. Merriam at his summer home near Lagunitas, this state, we discussed this at length. He had studied the area more and had CHANGED HIS OPINION AS TO THE RANGE OF THE YOKUTS and was more of the opinion of Drs. A. L. Kroeber and J. P. Harrington, who attributed THE ENTIRE Delta area to the Yokuts.

Also, Merriam, 1910, 67 in his "BIRTH OF WEK-WEK AND THE CREATION OF MAN", gives more definate evidence. This last was credited to a "Hool-poom-ne Mewuk" tribe. DEFINITELY, THIS WAS A YOKUTS TRIBE.

Merriam placed the creation center of the Hool-poom-ne (Hulpumne) and the home of the Creator, Mol-luk (Condor), ON MOUNT DIABLO (Oo-yum Be-le). Exept for the fact that Merriam's "MEWUK" informants used Mewalk names for the principal characters, THIS IS A STOCK YOKUTS STORY.

Other Merriam accounts of folklore along the Sierra foothills WERE INVOLVED IN THE SAME TRIBAL MIXUP...."


This was page on 89 and 90 of Mr. Latta's book, which means that "Miwok" stories and myths are really Yokut stories and NOT Miwok.

It seems that C. Hart Merriam who wrote those "Miwok" tales conceded to Frank Latta that he had been mistaken and that the "Miwok" he wrote about were really Yokut tales.

Merriam is the same guy who wrote the Miwok place names of Yosemite. It seems he was getting the wrong information and conceded this to Frank Latta the author of the Handbook of the Yokuts.

These Yokut tales actually came from over 200 miles aways from western San Joaquin Valley when Yokuts were rounded up and forced to the eastern foothills.

So interestingly the "Miwok" Legends are NOT Miwok, but they are really YOKUT TALES.

The legends that the previous reviewer stated as false were the actual legends told by the original Yosemite Indians and they weren't Miwoks.

If anyone has any investigative skills they can determine that Tenaya was not Miwok and neither were the Awahnees.

This book was just written so that the Southern Sierra Miwoks can get federal recognition when they have questionable documentation.

Most of the "Southern Sierra Yosemite Miwoks" descendents are really San Joaquin Valley Yokuts, Mono Lake Paiutes and Monos from neighoring tribes.

I have seen the earliest census rolls and there are some BIG problems with the "Yosemite Miwoks".

The person who gathered the Yosemite Miwok legends for this book was extremely biased towards his Northern Mewuk wife. We Indians believe Craig D. Bates used his position at Yosemite National Park to assist the Southern Sierra Miwuks become a tribe. They are a non-profit trying to become a tribe. They are also now planning to get a casino. There is NO SUCH THING as Yosemite Miwoks. There never has been and never was. To see the proof read Dr. Lafayette H. Bunnell's book; The Discovery of the Yosemite. Even Craig D. Bates in this book wrote that all we know about the Indians of Yosemite came from Dr. Lafayette H. Bunnell, yet Bunnell wrote the original Indians of Yoseite WERE MONO PAIUTES, not Miwok. Some of the tales were originally Yokut tales, not Miwok. Some tales were 'modified' and the Paiute referrence taken out to make it seem like it was Miwok. The So-called Miwok Les James in the book we heard is an enrolled member of the Chukchansi tribe and is not even Miwok, but a Yokut. This book is a complete a MYTH and LEGEND. Those now claiming to be Yosemite Miwok (which there were really none) are really Yokuts and Paiutes. Some are Walla Walla Indians who came down from Oregon to work for the whites during the gold rush. Google Walla Walla Indians now California and see the truth. Those who became the Miwoks from the Walla Walla or Awals and the others were really the SCOUTS for the military against the real Yosemite Native people and they were Paiutes and NOT Miwoks. Now they are claiming to be the original Yosemite Indians stealing Paiute history and basketry and our original homeland, Yosemite.

So there are NO Yosemite Miwok Legends, that there were Yosemite Miwoks is the biggest myth and legend around.