Rock People
The following e-mail was sent anonymously to the guide service my brother works at.
Hello Yosemites Climbers
I am a Yosemite-Mono Lake Paiute and I think it is very cool that you guys are climbers.
The Yokuts of the San Joaquin Valley used to call the Paiutes "Monos" which meant fly people because we used to climb all over the rock walls of Yosemite like flies.
We were also called the "Topee Numu" the "Rock People" that is how we used to escape danger and when James Savage and the Mariposa Battalion went after Chief Tenaya and his band we climb the rocks so they could not capture us.
That is why climbing was an important part of the Yosemite-Mono Lake Paiute people of Yosemite.
The real name of one of the chiefs of Yosemite was "Lizard" because he climbed to the top of El Captain which we Paiutes called "Topee Na'a" which means "Father of all Rocks" or "Rock Chief".
Good luck on your climbs.
And while you're in the mood, check out this piece on '70s California mountaineering entitled Doug Robinson and the Extreme Bohemians. That's Carl McCoy to the left, ski mountaineer and son of Mammoth Mountain's Dave McCoy.
Comments
that doug robinson article took me back---all that mountain mysticism thing---i looked up my old buddy rik reider---google 'rik reider' and check out the Jardine site and Bridwell's Brave New World------------------Rik and another friend Ed Barry (also mentioned in Bridwell article--i should google him...) and I used to run around---climbing buildings at stanford, sleeping in climbing hammocks under freeway bridges, hauling Ed's entire drum set up a technical spire in the middle of Pinnacles nat'l monument--so Ed could jam a bit, etc----
they would haul car stereos and car batteries --up the new routes they were doing on North american Wall on El Cap---haul up cases of beer---friends would come up on fixed lines to party...
Posted by: Steina | February 2, 2006 05:00 PM
Hey Numu! How u manuggwe.
We were also Fly larave eaters, but I heard that too. We were also the Native American Indian people of Hetch Hetchy Valley. hit the link.
Kutzabe Tucketta.
Good to see another Paiute person on the net.
Poonee du wah.
Posted by: Soogoo | February 11, 2006 12:30 AM
Great Photo of Yosemite-Mono Lake Paiute Susie McGowan and her daughter Sadie in the Yosemite Valley floor.
We were also the Indians of Hetch Hetchy Valley which has been damed up.
We were also the Indians of Mono Lake which almost died when the water was diverted to Los Angeles.
Also sadly the Indians from Owens Lake which was drained and is now a big salt flat. The water was drained and is now the water source for Los Angeles.
We were also the Indians of Yosemite til they kicked us out and are now replacing us with those Indians who signed the treaties and are allowing them to dig up Yosemite...lol...sigh.
What is a Paiute to do?
...but great photo and thanks for posting it. So we can still some of our Paiute people when we used to live in Yosemite.
Posted by: J. Smith | March 12, 2006 12:33 PM