The Ahwahnechee people had lived in Yosemite Valley for thousands of years
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The Ahwahnechee people had lived in Yosemite Valley for thousands of years before the first gold seeker ever set foot in the Sierra Nevada foothills.
When the California Gold Rush erupted in 1849, it set off a chain of events that would forever shatter the world of California's indigenous people.
As gold seekers invaded the country immediately west of what is now Yosemite National Park, they found one of the more densely populated Native areas in the state, a region rich in acorns, game, and gold along the mountain streams.
Nine Ahwahnechee villages in Yosemite Valley housed around 450 indigenous residents when Euro-American settlers first arrived.
One of the most central figures in the coming conflict was James D. Savage, a trader who established posts on the Fresno River and Mariposa Creek, learned Native tongues, and built ties with several tribes.
On December 17, 1850, Savage's Native allies deserted his Mariposa camp, and the following day his post on the Fresno was attacked and two of his three men were killed, sparking the beginning of a general Indian war.
Sheriff James Burney and Savage led a militia of 74 men in a retaliatory strike against a Chowchilla camp on January 11, 1851, but the Chowchilla fought back with their own rifles and pistols, routing the militia in what became the first battle of the Mariposa War.
Following that defeat, Sheriff Burney appealed to Governor John McDougal, who authorized the formation of the Mariposa Battalion, a 200-man state militia force with Savage appointed as major.
When the battalion entered Yosemite Valley, they systematically burned villages and food supplies and forced men, women, and children from their homes.
Chief Tenaya of the Ahwahnechee staunchly refused to sign the treaties that other tribes had accepted, leading to direct confrontations with the Mariposa Battalion in a commitment to protect his people's ancestral lands.
On March 25, 1851, Savage and his men pushed into the mountains and became the first non-indigenous group to lay eyes on Yosemite Valley, with battalion physician Dr. Lafayette Bunnell suggesting it be named after the people who had long called it home.
The Mariposa Battalion eventually encircled the Ahwahnechee at Lake Tenaya on May 22, and with little prospect of winning, the tribe surrendered and was marched under armed guard to the Fresno River Reservation.
By the summer of 1851, Tenaya grew restless on the reservation and, after pledging not to disturb any settlers, was allowed to return to the valley with his people.
In 1852 a conflict with prospectors drove Tenaya's band to seek refuge with the Mono people, and in 1853 upon returning to the valley, a dispute over stolen horses led the Monos to track down and kill Tenaya and many of his remaining warriors, with survivors absorbed into the Mono Lake Paiute population.
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