Yosemite Valley
:
Myths And Legends Of California And The Old Southwest
(Explanatory) (3)
Mr. Stephen Powers claims that there is no such word in the Miwok
language as Yosemite. The valley has always been known to them, and is
to this day, when speaking among themselves, as A-wa'-ni. This, it is
true, is only the name of one of the ancient villages which it
contained; but by prominence it gave its name to the valley, and in
accordance with Indian usage almost everywhere, to t
e inhabitants of
the same. The word Yosemite is simply a very beautiful and sonorous
corruption of the word for grizzly bear. On the Stanislaus and north of
it, the word is u-zu'-mai-ti; at Little Gap, o-so'-mai-ti; in Yosemite
itself, u-zu'-mai-ti; on the South Fork of the Merced, uh-zu'-mai-tuh. .
. .
"In the following list, the signification of the name is given whenever
there is any known to the Indians:
"Wa-kal'-la (the river), Merced River.
"Lung-u-tu-ku'-ya, Ribbon Fall.
"Po'-ho-no, Po-ho'-no (though the first is probably the more correct),
Bridal-Veil Fall. . . . This word is said to signify 'evil wind.' The
only 'evil wind' that an Indian knows of is a whirlwind, which is
poi-i'-cha or Kan'-u-ma.
"Tu-tok-a-nu'-la, El Capitan. 'Measuring-worm stone.' [Legend is given
elsewhere.]
"Ko-su'-ko, Cathedral Rock.
"Pu-si'-na, and Chuk'-ka (the squirrel and the acorn-cache), a tall,
sharp needle, with a smaller one at its base, just east of Cathedral
Rock. . . . The savages . . . imagined here a squirrel nibbling at the
base of an acorn granary.
"Loi'-a, Sentinel Rock.
"Sak'-ka-du-eh, Sentinel Dome.
"Cho'-lok (the fall), Yosemite Fall. This is the generic word for 'fall.'
"Ma'-ta (the canon), Indian canon. A generic word, in explaining which
the Indians hold up both hands to denote perpendicular walls.
"Ham'-mo-ko (usually contracted to Ham'-moak), . . . broken debris lying
at the foot of the walls.
"U-zu'-mai-ti La'-wa-tuh (grizzly bear skin), Glacier Rock . . . from
the grayish, grizzled appearance of the wall.
"Cho-ko-nip'-o-deh (baby-basket), Royal Arches. This . . . canopy-rock
bears no little resemblance to an Indian baby-basket. Another form is
cho-ko'-ni, . . . literally . . . 'dog-house.'
"Pai-wai'-ak (white water?), Vernal Fall.
"Yo-wai-yi, Nevada Fall. In this word is detected the root of Awaia, 'a
lake' or body of water.
"Tis-se'-yak, South Dome. [See legend elsewhere.]
"To-ko'-ye, North Dome, husband of Tisseyak. [See legend elsewhere.]
"Shun'-ta, Hun'-ta (the eye), Watching Eye.
"A-wai'-a (a lake), Mirror Lake.
"Sa-wah' (a gap), a name occurring frequently.
"Wa-ha'-ka, a village which stood at the base of Three Brothers; also
the rock itself. This was the westernmost village in the valley.
"There were nine villages in Yosemite Valley and . . . formerly others
extending as far down as the Bridal Veil Fall, which were destroyed in
wars that occurred before the whites came."
(3) The explanation given above is that made by Mr. Stephen Powers, in
Vol. 3, U. S. Geographical and Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountain
region, Part 2, Contributions to North American Ethnology, 1877.