Frequently Asked Questions About Yosemite

CULTURAL HISTORY

Can I take this arrowhead, old bottle, etc. home?
Where are the Indians?
What does the word "Yosemite" mean?
How was Yosemite National Park established?
What was the Firefall?

Can I take this arrowhead, old bottle, etc. home?
Everything in the park must be left exactly where it is found. This includes arrowheads, coins, items from old garbage dumps, etc. An historic object has most of its significance tied to the setting in which it was found and its relationship to other objects around it. If a visitor reports finding something, contact a park ranger or archeologist with the object's location and description. The use of metal detectors is strictly prohibited in the park.

Where are the Indians?
Native people have lived in the Yosemite area for thousands of years. The most recent native people, the Ahwahneechee, lived here for the past several centuries. However, they were violently driven from Yosemite Valley in 1851 by some of the newly-arrived European Americans. During the following 20-30 years, some individuals and families returned to the area. Many worked for the early innkeepers. Today, some of their descendants work for the National Park Service and park concessionaires. A larger number of Indian people live in the surrounding counties. The Ahwahneechee are not yet federally recognized and so have not received any compensation in the form of money nor land for their loss of the Yosemite area.

What does the word "Yosemite" mean?
"Yosemite" is derived from a Southern Miwok word. It is clear that the early European-Americans first used the term "Yosemite" to refer to the Indian people who were reported to live in a yet-undiscovered mountain stronghold. Only in 1851, when the Mariposa Battalion first entered the Valley in search of the Yosemite Indians, did they coin Yosemite as a place name. Yosemite is derived from a Miwok word "Yehemite," which translates "some among them are killers." This is probably how Mariposa-area Indians referred to the people who lived in Yosemite Valley. Many southern Miwok people in Yosemite intermarried with Paiute people from the eastern Sierra. Traditionally, Paiute and Miwok were enemies. Thus, when Mariposa Indians referred to people in the Valley, they commented that some among them (the Paiute) were killers.

Another interpretation is that when Chief Tenaya was asked by the Mariposa Battalion, what do you call yourselves? He replied Yohemite, "some among them are killers." Meaning, some among the whites, the Mariposa Battalion, were killers.

How was Yosemite National Park established?
Yosemite was set aside as a natural preserve in 1864 when Abraham Lincoln signed the Yosemite Grant, which gave guardianship of Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove to the State of California. California accepted the Grant and selected Galen Clark as its first guardian in 1866.

Yosemite National Park was established in 1890 through the leadership of John Muir and others. The national park surrounded but did not include the state-controlled Yosemite Grant lands. It took the efforts of John Muir, President Theodore Roosevelt and others to persuade California to recede the 1864 Yosemite Grant back to the federal government in 1905. Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove were formally added to the national park in 1906. Since then, there have been numerous additions and deletions to form the present-day park boundary.

Yosemite Theater programs in which actor Lee Stetson portrays John Muir help tell these stories (see Yosemite Today for schedule).

What was the Firefall?
The first time smoldering coals were pushed off Glacier Point in the night to create a cascade of fire down to the Valley was in 1871 or 1872. The event was revived by David Curry in about 1900 to entertain Camp Curry guests. The Firefall was ended by order of the Director of the National Park Service on January 25, 1968, due to its inappropriateness and several problems it caused:
• Meadows were damaged by thousands of nightly spectators trampling plants and compacting soils.
• Red fir bark was best suited to making the glowing embers. This bark had to be collected at greater and greater distances from Glacier Point. This was altering the nutrient cycling of red fir forest areas and was very expensive.
• Traffic jams were occurring in the eastern portion of the Valley, compromising public safety if fire or ambulance service was required.
• Hundreds of years' worth of lichen growth was burned off the cliff face as the embers cascaded down.