Editing Ahwahnechee (section)

==History==
The Awani lived in Yosemite Valley for centuries.<ref>Mazel, p. 97</ref> It is believed that they may have lived in the area for as long as 7,000 years. They were primarily Mono, and bordered on the north, south and west by various Miwok tribes. They routinely traded with the Paiute tribe across the mountains to the east.<ref name="nps" />

=== Initial contacts ===
European-American contact began after 1833. In 1850 a settler named James D. Savage set up a mining camp down below the valley, and spent most of his time mining for gold and trading with the few other white men in the area. He took several Indian wives and developed influential relations with the nearby Native people. Later that year, Savage's camp and post were attacked by the Ahwahnechee. Savage had moved into the Ahwahnechee land and effectively disrupted the lives of every Ahwahnechee. The Ahwahnechee raided his supplies, and killed two of his men. This, in turn, sparked the Mariposa Indian War of 1850 to 1851. In 1851, during the [[Mariposa War]], [[California State Militia]] troops of the [[Mariposa Battalion]] burned Ahwahnechee villages and took their food stores.<ref>Mazel, p. 100</ref> 

The state militia with Savage as their major and the Indian Commissioners from Washington were called out to either convince or force the Native people to sign treaties. Six tribes made agreements with the government to accept reservation land further down into the foothills. One of the tribes that refused to meet was the Ahwahnechees. When the soldiers, led by Savage, moved towards their camp to force them out, their chief, Teneiya, finally appeared alone and attempted to conceal the location and number of his people. Major Savage told Teneiya that he would travel to the valley to find his people. Chief Teneiya said that he would go back and return with his tribe. When the chief appeared again Savage noticed that there were very few of the Native people present. He asked the chief where the rest of his people were, and Teneiya denied having any more people than were there at the moment. Savage was convinced that if he found the rest of the tribe he could persuade them to come with him back to the negotiations. The Major took some men with him to the north through the mountains and came upon the valley. This was the first entry into Yosemite Valley by any white men. Camping that night the men debated what to call the valley they had just discovered. They agreed upon the name that the white men had already called the tribe, Yosemite. The date was March 25, 1851.<ref name="Bingaman">{{cite book |date=1966 |last1=Bingaman |first1=John W. |title=The Ahwahneechees: A Story of the Yosemite Indians |publisher= Digitized by Dan Anderson |id=First published: Lodi, California: End-Kian Publishing Company |edition=2004 online |lccn=66-007879 |url=https://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/the_ahwahneechees/}} <http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/the_ahwahneechees/chapter_1.html></ref>
Once they reached the village of Teneiya's people a search was made but no more Indians were found there or in the valley at all. The soldiers returned to the meeting place but Chief Teneiya and the part of the tribe that was already in their custody escaped and returned to the mountains.

That May, a second expedition of militia traveled north to capture the old chief and his band once and for all. Only a few warriors, among them two of Chief Teneiya's sons, were found. The chief was eventually brought in to find that his sons had been shot for trying to escape. Within a few days the chief also tried to escape by jumping into the river.

With the recapture of Chief Teneiya the rest of the band was easily found and brought to the Fresno reservation in the foothills where they stayed long enough to regain their strength and petitioned for their freedom to return to their mountain home. This was granted and they returned to their secluded valley of "Ahwahnee".<ref name="Bingaman"/>

In 1852, a Mariposa expedition of US federal troops heard a report that Ahwahnechee Indians killed two European-American miners at Bridalveil Meadows. Soldiers were again dispatched and the troops executed five Ahwahnechee men.<ref>Mazel, pp. 98–99</ref> Later, the tribe fled over the mountains to shelter with a neighboring people, the Mono tribe. They stayed the year and then returned to their native valley taking with them horses stolen from the hospitable Monos who soon followed seeking revenge, killing Chief Teneiya and all but eight of the young braves and taking all the women and children captive.

=== Later history ===
[[Chief Teneiya]] (d. 1853) was a leader in Yosemite Valley. His father was Ahwahnechee.{{sfn|Bunnell|1892|loc=ch. XVIII}} He led his band away from Yosemite to settle with [[Paiute]]s in eastern California.<ref>Mazel, p. 99</ref> Tenaya has descendants living today.

The U.S. federal government evicted Yosemite Native people from the park in 1851, 1906, 1929, and 1969.<ref name=m162>Mazel, p. 162</ref>

Jay Johnson of the [[Mariposa County, California|Mariposa]] Indian Council identifies as an Ahwahnechee descendent.<ref name=m162/>