Last Friday, we improvised a parlor game during a visit to Sarah's parents’ house. They've got tons of books on California history, including a gem called California Place Names: The Origin and Etymology of Current Geographical Names by one Erwin Gudde, a Cal professor and friend of Sarah's fam. There wasn't much "game" to the game; someone shouted out a city or county or river name, and then we all offered theories about its origin before flipping to its entry in the book and reading aloud. A sample. Yosemite:
From the Southern Sierra Miwok yohhe' meti or yosse' meti [meaning] "they are killers," derived from yoohu- [meaning] "to kill," evidently a name given to the Indians of the valley by those outside it … Edwin Sherman claimed discovery of the valley in the spring of 1850, naming it "The Devil's Cellar." In March of 1851, it was entered by the Mariposa Battalion and named at the suggestion of LH Bunnell: "I then proposed that we give the valley the name of Yo-sem-i-ty, as it was suggestive, euphonious, and certainly American; that by so doing, the name of the tribe of Indians which we met leaving their homes in this valley, perhaps never to return, would be perpetuated."
There's so much information in here that it's hard to know where to start, but (1) Yes, majestic wilderness should be called things like "they are killers." This should be a requirement for any place that is rugged and majestic and awe-inspiring. What words can match landscapes like these? Those that involve violent death, for starters. (2) I can guess at why were the Indians leaving, "perhaps never to return," but this seems like a detail that should be, say, expanded. (3) The "y" at the end, for my money, makes more sense. It was replaced by an "e" in 1852 by a Lt. Tredwell Moore. No explanation is given as to why; the implication is, why not? More on Yosemite here, but the whole book is pretty great.
2 replies on “Origins & etymologies / Yosemite”
Oddly if you go to Yosemite National Park you will see signs talking about the original Indians of Yosemite. On those signs in the Park you will see Miwoks as the original Native people. There is even a Yosemite Miwok village that was created in the 1970s. But if you read the book "The Discovery of Yosemite" by Dr. Lafayette H. Bunnell, the only man to meet and write about the original Indians of Yosemite Valley, he wrote that the Chief Tenaya was "The Founder of the Paiute Colony of Ahwahnee". He also wrote that Tenaya spoke Paiute. You see in olden times Paiutes and Miwoks were enemies. So when the white militia came to the western border of Yosemite to clear out the hostile Indians out of the Sierra Nevada, because they kept stealing from and attacking the early white gold miners who ventured into area looking for gold. The leader of the white militia was James Savage and his trading post was one of the places that was attacked and burned down. At the time James Savage had many wives from the Miwok and Yokut tribes and many of his workers where from those tribes. So Savage was put in charge and the Miwoks were the scouts who helped located and capture the original Indian people of Yosemite, the Paiutes of Ahwahnee. When James Savage and the militia asked the leader of the Miwoks, Chief Bautista, he said "We are afraid to enter the Valley, because there are witches and wizards in the Valley". Bautista proceeded to give the name which meant "They are Killers" in his Miwok language for the valley of the Ahwahnee, because they were afraid to enter Yosemite. That is how the name Yosemite came to be from the scouts of Mariposa Battalion. But if you go into Yosemite you will see that the Park and Federal government has given the title of original Indians of Ahwahnee to those who were afraid of the original Indians of Yosemite and who were in fact the scouts for the militia. You are now one of the few people to know the true story of the name Yosemite, which in Miwok means "They are Killers". Why would you call yourself the killers if you were the same tribe?
Half Dome is Tissayakka or Girl-Cry (Crying Girl).
Tenaya is a translation of "our father".