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Today, seven Native American communities hold historic ties to the land. In 1864 Yosemite became a state park, and some Indigenous people took work at concessions and hotels, hoping to protect their right to remain in their ancestral homeland. Those who were not shot or captured hid in the hills. "The Ahwahanees would face death and starvation at Fresno Reservation, the treaty they signed never ratified by the US Senate," Madley notes. "The invaders marked their way with blood and ashes," historian Benjamin Madley writes, often burning villages and food stores. Bunnell was a member of the Mariposa Battalion that rode into the Yosemite Valley in 1851. Over 150 years ago, Lafayette Bunnell renamed it Vernal Fall.
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In 1996 Lonnie's father, Ron Kauk, completed the first ascent of Magic Line, the thin seam in the granite near the falls of Yan-o-pah (Little Cloud).
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With his left hand on the rock, Lonnie reached his other arm back into the cool breeze that swirled below the storied cliff.įor Lonnie, these walls are both home and heritage. Let me through." Below, water stirred in an amber pool. Almost in prayer, Lonnie whispered to the rock: "Please keep me safe. To the east, Lonnie Kauk hung on the granite, the first joints of his middle and index fingers snug in a narrow crack.Ī direct descendant of the Indigenous people of the Ahwahnee (the Miwok and Paiute people known as the Ahwahneechee), Lonnie grew up in Yosemite Valley as his mother, Lucy Parker, and her ancestors had for generations. Mist scattered in the wind, chilling the breeze. NOVEMBER 14, 2018: The crash and din of water smashing into rock echoed down the valley in a low thrum.