ABSTRACT
The story of Yosemite begins in a deep valley in California, later to be lauded as a natural cathedral. However, even though the gold rush was in full swing nearby, it went unremarked by Euro-Americans until 1851 when mining entrepreneur James business had been disrupted by Indian raids, happened upon the valley. He led a volunteer militia which pursued the American Indians—Miwok/Ahwahneechee—into the valley where they had set up camps. Even in the frenzy of this pursuit, one of the members of the battalion, Lafayette Bunnell, recalled the religious emotions and thoughts that were aroused by the “mysterious grandeur of the scenery.” He cringed at the coarse jokes of those around him, “as if a sacred subject had been ruthlessly profaned, or the visible power of Deity disregarded.” In response to the sense of the sacred he had experienced, he sought a worthy name for the valley but rejected foreign and even scriptural suggestions as inadequate. “An American name would be the most appropriate; … I could not see any necessity for going to a foreign country for a name for American scenery—the grandest that had ever yet been looked upon. That it would be better to give it an Indian name than to import a strange and inexpressive one; that the name of the tribe who had occupied it, would be more appropriate”—so he proposed to name the valley Yo-sem-i-ty. This, he said, is truly an American name. 1 In spite of the honor offered by the naming, the Native Americans were evicted and the Euro-American story of Yosemite began. 2
