204 



Sierra Club Bulletin 



after all there are only two sides, but that each of them has 

 four names: that the north side, inside, grizzly-bear side, and 

 land side are one and the same — namely, the side north of Mer- 

 ced River ; while the south side, outside, coyote side, and water 

 side are only so many different names for the side south of 

 Merced River. 



The names most commonly used by the Indians themselves 

 for the two sides are Oo-ho6-md-tdt ko-to-wahk (or Oo-hoo- 

 md-te ha-wa-ah) , the grizzly-bear side, and Ah-ha-leet ko-to- 

 wahk (or Ah-ha-le ha-wa-ah) , the coyote side — from Oo-hod- 

 ma-te, the bear, and Ah-ha-le, the coyote, respectively. 



It is not difficult to see how Oo-ho6-ma-te, the bear, an im- 

 portant personage among the early animal-people, might be 

 chosen to represent the land animals; but why Ah-ha-le, the 

 coyote, should stand for the water-people is not so obvious. For 

 the explanation one must look far back into the mythology of 

 these Indians, in which it appears that before there were any 

 real people in the world Ah-ha-le, the coyote-man, one of the 

 early divinities of the animal-people, came over the ocean from 

 beyond the sea — for which reason he is ranked with the water- 

 people. 



Returning to our more immediate subject, the village and 

 camp sites of Yosemite Valley, it is now easier to understand 

 the grouping employed by the Indians. Indians are naturally 

 methodical, and it is their custom to classify objects and places, 

 and in speaking of them to begin at a fixed point and proceed in 

 orderly sequence. Thus, in seeking the names of animals 

 and plants and of geographic locations, I have several times 

 provoked the undisguised disgust of my informant by not 

 putting my questions in what he or she deemed the proper 

 sequence. 



In enumerating the village and camp sites of Yosemite Val- 

 ley the Indians begin at the upper (or east) end of the north 

 side — the grizzly-bear side — and proceed westerly to Til-til'- 

 ken-ny at the lower end of the valley, and then cross the Mer- 

 ced to the south side — the coyote side — and return easterly to 

 the upper end. 



Following this sequence, the names and locations of the vil- 

 lages and camps are as follows : 



