Yosemite Indian Petition to the United States (c.1891)
Unknown, Yo-Semite Indian Nation, Mono Indian Nation, Piute Indian Nation. 1891. Yosemite Indian Petition to the United States (c.1891)
Petition from the Yosemite, Mono and Paiute Indian Nations to the United States' President and Congress for Aid and Assistance. The author of this petition is unknown. Non of the petition signers were literate enough to author the petition. The author is thought to be Yosemite artist Charles Dormon Robinson (1847-1933), as he also submitted a similar petition to Congress and transmitted this petition. Robinson was an outspoken man and once said "It takes a crank to move the world, and I would rather be a crank than a nonentitiy". This petition originally appeared as "Petition to the Senators and Representatives of the Congress of the United States In the Behalf of the Remnants of the former Trib4es of the Yosemite Indians Praying for Aid and Assistance", 1891 Report of the Acting Superintendent (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1891). This report is in the "National Archives Resource Section, Yosemite File, General Correspondence 1878-1891, Box 146". This report may aslo be in the Yosemite Research Library. The original petition is at the National Archives (NA), Washington, D.C., in Letters Received by the Office of the Secretary of the Interior Relating to National Parks, 1872-1907 (Yosemite), Record Group (RG) 79. The petition is reprinted in Edward D. Castillo, "Petition to Congress on Behalf of the Yosemite Indians", Journal of California Anthropology 5(2):271-277 (Winter 1978). Mr. Castillo states in his article that "Captain A.E. Wood, Acting Superintendant of Yosemite, wrote the Secretary of Interior in August of 1891 concerning the petition, arguing against compensation for the Ahwahneechees (1891 Report of the Acting Superintendent). Castillo also identifies Robinson as the probable author of the petition. Biographies for many of the petitioners are in "Biographies of Indians Past and Present", the Ahwahneechees by John Bingaman (1966) and in "Yosemite Indian Chiefs". Furthermore many petitioners appear in the Census of Non-reservation California Indians, 1905-1906.