AHWAHNEE IS AN INTERESTING WORD

Late in the summer of 1957 dad rented an older house located in the middle of a small ranch in Ahwahnee, California. We lived there for several months while he was building our new home in nearby Oakhurst (previously known as Fresno Flats).

Can you find Ahwahnee and Fresno Flats on this 1908 map above?

It’s hard to find Ahwahnee on today’s maps, and even when I lived there it was little more that a wide spot in the road on old California Highway 49.

Ahwahneechee Yosemite Indians called themselves Ahwahneechee “People of Ahwahnee.”

“Ahwahnee”, their name for Yosemite Valley, which was their home, means “mouth” because the valley walls resemble a gaping bear’s mouth.

The Ahwahneechee at the time of discovery by Europeans was a mixed tribe of Northern Paiute, Southern Sierra Miwok, and other Native Americans.

MEETING INDIAN JOE AND FINDING SANDY

I don’t know why I thought of it this morning, but the day we arrived in Ahwahnee we pulled in to our little gravel road well after dark, so dad unloaded my horse Sandy from our horse trailer, and turned him loose because he knew the little ranch was completely fenced in. 

The next morning I was up early and went out the find and check on my red dun, Sandy.

I was walking though head-high manzanita, which was typical of the area, when I rounded a bend in our dirt road and almost ran into a very old Indian gent. I didn’t have any idea what to say so I said, “How!,” and immediately felt pretty dumb.

The old gent smiled, and said “howdy,” and asked if I was looking for my horse? 

What happened next really shocked me. The old gent, who I later came to know as Indian Joe, whistled and almost instantly a beautiful black and white paint horse came trotting up the road with my Sandy following him.

I’d give a heap to go back and continue that conversation. 

NIPINNAWASEE IS ANOTHER FUN WORD

Nipinnawasee is another wide spot in Highway 49, just a little west of Ahwahnee, and is located 1 mile southeast of Miami Mountain in the Sierra Nevada.

Nipinnawasee was named about 1908 by Edgar B. Landon who brought the name from Michigan, where, according to the Native Americans of his native district, it means "plenty of deer".

It turns out "plenty of deer" was a fact. We saw deer in the yard around the rental house in Ahwahnee every day, in fact, I shot my first deer while living in Ahwahnee, but that’s another story.

One man's meat is another man's poison

https://a-drifting-cowboy.blogspot.com/2011/10/one-mans-meat-is-another-mans-poison.html