They worked toward the north. At
last Hawk and Crow met at Mount Shasta. Then their work was done. But
when they looked at their mountains, Crow's range was much larger than
Hawk's.
Hawk said to Crow, "How did this happen, you rascal? You have been
stealing earth from my bill. That is why your mountains are the
biggest." Crow laughed.
Then Hawk chewed some Indian tobacco. That made him wise. At once he
took hold of the mountains and turned them around almost in a circle. He
put his range where Crow's had been. That is why the Sierra Nevada Range
is larger than the Coast Range.
Yosemite Valley
(Explanatory) (3)
Mr. Stephen Powers claims that there is no such word in the Miwok
language as Yosemite. The valley has always been known to them, and is
to this day, when speaking among themselves, as A-wa'-ni. This, it is
true, is only the name of one of the ancient villages which it
contained; but by prominence it gave its name to the valley, and in
accordance with Indian usage almost everywhere, to the inhabitants of
the same. The word Yosemite is simply a very beautiful and sonorous
corruption of the word for grizzly bear. On the Stanislaus and north of
it, the word is u-zu'-mai-ti; at Little Gap, o-so'-mai-ti; in Yosemite
itself, u-zu'-mai-ti; on the South Fork of the Merced, uh-zu'-mai-tuh. .
. .
"In the following list, the signification of the name is given whenever
there is any known to the Indians:
"Wa-kal'-la (the river), Merced River.
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