Native American Legends
Historic Tradition of the Upper Tuolumne
A Miwok Legend
There is a lake-like expansion of the Upper Tuolumne some four
miles long and from a half mile to a mile wide, directly north of
Hatchatchie Valley.
It appears to have no name among Americans, but the Indians call
it 0-wai-a- nuh, which is manifestly a dialectic variation of a-wai'-a,
the generic word for "lake." Nat. Screech, a veteran mountaineer
and hunter, states that he visited this region in 1850, and at that
time there was a valley along the river having the same dimensions
that this lake now has. Again, in 1855, he happened to pass that
way and discovered that the lake had been formed as it now exists.
He was at a loss to account for its origin; but subsequently he
acquired the Miwok language as spoken at Little Gap, and while listening
to the Indians one day he overheard them casually refer to the formation
of this lake in an extraordinary manner. On being questioned they
stated that there had been a tremendous cataclysm in that valley,
the bottom of it having fallen out apparently, whereby the entire
valley was submerged in the waters of the river.
As nearly as he could ascertain from their imperfect methods of
reckoning time, this occurred in 1851; and in that year, while in
the town of Sonora, Screech and many others remembered to have heard
a huge explosion in that direction which they then supposed was
caused by a local earthquake.
On Drew's Ranch, Middle Fork of the Tuolumne, lives an aged squaw
called Dish-i, who was in the valley when this remarkable event
occurred. According to her account the earth dropped in beneath
their feet, and waters of the river leaped up and came rushing upon
them in a vast, roaring flood, almost perpendicular like a wall
of rock.
At first the Indians were stricken dumb, and motionless with terror,
but when they saw the waters coming, they escaped for life, though
thirty or forty were overtaken and drowned.
Another squaw named Isabel says that the stubs of trees, which
are still plainly visible deep down in the pellucid waters, are
considered by the old superstitious Indians to be evil spirits,
the demons of the place, reaching up their arms, and that they fear
them greatly.
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