December 20, 2018 - The Yosemite Gateway Partners January 10th Winter 2019 Quarterly Meeting will feature Native American tribal news from inside Yosemite and beyond the park boundary.  Updates on the Sierra Mono Museum in North Fork and important information on the re-creation of the roundhouse in Wahhoga, the last Indian Village in Yosemite, will be presented directly by tribal representatives.

 

The Yosemite Gateway Partners (YGP) is a closely-cooperative association of the National Park Service, Yosemite National Park's Concessionaire Yosemite Hospitality (a division of Aramark) and Yosemite's many gateway communities.

 

Nearly fifty years after it was destroyed, Wahhoga (which means "village" in Miwuk) is now being recreated on its original site in Yosemite Valley.  The foundation for the roundhouse has been lain and future plans call for a sweat lodge, acorn granaries, 15 umachas (cedar bark dwellings) and other traditional structures.  The January 10th YGP meeting will present former occupants of Wahhoga - which was last inhabited in 1969.  The recent decision to allow for the restoration of Wahhoga, first requested more than 41 years ago by members of the native community who lived there - is considered a spiritual return to their home.

 

North Fork's Sierra Mono Museum is the second-oldest native museum in the state of California.  Its impressive collection of Mono basketry is considered to be one of the largest in existence and the importance of that collection was one of the reasons the museum was awarded a Federal HUD Indian Development Block Grant in 2016. That grant is currently allowing for upgrading and renovation of the the museum, which first opened in 1971 after historic collections began to be obtained in 1966.   A tribal member of the North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians and past board member of the Sierra Mono Museum will be on hand.

The YGP January 10th 2019 Winter Quarterly Meeting is a free event, open to all.  Advance online registration is required by Friday, January 4. The meeting will be held in the Garden Terrace Room at Yosemite Valley Lodge from 10:00 AM to 2:30 PM; the meeting will be preceded by a one-hour networking opportunity beginning at 9:00 AM.   An optional $25 buffet luncheon catered by Yosemite Hospitality is available only via the online registration form, and must be made prior to Friday, January 4.   Following that luncheon, the floor will be turned over at 1:00 PM to Yosemite National Park Superintendent Michael Reynolds and staff, for an up-to-date, up-close-and-personal 90-minute interactive report on the latest information from Yosemite National Park.

Now in its 15th year of existence and its 9th year as an incorporated non-profit, YGP is a partnership of government agencies, non-profit organizations, tribes, individuals and businesses that acknowledge the interdependence of Yosemite National Park and the surrounding communities, and collaborate on and address issues of regional importance to create sustainable cultural, natural and economic prosperity.   Governed by an 11-member Board of Directors, YGP also serves as an information and communications clearinghouse to insure effective information exchange between the park and its partners, as well as between the gateway communities and counties surrounding Yosemite National Park.  

 

Please visit to make online reservations (required for attendance and for optional luncheon) by January 4: https://tinyurl.com/YGPWinter2019