Ahwahneechee People

Hello, we are the Ahwahneechee people. We want to tell you about our home. We have always lived in a beautiful valley. Our name for our home is Ahwahnee. It is a special name that means 'place of a gaping mouth.' When you look at our valley, you can see why. It has tall, tall walls made of rock. The walls look like a big open mouth. We also have amazing waterfalls. Water splashes and tumbles all the way down the rocky walls. This is our home, and we love it very much.

We found everything we needed in our home, Ahwahnee. The land gave us our food. We saw big oak trees all around us. These trees gave us acorns. We would gather all the acorns from the ground. Then, we made yummy food from them! We made warm soup and tasty bread for our families to eat. We also used plants to make things. Our families knew how to weave plants into special baskets. These baskets were very helpful. We used our woven baskets to collect our food and to help us cook.

Things are different now, but we, the Ahwahneechee people, are still here. Our families live in our beautiful valley and in towns all around it. We want our children to know our culture. We tell them our stories that have been passed down for a long, long time. We sing our songs together. We share our traditions so they will always be remembered. This is how we keep our culture strong for our children and for all the children who come after them.