Yosemite and the First National Park — huffingtonpost.com

On March 27, 1851, a gold miner named James Savage, led a group of militia into the rugged Sierra Nevada mountains of central California in search of Tenaya, chief of the Ahwahneeche people. The tribes people had burned Savage's trading post, so in revenge, Savage formed the Mariposa Battalion and ordered his armed men up the Merced River. Every time they encountered a Native American camp, they burned it, destroyed its provisions and drove the people from the land.

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