When Yosemite Miwok elders were Paiutes

Even though Jay Johnson and his brother Burleigh have children who are currently enrolled members in Nevada Paiute tribes he does have Miwok ancestry. But the Miwok ancestry was not from Chief Tenaya. Johnson was not a direct descendent of Chief Tenaya on his Miwok side. Henry and Mary Ann Johnson, Jay Johnson's paternal grandparents stated on their 1928-1929 California Enrollment Applications that their chief was Chief Bautista, the same chief who was the ally of James Savage of the Mariposa Battalion and enemy of Chief Tenaya. It was Bautista who gave the term "Yosemite" to the Ahwahnee Indians, which in his language meant "The Killers" and said he was afraid to enter Yosemite Valley.
Jay Johnson's maternal great grandparent, Captain Sam, stated on his 1928-1929 California Indian Application that he and his wife Susie Sam were Mono Lake Paiutes and Johnson's maternal grandfather, Bridgeport Tom, said on his application he was a Mono Lake Paiute. None stated they were related to Chief Tenaya, who by the way was born at Mono Lake.

So apparently the Miwok elders of the group did not always identify themselves as Miwok, but as the original Yosemite Indian tribe, the Paiutes.

In this video on Youtube one of the elders of the Southern Sierra Miwuks is identified as a Paiute in a recent video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEmZtqCCELk