STEPHEN LYMAN
We represent the entire collection of Stephen Lyman.
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" AHWAHNEE - DEEP GRASSY VALLEY "
Stephen Lyman

96 s/n Giclee Canvas 18" x 46" $1495
1500 s/n Offset Paper 13" x 33" $279

The Yosemite people called Yosemite Valley Awooni or Owwo for (gaping) "mouth,"
referring to the appearance of the valley's walls from the village of Ahwahnee,
the largest and most powerful Indian village in the valley. The natives also called
themselves Ah-wah-ne-chee, or "dwellers of Ahwahnee."

Chief Tenaya tried to explain the meaning of "Ahwahnee" to white men by using
sign language, but was mistakingly interpreted as saying "deep grassy valley." In
his own language Tenaya was trying to sign "gaping mouth." In 1851, the US
government tried to drive the natives out of Ahwahnee, but Chief Tenaya
never submitted and never signed a treaty.

Naturalist and Sierra Club founder, John Muir, described Yosemite as "a place of rest,
a refuge from the roar and dust in which one gains the advantages of solitude.
This one noble park is big enough and rich enough for a whole life of study and
aesthetic enjoyment, as none can escape its charms of natural beauty." Muir's
sentiment is vividly portrayed in artist's Stephen Lyman's masterful "Ahwahnee."

 

Ahwahnee - Deep Grassy Valley - Stephen Lyman

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