Jim Savage

Receiving little in the way of formal education, Savage quickly took to the outdoors, where he honed his gift for languages with local Fox and Sac Native Americans—a skill which would prove critical in his later dealings.

Weakened due to childbirth, Eliza succumbed to exposure to the cold and was interred in a shallow grave somewhere in the region of Lake Tahoe.

Savage had arrived too late to take part in the Bear Flag Rebellion, but he did participate in the Battalion's march from Monterey to San Luis Obispo which took place between November 17 and December 14, 1846.

Following the dissolution of Fremont's battalion, Savage eventually traveled to the San Joaquin Valley, where he established a number of trading posts along the Merced, Fresno, and Mariposa Rivers, living among the local Indian tribe, the Yokuts.

[9] During his time with the Yokuts, Savage eventually learned their language and, for the purposes of building political alliances, married several daughters of the tribal leaders of the tribes in the Sierra foothill region.

[8] In addition to the Yokuts, Savage also established amicable relations with the nearby Chowchilla tribe, befriending their chief, Jose-Juarez.

Due to his significant standing within the Native American community of California's Central Valley and the surrounding Sierras, the Indians trusted Savage to broker the trade of gold and goods on their behalf.

In doing so, Savage's influence and ability to intermingle with both Native Americans and whites elevated him to serve as the leader for many California Indian tribes.

Assuming the name given to him by the local Indians, "El Rey Huero," or, "The Blond King," Savage certainly lived up to his namesake.

Delighted by the city's metropolitan atmosphere and the influx of business and new excitements brought about by California's 1848 Gold Rush, Savage and Jose-Juarez took to the streets, visiting gambling dens and drinking heavily throughout the course of their stay.

As he later told Lafayette Bunnell, Savage was appalled that a Native would have the audacity to deride a white man in public and struck Jose-Juarez.

Following the group's return to Fresno River from San Francisco, reports of Indian raiding parties throughout the Central Valley began to materialize.

[13] Jose-Juarez (via Jill Cossley-Batt's Last of the California Rangers): What I have to say will come from my heart, and I will speak with a straight tongue, for the Great Spirit is looking at me and will hear me.

"[14]Lafayette Bunnell also provided a similar quote by Jose-Juarez recounted from his personal interactions with Savage during their service together in the Mariposa Battalion:He is telling you words that are not true.

As Indians began attacking settlements throughout the Central Valley, it became clear to Savage that these hostilities were not isolated but, rather, indicative of a larger general uprising among the Native American population.

The Indians allowed Savage and his men to leave then joined up with an even larger attack force of 200 Native Americans hiding in the surrounding foothills.

By the time Savage and his group returned to Mariposa, official word of the attack at the Fresno River trading post confirmed the Indians' information.

Savage was not selected for his military experience but, rather, for his familiarity with the "habits, customs, haunts, and language of the Indians, as well as of the country they would have to traverse.

"[19] As the fighting intensified, a Sierra Indian tribe, known as the Ahwahnechee, led by their Chief, Tenaya, had been assumed responsible for a number of raids on white settlements.

The grandeur of the scene was but softened by the haze that hung over the valley,—light as gossamer—and by the clouds which partially dimmed the higher cliffs and mountains.

This obscurity of vision but increased the awe with which I beheld it, and as I looked, a peculiar exalted sensation seemed to fill my whole being, and I found my eyes in tears with emotion.

[22]After camping the night at the foot of Bridalveil Fall, Bunnell credits himself for naming the valley after the Miwok word yosemite, which meant "those who kill."

While at Savage’s Reamer and I saw a grizzly bear tracks and went out to hunt him down getting lost in the mountains and not returning until the following evening, found our way to camp over an Indian trail that led past a valley enclosed by stupendous cliffs rising perhaps 3000 feet from their base and which gave us cause for wonder.

Here we began to encounter in our path many small streams which would shoot out from under these high snow-banks, and after running a short distance in deep chasms which they have through the ages cut in the rocks, precipitate themselves from one lofty precipice to another, until they are exhausted in rain below.

We were then obliged to keep along the top of the dividing ridge between two of these chasms which seemed to lead pretty near in the direction we were going—which was west,—in passing over the mountain, supposing it to run north and south.

[27]While the possibility of other non-indigenous travelers to enter Yosemite before Savage exists, the Mariposa expedition into the valley is the most well-documented account.

Savage publicly denounced the action to pacify the tribes, and called upon the United States Indian Commissioners to conduct an inquiry.

The actor Lane Bradford was cast as James Savage in the 1959 episode, "The Blonde King", on the syndicated anthology series, Death Valley Days, hosted by Stanley Andrews.