Description
Kucad?kad? means "eaters of the brine fly pupae" while the tribe itself calls themselves Kootzaduka’a. The Yosemite-Mono Lake Paiute group trace the origins of the Ahwahnichi, the original inhabitants of the park, to Chief Tenaya’s group, which is the band documented in Bunnell’s accounts. Andrews said that Tenaya led a band of Paiutes that migrated from the Mono Lake area and settled in villages in Yosemite. The Kutzadika’a Tribe has been seeking federal recognition for many years, but so far legislators who have introduced bills for federal recognition have not been successful in moving them forward.
Language
The Kucad?kad? speak the Northern Paiute language, which is in the Numic branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family.
Culture
Knowledge of the land and knowing when to hunt and harvest helped the Kutzadika’a live in the Mono Basin for countless centuries. The following traditional knowledge is still alive and well today. In the autumn the people would move to pinyon camps in the hills north or east of Mono Lake. Here they would camp and collect pinyon pine nuts, a highly nutritious food with a balance of fat, protein, and carbohydrates. Because of its fat content, the nut could be easily stored, providing a reliable food source throughout the winter months when food was scarce. Long before the first white settlers arrived in the Mono Basin, the Kutzadika’a would also hunt pronghorn antelope by driving them into corrals.