Le Grand Advocate, July 9, 1937
OLD TIME INDIAN DIES IN YOSEMITE
Johnny Wilson, one of the last of the old-time Yosemite Indians, died at his cabin at El Portal last week at an age estimated at ninety years.
Born at Bear Creek, Wilson's mother was a pure-blood Yosemite Indian and his father a pure-blood He-huh-the-tah, well known in early days as Lancisco. His grandfather was Too-took-a-noo-la who lived all year round in Yosemite Valley, and whose picture now hangs in the Yosemite Museum.
As a small child, Wilson came with his family to Yosemite Valley, then populated with a few indians and white settlers. He worked at gardening for James Lamon, pioneer homesteader in Yosemite. Johnny Wilson caught trout for Leidig's Lower Hotel which stood near the foot of the Four Mile Trail to Glacier Point. He visited Wawona before Galen Clark became Guardian of Yosemite Valley and the Big Trees - then a State Park.
For the past twenty years, Johnny Wilson - his hair white with age and his face wrinkled by time has lived a solitary existence in a cabin just west of the Park. He wished to be alone and enjoyed a carefree life where he could see, but not hear the thousands of visitors cars enroute [sic] to and from Yosemite Valley which was once his home.
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Contributed by Thomas & Paulette Hilk