The people Indigenous to the Yosemite region when whites arrived were the Ahwahneechee tribe. Ahwahneechee folklore relates a story of giants called Oo-el-en or Uwulin who came into the Yosemite Valley many years before the white man.
The Oo-el-en, like the sitecah of nearby Nevada, were claimed to be cannibalistic giants who ate the meat of the Indians. Oo-el-en would catch the adults and cut them into bite-size pieces, hanging their meat in the sun to dry into jerky. The legend says that the Ahwahneechees finally killed the giants and burned their bodies. [The Ahwahneechee are believed to be extinct, or fully assimilated and no longer exist as a tribal entity]
The myths and legends of the Ahwahneechee was similar to the other Amerindians of the region {Miwok}. It was believed by the natives that the earth was re-peopled six successive times. The first world was dominated by a cannibal giant Uwulin who gradually devoured its inhabitants until a Fly discovered a vulnerable spot in his heel—like that of the Greek Achilles—and destroyed the malefactor.
This legend may or may not be relative to the ancient Humans who inhabited the Yosemite prior to the Amerindian, a example of which is the Martindale Mummies.
Indians of the Yosemite Valley and Vicinity: Their History, Customs and Traditions
