Bridalveil Fall with a double rainbow. The indigenous people who lived in this part of Yosemite Valley were the Pohonochees. The Pohonochees were a group of Paiutes who lived on the south side of the River Merced. The Ahwahneechees lived on the north side.
Their name for the fall was Pohono (Po-ho-no) meaning “evil wind” (or sometimes translated as “puffing wind”). The fear of the fall was built on this legend:
On a soft, spring day, the women of the valley were collecting grasses along the creek near the top of the fall, for weaving their baskets. One of the young maidens ventured near the edge of the water to gather some overhanging grasses, Here she stepped on a mossy rock set there by Pohono, the Evil Spirit who inhabits the mist. In the twinkling of an eye, she was snatched into the fall, never to be seen again. Her companions were horrified and, fearing the same fate, ran back to the village to raise the alarm. A band of young braves immediately set out on foot to the fall. Despite all their searches, they could not find the maiden.
Her spirit, like others before, had been imprisoned by Pohono. There her spirit would remain until she succeeded in luring some other unfortunate to their doom. Only then would her spirit be released to return to her spiritual home with the Great Spirit of the West.
The Pohonochees and Ahwahneechees were the indigenous people who lived in Yosemite. They were driven out of their homelands during the Mariposa War of 1850/51, during the California Gold Rush. Their tragic and true story is re-told in the historical fiction, Great Spirit of Yosemite: The Story of Chief Tenaya.