When Tenaya was questioned as to the route and distance he said that the snow was so deep that the horses could not go through it.

Old Tenaya was taken along as guide.
When the party had gone about half-way to the Valley they met the Yosemites on their way to the camp on the south fork.

There were only seventy-two of them and when the old chief was asked what had become of the rest of his band, he replied, "This is all of my people that are willing to go with me to the plains.

All the rest have gone with their wives end children over the mountains to the Mono and Tuolumne tribes." Savage told Tenaya that he was not telling the truth, for Indians could not cross the mountains in the deep snow, and that he knew they must still be at his village or hiding somewhere near it.

The tribe had been estimated to number over two hundred.