When difficulties arose, they were usually settled peacefully by arbitration, in a grand council of the chiefs and head men of the tribes involved, without resorting to open hostilities.
OTHER TRIBES.
Other bands of Indians in the vicinity of the Yosemite Valley were the Po-ho-nee'-chees who lived near the headwaters of the Po-ho'-no or Bridal Veil Creek in summer, and on the South Fork of the Merced' River in winter, about twelve miles below Wawo'na; the Po-to-en'-cies, who lived on the Merced River; Wil-tuc-um'-nees, Tuol'-unme River; Noot'-choos and Chow-chil'-las, Chowchilla Valley; Ho-na'-ches and Me'-woos, Fresno River and vicinity; and Chook-chan'-ces, San Joaquin River and vicinity.
These tribes, including the Yosemites, were all somewhat affiliated by common ancestry or by intermarriage, and were similar in their general characteristics and customs.

They were all called by the early California settlers, "Digger Indians," as a term of derision, on account of their not being good fighters, and from their practice of digging the tuberous roots of certain plants, for food.
INDIAN WAR OF 1851.
Dr.Bunnell, in his book already referred to, has given the soldiers' and white men's account of the cause of the Indian war of 1851, but a statement of the grievances on the part of the Indians, which caused the uniting of all the different tribes in the mining region adjacent to Yosemite, in an attempt to drive the white invaders from their country, has never been published, and a brief account of these grievances may be interesting.
AGGRESSIONS BY THE WHITE SETTLERS.
The first parties of prospecting miners were welcomed by the Indians with their usual friendliness and hospitality toward strangers--a universal characteristic of these tribes,--and the mining for gold was watched with great interest.

They soon learned the value of the gold dust, and some of them engaged in mining, and exchanged their gold at the trading stations for blankets and fancy trinkets, at an enormous profit to the traders, and peace and good feeling prevailed for a short time.
The report of the rich gold "diggin's" on the waters of the Tuolumne, Merced, Mariposa, Chowchilla, and Fresno Rivers, soon spread, and miners by thousands came and took possession of the whole country, paying no regard to the natural rights or wishes of the Indians.
Some of the Indian chiefs made the proposition that if the miners would give them some of the gold which they found in their part of the country, they might stay and work.

This offer was not listened to by the miners, and a large majority of the white invaders treated the natives as though they had no rights whatever to be respected.

In some instances, where Indians had found and were working good mining claims, they were forcibly driven away by white miners, who took possession of their claims and worked them.
Moreover, the Indians saw that their main sources of food supply were being rapidly destroyed.