Sacred Texts Native American California Index Previous Next
Uncounted flowers have blossomed and faded, and unnumbered snows have come and gone since Loi-ya, a beautiful maiden of the Ah-wah-nee-chees, and her mother were gathering grass seeds in the Po-ho-no meadow beyond the top of the Valley. They had filled their baskets and were returning over the old trail leading down from Patill-ima (Glacier Point), to their camp in the Valley, when Loi-ya, who was ahead of her mother, stumbled over a rock in the trail and fell over the cliff and was never seen again. Her mother was heartbroken and refused to come down again t o the Valley, saying that she must wait there for her daughter to return. But Loi-ya did not come and her mother waited and waited, and while she waited she grew old and bowed with sorrow. After many long years had passed and still the mother waited, The Great Spirit took pity on her grief and turned her into granite. And there in the shadow
of Sentinel Rock she may still be seen today, awaiting the return of her beloved Loi-ya.