Madera Heritage Quarterly Last Survivors Part –5- :Like most women, and her valley ancestresses, she was eternally feminine. When one elderly woman asked how old she was, aged TABUCE replied promptly, “ I am 16—how old are you?” LUCY PARKER TELLES succeeded TABUCE as basket maker and visitor attraction in the late 1940’s. Her grandmother, SUZIE SAM, Scorned white men’s housing for life in the labyrinth Indian Caves of the Valley. LUCY, had lived at the mouth of those caves for a time, and used the grinding hole for preparing acorn meal. After living for years in poverty, in a bark humanacha, she began to weave baskets in the 1920’s. This brought her and her family comparative wealth and fame. She spent four years on an enormous basket that was three feet high and over nine feet around. It took first prize in the 1939 World’s Fair in San Francisco and was admired by million. It and many other specimens are on display in the Yosemite Museum. Fine basket weaving was the hallmark of the Ahwahneeches. They were closely woven, of many practical types and uses, and decorative as useful. In the 1960’s the dying art of basket weaving was revived by JULIA PARKER, a POMO Indian who married Ralph PARKER, a PIUTE, and lives in Yosemite Valley. Summer visitors are impressed with her attractive quiet charm and her demonstrations of ancient customs. It seems fitting that a few Indians live, as did the original inhabitants within Ah-wah’-nee, “deep, grassy valley.” -End- --(Comment) There are pictures of Mary, Tabuce and Lucy Telles in this article. The quality is poor but I will scan them if anyone wishes.