Mono people

The Mono /ˈmoʊnoʊ/ are a Native American people who traditionally live in the central Sierra Nevada, the Eastern Sierra (generally south of Bridgeport), the Mono Basin, and adjacent areas of the Great Basin.

Culture and geography

Throughout recorded history, the Mono have also been known as "Mona," "Monache," or "Northfork Mono," as labeled by E.W. Gifford, an ethnographer studying people in the vicinity of the San Joaquin River in the 1910s. The tribe's western neighbors, the Yokuts, called them monachie meaning "fly people" because fly larvae was their chief food staple and trading article. That led to the name Mono.

The Mono referred to themselves as Nyyhmy in the Mono language; a full blooded Mono person was called cawu h nyyhmy.

Today, many of the tribal citizens and descendents of the Mono tribe inhabit the town of North Fork (thus the label "Northfork Mono") in Madera County. People of the Mono tribe are also spread across California in: the Owens River Valley; the San Joaquin Valley and foothills areas, especially Fresno County; and in the San Francisco Bay Area.