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I’d been to Yosemite National Park before. But this time was special. Giant sequoia trees reach endlessly towards the sky, lush green meadows in valleys carved by glaciers long ago. It’s a long way from home, the grey and drizzly surrounds of urban Britain. Sunlight shimmers across the clear alpine lake, snow-capped mountains sketched across the summer sky. The setting is perfect. I’m at Tenaya Lake, high up in Yosemite’s alpine region, for a wedding. It’s a day of celebration, two families coming together as my mother finds love again after my father passed years before. But on this day, this moment of love would become the spark for the uniting of people across cultures. We arrive at the lake around midday, our wedding party of eight excited to share this experience together. But the story is about to take an unexpected twist. Pulling into the car park, the area is cordoned off, access to the lakeside barred by trailers and tents. We start to worry. What was happening at the lake? Could the wedding, months in planning, still go ahead? The groom decides to see what is happening. The minutes pass as we wait, thoughts turning to contingency plans. Then, my stepfather returns to the car, grinning. It was the annual gathering of a tribe of Mono Lake Paiute American Indians, returning to ancestral lands in Yosemite. He’d spoken to one of the tribe Elders, Jack, who’d agreed to allow access to the lakeside for the wedding to take place. We make our way to the lake, joined by a local Pastor, for the ceremony. Against the picture-postcard backdrop of Tenaya Lake, my mother and stepfather are married, a new chapter in our family story. Grateful to Jack for his generosity, we return to the camp to thank the tribe for helping make this special day possible. But then, another unexpected twist. Jack offers to perform a Blessing, a Paiute celebration of the marriage and joining of our families. At the lakeside, the tribe Elders gather. With a guitar in hand, Jack begins to sing a beautiful love song to the bridge and groom, before a young tribe member plays a traditional melody on panpipes. Then, the tribe Chief approaches. With a stick of sage, the Chief performs the Blessing, speaking sacred words to the Creator as the smoke drifts across the wedding party. I’m humbled by the significance of the moment, given intimate access to the ancient traditions of a tribe, a culture unique to our own. We were welcomed by people for whom at the start of the day we were unknown, yet by the end had formed a unique connection, a friendship, a bond. We return the next day to give a small token of our appreciation. It’s a Union Jack t-shirt, the closest representation of Britain we can find so far from home. Jack embraces the shirt, immediately wearing it as a sign of our companionship. We will return to Yosemite National Park again, to take in the scents of the forest, the sounds of the wildlife, the raw beauty of nature. But this time, our connection to this land will run far deeper.