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Ishi

Ishi (c. 1861 – March 25, 1916) was the last known member of the Native American Yahi people from the present-day state of California in the United States. The rest of the Yahi (as well as many members of their parent tribe, the Yana) were killed in the California genocide in the 19th century. Ishi, who was widely described as the "last wild Indian" in the United States, lived most of his life isolated from modern North American culture, and was the last-known Native manufacturer of stone arrowheads. In 1911, aged 50, he emerged at a barn and corral, 2 mi (3.2 km) from downtown Oroville, California.

For other uses, see Ishi (disambiguation).

Ishi

c. 1861

Northern California Sierra Foothills, U.S.

March 25, 1916 (age 55–56)

University of California, San Francisco, U.S.[1]

Janitor

Ishi, which means "man" in the Yana language, is an adopted name. The anthropologist Alfred Kroeber gave him this name because in the Yahi culture, tradition demanded that he not speak his own name until formally introduced by another Yahi.[2] When asked his name, he said: "I have none, because there were no people to name me," meaning that there was no other Yahi to speak his name on his behalf.


Ishi was taken in by anthropologists at the University of California, Berkeley, who both studied him and hired him as a janitor. He lived most of his remaining five years in a university building in San Francisco. His life was depicted and discussed in multiple films and books, notably the biographical account Ishi in Two Worlds published by Theodora Kroeber in 1961.[3][4][5][6]

Archery[edit]

Ishi used thumb draw and release with his short bows.[57][58]

Similar case[edit]

Ishi's story has been compared to that of Ota Benga, an Mbuti pygmy from Congo. His family had died and were not given a mourning ritual. He was taken from his home and culture. During one period, he was displayed as a zoo exhibit. Ota shot himself in the heart with a borrowed pistol on March 20, 1916, five days before Ishi's death.[61]

The Last Yahi Indian Historical landmark, Oro Quincy Highway & Oak Avenue, Oroville, CA 95966[63][64]

[62]

Ishi is revered by as probably one of the last two native stone toolmakers in North America. His techniques are widely imitated by knappers. Ethnographic accounts of his toolmaking are considered to be the Rosetta Stone of lithic tool manufacture.[65]

flintknappers

Kroeber and Waterman's 148 recordings (totaling 5 hours and 41 minutes) of Ishi speaking, singing, and telling stories in the Yahi language were selected by the Library of Congress as a 2010 addition to the National Recording Registry. This is an annual selection of recordings that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[66]

wax cylinder

Writer and critic led a campaign to have the courtyard in Dwinelle Hall at the University of California, Berkeley renamed as "Ishi Court".[67]

Gerald Vizenor

The in northeastern California, believed to be the ancestral grounds of his tribe, is named in his honor.

Ishi Wilderness Area

an exceptionally large giant sequoia discovered by naturalist Dwight M. Willard in 1993, is named in his honor.

Ishi Giant

Ishi was the subject of a portrait relief sculpture by Thomas Marsh in his 1990 work, Called to Rise, featuring twenty such panels of noteworthy San Franciscans, on the facade of the 25-story high-rise at 235 Pine Street, San Francisco.

[68]

Anthropologists at the University of California, Berkeley wrote a letter in 1999 apologizing for Ishi's treatment.

[69]

, aired December 20, 1978, on NBC, with Eloy Casados as Ishi, written by Christopher Trumbo and Dalton Trumbo, and directed by Robert Ellis Miller.[70][71]

Ishi: The Last of His Tribe

(1992), with Graham Greene as Ishi, is a Home Box Office movie.[72][73]

The Last of His Tribe

Ishi: The Last Yahi (1993), is a documentary film by .[74][75][76]

Jed Riffe

In Search of History: Ishi, the Last of His Kind (1998), television documentary about him.

[77]

Yahi tribe lands, now a wilderness area located in the Lassen National Forest

Ishi Wilderness

the last known member of the Nicoleño tribe

Juana Maria

the last known member of an uncontacted tribe

Man of the Hole

and Demasduit, the last known Beothuk

Shanawdithit

Uncontacted peoples

Burrill, Richard L. (1983). . Anthro Company. ISBN 978-1-878464-01-9.

Ishi: America's Last Stone Age Indian

Burrill, Richard L. (2001). . Anthro Company. ISBN 978-1-878464-51-4.

Ishi Rediscovered

Burrill, Richard L. (2004). . Anthro Company. ISBN 978-1-878464-63-7.[88][89] Ishi in Oroville, eight days and seven nights, August 28 to September 4, 1911.

Ishi in His Second World: The Untold Story of Ishi in Oroville

Burrill, Richard L. (2011). Ishi's Untold Story in His First World, Parts I & II. Red Bluff, Calif.: The Anthro Company.  978-1-878464-27-9.[90][91]

ISBN

Ishi's Return Home: The 1914 Anthropological Expedition Story

Early California Laws and Policies Related to California Indians

Johnston-Dodds, Kimberly A. (2009). (PDF). California State University, Sacramento. Submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Master Of Arts in History (Public History)

Bearing Archival Witness to Euro-American Violence Against California Indians, 1847–1866: Decolonizing Northern California Indian Historiography

Kroeber, Karl

Redman, Samuel J. (2016). . Cambridge, Massachusetts. ISBN 978-0674660410.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)[94]

Bone rooms: from scientific racism to human prehistory in museums

(March 6, 1918). "Yahi Archery: An article on how Ishi, the last Yana indian, practiced archery: how he made his bow, his arrows, flaked arrow points, his method of shooting, how he hunted, etc". University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology. 13 (3): 103–152.

Pope, Saxton T.

Pope, Saxton T.

. Hunting with the Bow and Arrow at Project Gutenberg

Pope, Saxton T.

(December 1, 1974). "Hunting With Ishi – The Last Yana Indian". The Journal of California Anthropology. 1 (2).

Pope, Saxton T.

Starn, Orin

(2001). "Ishi Obscura". Hastings West Northwest J. Of Envtl. L. & Pol'y. 7 (3).

Vizenor, Gerald

Waterman, Thomas Talbot (January 1915). . Popular Science Monthly. Vol. 86. pp. 233–244.

"The Last Wild Tribe of California"

"Ishi, The Last Yahi Indian"

Richard Burrill. Archived November 27, 2021, at the Wayback Machine, Ishi Facts Website

"Synopsis of Ishi's Life"

. California Ethnographic Field Photographs. Calisphere.

"Ishi at Deer Creek, 1914, 221 Photographs"

Bauer, William (September 23, 2014). . Boom California. 4 (3). Fall 2014

"Stop Hunting Ishi"

. California Historical Society. August 29, 2016.

"This Day on August 29, 1911: A Survivor of American Indian Genocide Walks Out of the California Wilderness"

Elliott, Jeff (October 20, 2014). . Santa Rosa History.

"FINDING ISHI"

. The Bakersfield Californian. Bakersfield, California. September 2, 1911. p. 10.

"Ishi, Indian, Oroville, California, 1911"

(August 31, 2017). "This week in 1911 that Ishi emerged from the Sierra foothills. See bottom of linked NY Times article". Twitter.

Le Guin, Ursula K.

Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology


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