Ishi
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Native American Ishi was the last member of his tribe, the Yahi. ([ʔísχi], where the noun stem [ʔís-] means "man, person".) Ishi emerged from the mountains near Oroville, California on August 29, 1911 after the last of his family died, having lived his entire life outside of the European-American culture. Known as the "last wild Indian", Ishi was taken to the University of California in San Francisco for study and for his protection, where under the auspices of Alfred Kroeber he lived in and near the Museum of Anthropology in evident contentment until his death from tuberculosis in 1916. His language was recorded and studied in 1911 by Edward Sapir, who had previously done work on the northern dialects.
His story was popularized in a book by Theodora Kroeber, wife of Alfred L. Kroeber, who worked with her husband's notes and comments to create the story of a man she had never met. The book, Ishi in Two Worlds (ISBN 0520229401), was published after Alfred Kroeber's death in 1960.
In 2003, anthropologists Clifton Kroeber and Karl Kroeber, sons of Alfred L. Kroeber, edited a book together on the Ishi case, Ishi in Three Centuries (ISBN 0803227574). This is the first scholarly book on Ishi to contain essays by Indians, though Native writers such as Gerald Vizenor had been commenting on the case since the late 1970s. Ishi's story was updated by Duke University anthropologist Orin Starn in his book, Ishi's Brain: In Search of America's Last 'Wild' Indian, published in 2004 (ISBN 0-393-05133-1). Ishi's Brain follows Starn's quest for the remains of the last of the Yahi and understand what he meant to Americans then and modern Indians today.
Thanks to a campaign by Gerald Vizenor, the University of California, Berkeley has an "Ishi Court" on campus.
Ishi's real name was never known, because in his society it was taboo to say one's own name. Since he was the last member of his tribe, Ishi's real name died with him.
Ishi & Archery
Ishi, like most Native Americans of his time, was an excellent archer. Among his friends at the university was Dr. Saxton Pope, a physician called in to care for Ishi. The two became close friends. Dr. Pope was particularly fascinated by the bows and arrows Ishi made, and the practice of archery. Ishi taught Dr. Pope how to make the equipment and the two hunted together in the mountains in California. After Ishi's death, Dr. Pope continued with the archery that Ishi had taught him and went on to write the famous book Hunting with the bow and arrow. Many consider Dr. Pope to be the father of modern-day archery and archery hunting, but much of his knowledge and the origins of modern-day hunting can be traced to Ishi and his teachings.
External link
- Encyclopedia of North American Indians entry on Ishi
- Ishi's Brain: In Search of America's Last 'Wild' Indian Starn, Orin, New York: W.W. Norton, 2004. (ISBN 0393051331)ca:ishi