January 12, 2022
The Yana are a group of Native Americans indigenous to California; they are divided into four groups including the Yahi, the southernmost group. The Yahi lived in the Sierra Nevadas and, unfortunately, their lands were the closest to the gold fields, and with the California Gold Rush, they had to fight with the settlers for their territory. They also suffered the loss of their food supplies as they were hunter-gatherers and the gold rush killed fish, damaged water supplies, and caused the deer to leave the area. Not only did they bring smallpox and measles, they further decimated the Indians as they committed genocide during raids. Two raids in 1865 led by Robert Anderson, an Indian hunter, killed 70. Since the Yahis were already suffering from starvation, their population was reduced to less than 100. On August 6, 1866, Settlers raided a Yahi village, and the same year, the Yahis were massacred in a ravine. The next year, they were tracked to a cave and 33 were killed. Around 1871, four cowboys killed 30 Yahis in Kingsley cave. After this, their tribe, which had numbered 404 prior to the California Gold Rush, was presumed to be extinct.
During the Three Knolls Massacre in 1865, 40 Yahis were killed. Thirty-three escaped, but about half of them were killed by cattlemen. Ishi and his family were among the few remaining survivors, and they went into hiding for the next 44 years.
Surveyors Encountered Him In 1908
Surveyors discovered a camp inhabited by Ishi, his uncle, his younger sister, and his mother in 1908. Ishi fled with his uncle and sister; his mother was sick and remained behind, hidden in blankets. His sister and uncle never returned, and his mother died shortly after Ishi’s return. Ishi spent three more years alone in the wilderness.
Ishi Was Starving When He Emerged
When Ishi was 50, after wildfires, on August 29, 1911, he emerged from the wilderness at a barn and corral for a slaughterhouse, two miles from Oroville, California. He was starving and found by Floyd Hefner. Hefner, the son of the dairy owner who lived next door to the barn where Ishi emerged, had gone out to harness the horses for the ride into town. Sherriff J.B. Webber arrived and instructed the nineteen-year-old slaughterhouse worker, Adolph Kessler to handcuff him, which he did; Webber took the “wild man” into custody, and he was quickly dubbed “the last wild Indian in the United States." When Ishi caught the attention of University of California, Berkeley anthropology professors, they brought him to the Affiliated Colleges Museum, which was housed in an old law school building. While he was there, they studied him, and he worked as a janitor. He lived for the last five years in a university building.
He Never Revealed His Real Name
In the Yahi culture, an individual is not to speak his own name until he is formally introduced by another Yahi. He was asked his name, and responded “I have none because there were no people to name me.” No other Yahi remained to speak his name and so the anthropologist Alfred Kroeber gave him the name Ishi, which means “man” in the Yana language. It was Kroeber who suggested that he lives in the museum where he became a “living exhibit,” making tools, telling Yahi stories, and singing Yahi songs.
One of the anthropologists, Thomas Waterman, took the partial vocabularies of northern California Native American dialects and after trying to communicate with him using these languages, he discovered that some of the words of the Yana Indians were intelligible, and so they were able to communicate in a rudimentary fashion. Over time, their communication improved, and Ishi’s story came to light, including his estimated age. Ishi and Waterman became close friends, and he lived for three months with Waterman and his family in Berkeley starting in June 1915.
He Taught Them About The Yahi
In addition to working as a janitor, Ishi spent time describing tribal customs, and demonstrating traditional techniques in archery and woodcraft, as well as other wilderness skills. He also taught the anthropologists about the structure of the Yahi culture, describing family units, naming patterns, and what he knew of the Yahi ceremonies. He also shared his native language with them, as he was interviewed in his language, and it was recorded on wax cylinders which were studied by the linguist Edward Sapir. While he was sharing his culture with the world, Ishi adapted to modern society, riding trolley cars and exploring the Bay area.
He Became Friends With His Doctor
Because Ishi had not been exposed to diseases common in the European American population, he was sick frequently and was treated by a professor of medicine at UCSF, Saxton T. Pope. As their friendship developed, Ishi taught Pope to make bows and arrows and the pair hunted together.
He Died From Tuberculosis
He died on March 25, 1916, after contracting tuberculosis. Although his friends tried to prevent an autopsy as the body was to remain intact according to Yahi tradition, the doctors performed it before Waterman could stop them. His body was cremated along with grave goods: "one of his bows, five arrows, a basket of acorn meal, a box full of shell bead money, a purse full of tobacco, three rings, and some obsidian flakes." His remains were placed in a Pueblo pottery jar and interred at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Colma, California. His brain, however, was preserved and sent to the Smithsonian Institute. In accordance with the National Museum of the American Indian Act of 1989, it was repatriated to the descendants of the Redding Rancheria and Pit River tribes along with the rest of his remains.
His story did not end here though as later archeologists have studied the arrow points which he made. These arrow points seem to indicate that Ishi may have also had either Wintu or Nomlaki blood since Ishi’s arrow points are different from the ones excavated from the Yahi sites in the 1950s, but they are similar to those found in Nomlaki or Wintu sites. It seems that Ishi may have been culturally Yahi but learned to make arrow points from a relative who was not Yahi.