The Tragedy of Ishi, Contributed by @donkeypong

in #history7 years ago

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Note: This is the story of Ishi, a Native American man who was the last of his tribe. If you have read the recent tribute to author Ursula LeGuin on my @donkeypong blog, this is a connected story. LeGuin’s father, Professor Alfred Kroeber at the University of California, basically adopted Ishi and made him a part of the university’s Anthropology Department, employing him as a research assistant. As I discussed in the Ursula LeGuin post, both of her parents’ work in chronicling Native American cultures, languages, and legends had an impact on the worlds LeGuin created in her fantasy and science fiction novels.


California was a sleepy backwater until 1848, when gold was discovered there. Within a few years, hundreds of thousands of new residents had arrived in the Gold Rush, putting pressure on the state’s remaining tribes of Native Americans. Gold mining in the Sierra Nevada foothills deposited sediment into many of the rivers and streams, wrecking some prime fishing areas. Agriculture spread throughout the valleys; there were many more mouths to feed as more and more miners and other settlers arrived.

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Ishi's people were associated with the Yana language group, which you can see in the upper middle of this map.

State (and later federal) troops waged a war on the last remaining pockets of Native Americans, who the settlers did not understand and viewed as a security threat. Between this violence and the introduction of European diseases like smallpox, it was nothing short of an extermination. The traditional way of life, the cultures, and the languages, not to mention the people themselves, were quickly being eliminated.

In 1865, federal troops had a skirmish with a local Native American Indian tribe near Oroville, California that came to be known as the Three Knolls Massacre. They killed 40 members of the small tribe, while others who tried to escape were killed by cattle ranchers. The Yahi tribe was believed to have gone extinct as a result of this attack.

In 1911, a man named Ishi emerged from the wilderness around Mount Lassen. He was the last Yahi tribesman. Ishi and a small group had been on the run for more than 40 years. The others had died and Ishi was the last of his kind, undernourished and emaciated. Some say he was ‘the last wild Indian.’

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After decades of evading modern humanity, with all of his companions dead, Ishi gave up. He walked out of the wilds and into the modern world. It must have been a dramatic transition.

Professor Alfred Kroeber at the University of California basically adopted Ishi. He became not only a research subject, but was hired as a research assistant at the University of California’s Anthropology Department. Ishi provided Kroeger with a remarkable chance to study the language and culture of this tribe, which they all realized was part of a dying world that needed to be documented.

His wife, Theodora Kroeber, also possessed an advanced education in anthropology and psychology. She wrote several books about Ishi, including the definitive biography. She also penned other books about Native American legends that drew heavily upon what they learned from Ishi. Two of her books were made into movies.

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Ishi did not use his name or discuss his ancestors directly, since those things were forbidden in his tradition; Ishi meant “man” in his language. Long after Ishi’s death, an expert in Native American stone technology analyzed his arrowpoints and concluded that they were not Yahi in design. That raises the possibility that Ishi was of mixed heritage, since he may have learned how to make arrowheads from another tribe besides the Yahi.

Ishi not only provided the university’s researchers with a prime opportunity to study his culture. He also became a tour guide and something of an attraction for visitors to the university’s anthropology museum. Some have suggested that he was over-exploited in this role, though he apparently enjoyed it. Five years after stepping out of the wilderness, Ishi died of tuberculosis.

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Could they have done anything differently? Looking back, Kroeber and his colleagues were haunted by the mistake of exposing Ishi to so many visitors and potential diseases. But aside from that, Ishi’s options were limited and the university may have been the best place for him. First, he could not be returned to the wilds, since his family and tribe were gone and he’d had trouble finding food. Second, the local sheriff put him in jail when he was first found, where he was treated as a circus animal, and it was the university that saved him from this fate. Third, he could have joined other Native Americans in being re-settled on a reservation many states away, but those were not his people or his place.

Did Professor Kroeber and the university researchers use him? Undoubtedly, their association with Ishi furthered their careers. They might have taken better care of him in terms of avoiding as much exposure to disease. But they truly loved him, learned a lot from him, and gave this lonely man a place of belonging for the last few years of his life.

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Professor Kroeber (center) with Ishi (right) and an English-speaking member of the related Yana tribe (left).

References:

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Ishi-last-wild-Indian-found-refuge-in-S-F-5737149.php#photo-6819766

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_L._Kroeber

https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/history/events/still-exploiting-him-remembering-ishi-the-last-wild-indian-in-california/

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I have a special interest in all things related to Native American culture. My husband's maternal grandmother was Mohawk and we live in an area surrounded by reservations- what remains of them. I've been gathering information on the Seneca and Cayuga native tribes- I live in between lakes named for them- they have been fighting with local governments over a land dispute for a decade or more.

I'm sure the university did the best they could in the situation that was presented to them. And now I'm interested in checking out those books and movies :)

You live in an area that is very rich in the history of those tribes.

What they've been fighting with is not local government but a franchise of the federal government which is not government but a Corporation without a contract, fraudulently trespassing on the free, sovereign and independent people who were here for millennia.

I realize that it's generally the federal --corporation involved with this, but in our area, local governments are most definitely involved in this. It's a bit of a clusterfuck actually- a few years back a guy who doesn't live far from me, drove his truck through the window of a local office, this after someone else set fire to a building. And the two tribes are at war with each other, one claiming the other has 'sold out'. There was a picture in the paper of one of our local politicians shaking hands with the chief of one of these tribes, then next I heard that Chief's place was vandalized. I can't remember who is on what side at this point. I know that they settled for a sum of money for one piece of land they were contesting, I'll have to find out if the others are ongoing.

There is a really large reservation near Batavia though. I love going there for the simple fact that no local law enforcement is allowed lol.

It's a misnomer, as local or not there is no government without consent of the people and "The People" have been dawning the title of servitude to the "government" for over a hundred years, in turn saying that employee of the government delegates the power and authority to government yet who came first, the chicken or the egg... and in this case government had to be there for citizenry to exist.

One cannot be both master and slave. Either it's "the people" or it's citizens.

Considering that the federal government is a corporation and the state government is a franchise of that corporation and the municipal is a franchise of the state it's all federal. The treaties between the nations and the federal are then in turn visages of agreements between nations as the Federal is not a nation.

This is the crux of the situation: we haven't had our Republican form of government for over 150 years and before that the federal government had overstepped its bounds invalidating it's oaths and limitation and acting therefore outside it's authority in regards with The People (wiskey rebelion, too bad nobody had the guts to spit in Washington's face or his troops and tell him to fook off their private property as they are not subjects to the government but the government is subject to them, when he was toppling liberty poles over) and the natives (every single treaty ever struck between the natives and the king/government/federal). If it's acting outside the framework of government it cannot be government, it's only despotism. We are internationally recognized persons, we are free, sovereign and independent people, and our employees are treasonous buffoons who've been at it for centuries press gaging and subjugating their employees, us, when it is completely our duty to subjugate them and they hath abide by our orders or they get the boot or bite the bullet.

Fuck the police, they are nothing more than the predecessors to the slave catching patrols, policing for law is like patrolling for fires or ambulating for accidents.

Haha, I forgot who I was talking to for a minute. I always value your input and information my friend, especially your passion.

If you happen to check out my most recent post you'll see where I'm at currently and why I'm going to bow out of this discussion- but hopefully this post gains traction, I'm sure that someone will jump in ;)

I have researched on the the extermination of native peoples all around the world. I can't tell you how this has changed my views on being a privileged white person living in a high tech world..(my stepfather is half Mohawk Indian and such a beautiful man).thinking we are so much further advanced and better off than those who have to live off the land and have no technology...I have grown in my understanding and I have forgiven myself for the ignorance I once had as a child . Growing up in a programmed world with so much biased info and propaganda (Canada)(with Natives living all around me) I have had to unlearn and RELEARN the truths of our history and its native peoples. Now I am learning to re integrate myself back into NATURE and find my true essence, my true humanity. I surround myself with Animals and nature everyday. It helps. I grow. Slow but sure. Thanks for sharing this article and inspiring others to grow in our understanding of the truths around us that can lead us home, back to our heart and mother nature....Namastaynpaint

I remember I picked up a dvd set in the value bin at Walmart with my buddy a few years back called The Great Indian Wars, it was our religion when we were growing weed in our little 2bd apartment in NC.

The natural world provides a grounding that was familiar to indigenous peoples and we are fortunate when we are able to 're-discover' it, even in small ways.

I went to college at a school that's archaeology dept specialized in Native American history. There are quite a few dig sites around this area where they work and I was able to take classes discussing Native American anthropology/archaeology. Ishi was a favorite topic of one of my professors. I can't imagine how sad and lonely Ishi must have been to be the last of his tribe. My professor focused on the issue of him being exploited and was big about being an ethical researcher. I like how you point out that the researchers did help him in many ways and saved him from possibly worse fates. They might not have protected him from disease but at least he enjoyed them and was probably happier with the researchers than his other limited options.

Growing up I remember my mom loving this book. This brings back a lot of memories. I appreciate that you took the time to research Native American history. Thanks for sharing!

I've never been tilted towards the American history, but I think I've heard a mention of the name "Ishi" from my mum's mouth. She's a historian.
Nice piece buddy.

P.S: "Ishi" means a different thing in this part of the world. It means "head". I'm from the eastern part of Nigeria :)

I truly believed that, the world was once connected. This Ishi look like the Mandara valley people in Nigeria, Africa. Also, the similarities between the Amazonian Mongols and the Ishi is quite visible. It is a potential area for a research.
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A typical Mandara man in North Eastern Nigerian Valley of Mandara *
Photo credit:
Pinterest*

I first heard about the Ishi people living in California. Are they part of the Indian tribe? Seeing their typical appearance, very similar to the Indian tribe. Reading this story, I was reminded of the story of Hugh Glass (The Revenant) journey that has also been filmed.

This is such an unbelievably sad story. I hope somewhere in a parallel universe there a version of this world where we didn't destroy every culture that wasn't oriented around greed.

U have a great content story bro, i like it
thanks for sharing

It's sad to think that some tribes went extinct just because of too much greed in some people's nerves...