Last Indian Standing - Ishi, The Last Of His People
There he stood...tearfully straddling two worlds, bridging two cultures. For him there were three realities...yesterday, today, tomorrow. Looking back he saw life; his yourth, family home, ....his world. Pondering the present he could only feel confusion, emptiness, and grief. The future, as far as he could imagine one, offered loneliness and fear; an unknown world into which he must walk if he was to live. But he was to walk it alone. There was no one by his side, no one to guide him, no one to give comfort. They were all gone. He was the last of the Yahi.
Who were Ishi's lost people? Who were the Yahi? They were the southern most people of the Yana tribe whose homeland had been the Mount Lassen Foothills of northern California. In the late 1840's, the end of the Yahi was set in motion. The exchange of land grants from the Spanish and the discovery of gold set the stage for the tragic demise of the Yana. The wheels of time were spinning wildly into their world. The discovery of gold brought ot the California hills a frenzied unbridled, ruthless group. To this new breed of immigrants, the Yana were to be either exploited or exterminated. In the course of a boy's lifetime, they achieved both. The Yana resisted. In a sprited last stand that rivaled the defenders of the Alamo, of all the Yana it was the Yahi who offered the greatest resistance. The Yahi declined with horrid rapidity. It was among the bloodiest wars of the western frontiers and the outcome was never really in doubt. Set upon by overwhelming numbers of "Indian Killers'' as they were called, bounties were paid for Yahi scalps, the slaughter of men, women and children had begain. No one, not even pregnant women were spared. The slaughter was so horrific that I will not go into detail here. The will... the spirit of resistance... the determination to protect, defend and survive is a tribute to the Yahi people. This spirit was personified in Ishi...the real life counterpart to James Fenimore Coopers finctional Chingachgook. Ishi was destined to be ''The Last of His People''.
The Yahi were being slaughtered, until only a remmant band of 40 remained. Unbelivably, the survivors of this tiny band hid successfully for nearly a half century, undectected by the outside world. It was firmly believed that the Yahi were a people of the past. Gone. No record of their history, origins, culture, or language having survived. In time, however, the world would be forced to confront the evil that they had done, and rediscover the Yahi. Ishi would force them to look at themselves and ask, are we human.
On the morning of August 29, 1911, in a slaughter house corral, two miles from the town of Oroville, a nearly dead ''wild man'' is discovered. He is emaciated, exhausted, frightened, and starved. The sheriff takes the Indian into custody, but is baffled as to what to do next. Locked in a cell, unable to communicate with any number of Indians brought before him, the traumatized man awaited his yet unknown fate.
In a carnival atmosphere, Ishi, the ''wild man'' caught the imagination and attention of thousands of onlooker and curiosity seekers. News of his discovery reached two professors of anthropology at the University of California, Alfred L Kroeber and T. T. Waterman. Both men had an interest in the human saga being plyed out in Oroville for several reasons. Beyond the obvious general anthropological interest, they had been searching for the lost ''wild man'' that had bee sited three years earlier by the surveyor crew a few miles north of Oroville...in the Deer Creek region. They wondered if this could be him.
Two days after Ishi's discovery, Waterman was on a train to Oroville to assume responsibility for the ''wild man.'' Kroeber and Waterman became guardians of Ishi, the last Yahi. For nearly five years Ishi lived at the university's museum while teaching the professors whatever he was able to communicate about the Yahi people..There was no other speakers of his tongue so communication was difficult and tedious. Kroeber persevered and managed to learn and communicate in ''conversational'' Yahi, while Ishi learned about life in 20th century America.
The bond that developed between Kroeber and Ishi was, by all accounts, a close one. They both came to depend upon one another, not only for the pursuits of study they were engaged in, but on a personal level. For Ishi, this relationship must have been especially precious, for he had been alone for so long. Yahi tradition prevented Ishi from speaking his own name or the names of the dead. Kroeber named him "Ishi'' which is Yahi for 'man.'
Kroeber finally got Ishi to agree to take him to see the country of which Ishi spoke. The results of the 1914 excursion to Yahi country are invaluable. In a strange way Kroeber was actually recording the past through living history in the present for the future.
The record of Yahi history...its people, language, beliefs, etc., that we now have is the result and gift of Ishi's survival and entrance into the modern world. Though he had been cruelly left behind as the sole survivor of his people. Had the world not known Ishi, the Yahi would have passed away, remembered as nothing more than the fierce, troublesom ''Mill Creek Indians'' who had a brief and violent appearance on the stage of American expansion.
But the only source of Yahi life could not stay forever. After battling several illnesses during the course of his years at the museum, Ishi eventually contracted tuberculosis. What the ''Bounty Hunters'' and the "Indian Killers'' could not do, kill Ishi, the white mans disease did. He was exhausted, unable to fight this one last battle. While his friend Professor Kroeber was away in New York, Ishi died on March 25th, 1916 in this bed. The curel ironey of this, his only friend in the world, Professor Kroeber, was not to be at his side.
The last Yahi had departed this world. There was no one left to sing his death song. the ''Last Warrior'' of the Yahi tribe had joined his ancestors. Will a man from an earlier era...walk out to face the uncertainty of the modern world, and unlock for us, mysteries of our own past. Or was Ishi truly the "The Last Indian Standing.'
This my friends, is the result of ''Manifest Destiny''. A living, breathing, loving, tribe that bore no ill will to anyone. Wiped from the face of the earth. If we do not learn from this, then we as a country, and a people, will follow Ishi. That is the question that faces us.
informatioin for this article taken from freerepublic, and various other sources.
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The history of Ishi (man) and the Yahi and Yana people of California.
Did you use invisable ink Honemana...
Your welcome Raven Wing. Yes, sometimes the truth isto horrific for some people to accept.
I don't think it was censored. Let me check it out.
Perrie said there is a glitch, she had the same problem. Try using a different browser.
I stumped Honemana.
Manifest Destiny. Sad, very sad.
Loved ''Hand of Darkness''..
Unfortunetly Gunny, the gov't doesn't have the courage to face the true facts.
Our government has a problem, Kavika. As part of the UN we have representatives who sit on councils in judgement of other countries and rulers who ruthlessly have used and discarded indigenous people, and even their own countrymen, murdering men, women and children in brutal and horrific ways.
We have demanded that restitution be paid the survivors; we have demanded that assets be confiscated, that bank accounts around the world be frozen and monies made unavailable to these rulers.
While the US has led the world in the act of reparations for past wrongs that have been acknowledged, it would be very uncomfortable for the banner bearers of human rights to be forced to admit to even more horrendous skeletons hiding in the closets, and be called upon to fork over even more in way of monetary or land reparations.
Aren't Native Americans still looking for over a billion dollars that the BIA "lost" and boldly proclaimed "hell yes we lost it, don't know where it is, and have no intention of looking for it"? And got away with it?
Lest we forget that we are all related.
Thank you Charles,
Sadly your correct that is was anopther method of slavery and imperialism.
Gakina Awiiya niijii.
Thanks. This is still definitely worth a read.
Pretty interesting vid here. Some imagery and such of Ishi once it gets going.
**tears** A White mans solution by eliminating a viable Tribe for their disgusting greed and power.
Thank you for stopping by Tex. The vid is excellent, plus there are recording of Ishi speaking.
Not only this tribe Mrs D..Many other reduced to less than 25 tribal members. The Witnum and Mi-Wok come to mind.
Yes Raven Wing, the whitewashing of history runs rampent here.
mimi, the Corbel Settlement was 3.4 billion dollars. The estimate that was actually owed was 41 BILLION.
It was a very difficult story to hear Bullwinkle. It was also the story of courage, and the humanity of Ishi.
You are most welcome Bullwinkle. ''I am immensely proud of my heritage''..That makes my heart sing Bullwinkle.
Sadly Gunny, your's is the story of many American Indians. Having to hide our heritage because of the hate and racism, is simply not acceptable in this country, but it exists.
I never knew that. I love "The Lathe of Heaven". It's one of my all time favorites.
Oh Gene,
That's so sad.
Wonderful article Kavika. I keep learning from you.
Howtragicthat this whole people are lost to mankind. It is so sad that the only left are those who chose to remember. Charles had it right in an earlier post. Manifest Destiny wasimperialismdisguisedas national pride. You couldn't taste the blood that way.
I've spent a lot of time in the area Perrie. Sat on the banks of the Eel and McCloud rivers, walked the lava beds where Caption Jack and his few Modoc Warriors held off the U.S. Infantry for months, the foothills at Lassen. I've talked to the people of the Modoc, Witnum and Mi-Wok. They don't forget this part of history.
A friend of mine helped save the Mi-Wok language by spending months recording the last fluent speaker.
''you couldn't taste the blood that way''..sadly, that is true.
I wish you luck with your research, Gunny.
Theodora Kroeber, Alfred's wife, wrote "Ishi In Two Worlds". I've always believed that their work with Ishi influenced one of my favorite Sci-fi writers work, Ursula Kroeber LeGuin (their daughter). Especially in "Rocannon's World", "The Dispossessed" and "The Left Hand of Darkness".
I didn't know! I loved the Earthsea book series... off I go to check out the others mentioned.
I loved the story of Ishi - I read it many years ago. So sad, so good to see into such a wonderful soul, so heart wrenching. It's one of those things that you wish could have been done SO differently and you wonder of the cruelty of man.
I'm sure that you'll enjoy them JbBirder. Wonderful books.
It's difficult to accept the cruelty that man has exibited Jb. The usual way is to make the victims sub-human, that way killing them off has no consequences and is accepted as ''the way''.