Ishi, the last Yahi Indian
"Ishi: A Story of Hope and Courage"
- -California Indian Museum and Cultural Center CIMCC
 mong California Indians, none have figured more prominently in the public eye than Ishi.
When Ishi arrived out of the foothills of Northern California into the town of Oroville in 1911, he was mistakenly characterized as a “wild” and “primitive” Indian, the “last of a Stone Age tribe”.
These assumptions caused him to be brought to the University of California, Museum of Anthropology in San Francisco as a research subject by anthropologist, Alfred Kroeber.
Ishi remained at the museum and shared cultural and historical information with scientists and the public during his five-year residence.
Ishi passed away in 1916 after having contracted tuberculosis while in San Francisco.
Despite his close friendship with Kroeber and other University luminaries, at death, his remains were subjected to the indignity of an autopsy.
His brain was removed in the interests of science.
It disappeared for 83 years and resurfaced in a glass jar on a Smithsonian Institute shelf in 1999 after Ishi’s tribal relations mounted a successful effort to repatriate his remains under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (DOWNLOAD PDF)....
SOURCE: Please visit the California Indian Museum and Cultural Center CIMCC website for the rest of their research paper about Ishi, including historical pictures and multimedia.
- Submitted by Roy Cook
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