August 29, 2022 • 11 mins
On this day in 1911, the last surviving member of the Yahi people was found, on the brink of starvation, near a slaughterhouse in Oroville, California.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio, Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class,
a show that pays tribute to people of the past
by telling their stories. Today, I'm Gay Bluesier, and in
(00:20):
this episode, we're reflecting on the tragic tale of Ishi,
a Native American man who lost his family and his
way of life to western expansion. After resisting assimilation for
half a century, he was compelled to join the society
of his oppressors, where he quickly learned how right he'd
been to avoid it. The day was August nine, nine eleven,
(00:52):
the last surviving member of the Yahee people was found
on the brink of starvation near a slaughter house in Oraville, California.
He never divulged his true name, but he came to
be known as Ishi, the Yanna word for man. And
his family had spent decades living in the remote mountains
(01:13):
of northern California, but accident, disease, and even murder had
claimed each of his companions until only he was left.
In desperation, she walked out of the wilderness of Butte
County and ventured into modern civilization for the first time.
Is is believed to have been born sometime between eighteen
(01:34):
sixty and eighteen sixty two, just after the conclusion of
the California Gold Rush. He was a member of the
Yahi people and especially secluded branch of the Yana tribe.
In the previous decade, miners in search of gold had
pushed deeper and deeper into the California wilderness. This brought
(01:55):
them into direct conflict with isolated groups of Native Americans,
including the yah He, who happened to live in close
proximity to the region's minds. Soon, the influx of white
settlers began to disrupt the Yahi's traditional way of life.
They set up camps on Yahi hunting grounds and polluted
local streams with a runoff from their excavations. Gradually, the
(02:19):
deer and other wildlife scattered, and the once boundless supply
of salmon dried up. As if the threat of starvation
weren't bad enough, the settlers also brought unfamiliar diseases like
smallpox and measles, for which Native Americans had no immunity.
Some tribes fought against this encroachment, but they were outnumbered
(02:41):
and outgunned by the settlers. By the time of Yhi's birth.
The newly established towns were so annoyed by these attempts
at resistance that they started to set bounties on the
native population. Robert Anderson and other so called Indian hunters
led numerous raids on the Yahi or an fifty cents
for every scalp they collected and five dollars for every head.
(03:05):
In eighteen sixty five alone, approximately seventy members of the
Yahi people were killed in such raids. This led the
remaining few hundred members, including Ish and his family, to
split off into smaller groups, and his family made a
quiet life for themselves on a cliff overlooking Deer Creek.
(03:26):
There they carried on the Yahi traditions as best they could,
while elsewhere the remaining members of their people were systematically slaughtered.
The family kept to themselves for the next forty years,
careful to remain out of sight of the Anglo society
that steadily grew all around them. By the first decade
of the twentieth century, Ishi was all that remained of
(03:49):
his family and his people. Driven by starvation, he eventually
made his way to the town of Oreville, about seventy
miles north of Sacramento. He was discovered there by ranchers
and taken to the local jail, not because he'd committed
a crime, but because the sheriff couldn't think of a
safer place to keep him. Ishi was approximately fifty years old,
(04:12):
was clearly lost and emaciated, and spoke no English. The
townspeople gawked at the so called Stone Age Indian, but
beyond that, they weren't sure what to do with him.
News of Ishi traveled fast, and by the end of
the week, two anthropologists from u C. Berkeley had come
to Oreville to meet him in person. These professors, Alfred
(04:34):
Kroeber and Thomas Waterman, recognized Ish's dialect and were able
to identify him as the last known survivor of the Yahi.
They arranged to bring Ishi back to live on their campus,
and over the next five years he taught them everything
he could about his disappearing culture. It wasn't a comprehensive account,
(04:54):
as Ishi had been born when his population was already
in decline, and since he'd been raised apart from most
of his people, he didn't know as many traditions as
earlier generations would have. Still, he was able to demonstrate
toolmaking and hunting skills, and to describe aspects of Yahee
society such as family units, naming patterns, and even a
(05:15):
few sacred ceremonies. Is also helped preserve his own language
by recording many tribal stories and songs onto wax cylinders. Thankfully,
these century old recordings still exist, allowing us to hear
the Yahi language through the voice of its last native speaker.
Take a listen rundon in an author and an rndon
(05:44):
in an undonor. The work that Kroeber, Waterman, and Ishi
completed together was of great his oracle importance, and over
time the men developed a mutual respect for one another.
(06:05):
For instance, in Waterman's writings, he remarked on Ishi's quote
gentlemanliness which lies outside of all training and is an
expression of inward spirit. That said, there was an undoubtedly
exploitative side to their relationship. Is was given free room
and board at the U C. Museum of Anthropology in
(06:26):
San Francisco, but in exchange, she was put to work
not only as our research subject, but as an assistant janitor.
That arrangement on its own may seem fair enough, but
Ishi was also expected to contribute in other more detrimental ways.
Every Sunday the museum held a kind of reception where
is she was required to shake hands with the paying guests,
(06:49):
who sometimes numbered in the thousands. Over time, those events
grew in scope until Ishi was also hosting weekly demonstrations
of tribal customs and how to make arrowheads and how
to weave a fish net. His financial compensation for this
work was minimal, and at the time of his death
he had less than two hundred dollars to his name. Exploited.
(07:12):
Though he was, I was not a prisoner of the museum,
and he reportedly took great pleasure in exploring the parks
of San Francisco, including the Bison Enclosure and Golden Gate Park.
He also developed an appreciation for modern conveniences such as
street cars and fairies. Oh and apparently he also had
a bit of a sweet tooth, being especially partial to
(07:35):
donuts and ice cream sodas. Sadly, although she was able
to adapt to some aspects of Euro American civilization, he
remained incredibly vulnerable to its diseases. He was often sick
during his years at the museum, almost certainly as a
result of being exposed to germs during his compulsory handshaking sessions.
(07:57):
In nineteen sixteen, he contracted to berculosis and died from
it on March twenty five that year, at the estimated
age of fifty six. She had witnessed several post mortem
examinations while working at the museum and had been greatly
disturbed by the idea of human autopsies. He believed that
dismembering the body did violence to the spirit as well,
(08:21):
so before his death he requested that his body be
cremated so his spirit could be released. Intact. Alfred Kroeber
promised to honor that request, but when is She fell
ill in early nineteen sixteen, rumors began to swirl that
an autopsy would indeed be performed. At the time, Kroeber
was away in New York, but he caught wind of
(08:43):
the plan to remove and preserve is She's brain. To
his credit, Kroeber tried to prevent this desecration. In a
letter to the museum's director, he wrote, quote, please shut
it down. I must ask you, as my personal representative
on the spot in this matter, to yield nothing at
all under any circumstances. If there is any talk about
(09:04):
the interests of science say for me that science can
go to hell. We propose to stand by our friends.
That letter was written on March four, nineteen sixteen, one
day before is She's death. It arrived in California too late.
In the end, is She's body was burned in accordance
(09:26):
with his wishes, but not before Dr Saxon Pope removed
is She's brain in the interest of science telling Lee.
When Alfred Kroeber returned to the museum in October, no
use had been found for the preserved brain, and it
was eventually offered to the Smithsonian in Washington, d C.
As you might expect, the researchers there didn't have much
(09:48):
use for it either. As a result, Is She's Brain
was stowed away in a storage facility in Maryland, where
it remained for the rest of the twentieth century. In
Native American activists and allies learned of the brain's whereabouts.
For the better part of three years, they lobbied for
it to be repatriated to the closest relatives of the Yahi,
(10:11):
the Reading Rancheria and Pitt River tribes of the Yana people.
Recent studies had suggested that the yah He may have
intermarried with those tribes during their decline. If that was
the case, then their descendants were entitled by law to
the remains of their ancestor. The Smithsonian eventually bowed to
public pressure, and in August of two thousand, Ishi's brain
(10:34):
was returned to his people. Later that year, it was
reunited with the ashes of his body and finally laid
to rest in an undisclosed location on Mount Lassen in
northern California, in the ancestral home of his people, Ishi
finally rests in peace. I'm Gabe Louzier and hopefully you
(10:56):
now know a little more about history today than you
did yes your day. You can learn even more about
history by following us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at
t d i HC Show, and if you have any
comments or suggestions, feel free to send them my way
at this Day at I heart media dot com. Thanks
(11:17):
to Chandler Mays for producing the show, and thank you
for listening. I'll see you back here again tomorrow for
another day in History Class.
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio, Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class,
a show that pays tribute to people of the past
by telling their stories. Today, I'm Gay Bluesier, and in
(00:20):
this episode, we're reflecting on the tragic tale of Ishi,
a Native American man who lost his family and his
way of life to western expansion. After resisting assimilation for
half a century, he was compelled to join the society
of his oppressors, where he quickly learned how right he'd
been to avoid it. The day was August nine, nine eleven,
(00:52):
the last surviving member of the Yahee people was found
on the brink of starvation near a slaughter house in Oraville, California.
He never divulged his true name, but he came to
be known as Ishi, the Yanna word for man. And
his family had spent decades living in the remote mountains
(01:13):
of northern California, but accident, disease, and even murder had
claimed each of his companions until only he was left.
In desperation, she walked out of the wilderness of Butte
County and ventured into modern civilization for the first time.
Is is believed to have been born sometime between eighteen
(01:34):
sixty and eighteen sixty two, just after the conclusion of
the California Gold Rush. He was a member of the
Yahi people and especially secluded branch of the Yana tribe.
In the previous decade, miners in search of gold had
pushed deeper and deeper into the California wilderness. This brought
(01:55):
them into direct conflict with isolated groups of Native Americans,
including the yah He, who happened to live in close
proximity to the region's minds. Soon, the influx of white
settlers began to disrupt the Yahi's traditional way of life.
They set up camps on Yahi hunting grounds and polluted
local streams with a runoff from their excavations. Gradually, the
(02:19):
deer and other wildlife scattered, and the once boundless supply
of salmon dried up. As if the threat of starvation
weren't bad enough, the settlers also brought unfamiliar diseases like
smallpox and measles, for which Native Americans had no immunity.
Some tribes fought against this encroachment, but they were outnumbered
(02:41):
and outgunned by the settlers. By the time of Yhi's birth.
The newly established towns were so annoyed by these attempts
at resistance that they started to set bounties on the
native population. Robert Anderson and other so called Indian hunters
led numerous raids on the Yahi or an fifty cents
for every scalp they collected and five dollars for every head.
(03:05):
In eighteen sixty five alone, approximately seventy members of the
Yahi people were killed in such raids. This led the
remaining few hundred members, including Ish and his family, to
split off into smaller groups, and his family made a
quiet life for themselves on a cliff overlooking Deer Creek.
(03:26):
There they carried on the Yahi traditions as best they could,
while elsewhere the remaining members of their people were systematically slaughtered.
The family kept to themselves for the next forty years,
careful to remain out of sight of the Anglo society
that steadily grew all around them. By the first decade
of the twentieth century, Ishi was all that remained of
(03:49):
his family and his people. Driven by starvation, he eventually
made his way to the town of Oreville, about seventy
miles north of Sacramento. He was discovered there by ranchers
and taken to the local jail, not because he'd committed
a crime, but because the sheriff couldn't think of a
safer place to keep him. Ishi was approximately fifty years old,
(04:12):
was clearly lost and emaciated, and spoke no English. The
townspeople gawked at the so called Stone Age Indian, but
beyond that, they weren't sure what to do with him.
News of Ishi traveled fast, and by the end of
the week, two anthropologists from u C. Berkeley had come
to Oreville to meet him in person. These professors, Alfred
(04:34):
Kroeber and Thomas Waterman, recognized Ish's dialect and were able
to identify him as the last known survivor of the Yahi.
They arranged to bring Ishi back to live on their campus,
and over the next five years he taught them everything
he could about his disappearing culture. It wasn't a comprehensive account,
(04:54):
as Ishi had been born when his population was already
in decline, and since he'd been raised apart from most
of his people, he didn't know as many traditions as
earlier generations would have. Still, he was able to demonstrate
toolmaking and hunting skills, and to describe aspects of Yahee
society such as family units, naming patterns, and even a
(05:15):
few sacred ceremonies. Is also helped preserve his own language
by recording many tribal stories and songs onto wax cylinders. Thankfully,
these century old recordings still exist, allowing us to hear
the Yahi language through the voice of its last native speaker.
Take a listen rundon in an author and an rndon
(05:44):
in an undonor. The work that Kroeber, Waterman, and Ishi
completed together was of great his oracle importance, and over
time the men developed a mutual respect for one another.
(06:05):
For instance, in Waterman's writings, he remarked on Ishi's quote
gentlemanliness which lies outside of all training and is an
expression of inward spirit. That said, there was an undoubtedly
exploitative side to their relationship. Is was given free room
and board at the U C. Museum of Anthropology in
(06:26):
San Francisco, but in exchange, she was put to work
not only as our research subject, but as an assistant janitor.
That arrangement on its own may seem fair enough, but
Ishi was also expected to contribute in other more detrimental ways.
Every Sunday the museum held a kind of reception where
is she was required to shake hands with the paying guests,
(06:49):
who sometimes numbered in the thousands. Over time, those events
grew in scope until Ishi was also hosting weekly demonstrations
of tribal customs and how to make arrowheads and how
to weave a fish net. His financial compensation for this
work was minimal, and at the time of his death
he had less than two hundred dollars to his name. Exploited.
(07:12):
Though he was, I was not a prisoner of the museum,
and he reportedly took great pleasure in exploring the parks
of San Francisco, including the Bison Enclosure and Golden Gate Park.
He also developed an appreciation for modern conveniences such as
street cars and fairies. Oh and apparently he also had
a bit of a sweet tooth, being especially partial to
(07:35):
donuts and ice cream sodas. Sadly, although she was able
to adapt to some aspects of Euro American civilization, he
remained incredibly vulnerable to its diseases. He was often sick
during his years at the museum, almost certainly as a
result of being exposed to germs during his compulsory handshaking sessions.
(07:57):
In nineteen sixteen, he contracted to berculosis and died from
it on March twenty five that year, at the estimated
age of fifty six. She had witnessed several post mortem
examinations while working at the museum and had been greatly
disturbed by the idea of human autopsies. He believed that
dismembering the body did violence to the spirit as well,
(08:21):
so before his death he requested that his body be
cremated so his spirit could be released. Intact. Alfred Kroeber
promised to honor that request, but when is She fell
ill in early nineteen sixteen, rumors began to swirl that
an autopsy would indeed be performed. At the time, Kroeber
was away in New York, but he caught wind of
(08:43):
the plan to remove and preserve is She's brain. To
his credit, Kroeber tried to prevent this desecration. In a
letter to the museum's director, he wrote, quote, please shut
it down. I must ask you, as my personal representative
on the spot in this matter, to yield nothing at
all under any circumstances. If there is any talk about
(09:04):
the interests of science say for me that science can
go to hell. We propose to stand by our friends.
That letter was written on March four, nineteen sixteen, one
day before is She's death. It arrived in California too late.
In the end, is She's body was burned in accordance
(09:26):
with his wishes, but not before Dr Saxon Pope removed
is She's brain in the interest of science telling Lee.
When Alfred Kroeber returned to the museum in October, no
use had been found for the preserved brain, and it
was eventually offered to the Smithsonian in Washington, d C.
As you might expect, the researchers there didn't have much
(09:48):
use for it either. As a result, Is She's Brain
was stowed away in a storage facility in Maryland, where
it remained for the rest of the twentieth century. In
Native American activists and allies learned of the brain's whereabouts.
For the better part of three years, they lobbied for
it to be repatriated to the closest relatives of the Yahi,
(10:11):
the Reading Rancheria and Pitt River tribes of the Yana people.
Recent studies had suggested that the yah He may have
intermarried with those tribes during their decline. If that was
the case, then their descendants were entitled by law to
the remains of their ancestor. The Smithsonian eventually bowed to
public pressure, and in August of two thousand, Ishi's brain
(10:34):
was returned to his people. Later that year, it was
reunited with the ashes of his body and finally laid
to rest in an undisclosed location on Mount Lassen in
northern California, in the ancestral home of his people, Ishi
finally rests in peace. I'm Gabe Louzier and hopefully you
(10:56):
now know a little more about history today than you
did yes your day. You can learn even more about
history by following us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at
t d i HC Show, and if you have any
comments or suggestions, feel free to send them my way
at this Day at I heart media dot com. Thanks
(11:17):
to Chandler Mays for producing the show, and thank you
for listening. I'll see you back here again tomorrow for
another day in History Class.
This Day in History Class News
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Gabe Luzier
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