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WE DO NOT WANT TO
BECOME AND END LIKE ISHI
Ishi was the last
surviving member of the Yahi tribe. He was born about 1862. The
Yahi were related to the Yana Indians who once lived in northern
California of todays USA. Contact with whites began with the
California Gold Rush of 1849, which led to struggles over land,
raids on white settlements, and devastating counterattacks. Two
massacres of Yahi Indians at Mill Creek in the 1860s all but wiped
them out. The remaining survivors hid themselves away completely
and were thought to have died
until Ishi, starving and alone, appeared at the town of Oroville
in 1911.
News of his appearance reached two anthropologists, Alfred Kroeber
and Thomas Waterman, who came to Oroville to learn more about him
and his people. Ishi showed how the Yahi survived in the
wilderness and shared with them the songs and stories of his
ancestors. Kroeber brought Ishi to San Francisco, where he lived
in the Museum of Anthropology. Ishi died of tuberculosis in 1916.
OUR LAND IS NOT FOR
SALE LIKE THE ONE GRABBED FROM ISHI
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