Ishi the Lasy Yahi

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Video Assignment #3: “Ishi, The Last Yahi” Summary Ishi was the last of the Yahi. The Yahi, one of the sub-tribes of the Yana, lived in the hills of California for thousands of years with few troubles other than small quarrels with others tribes of the Yana. Then in 1849 the hills of California became flooded with settlers in search of gold. This set off attacks on the tribes in mining areas. The Yahi suffered greatly. The small amount of Yahi left went in to hiding. They were not found for many years and soon they were thought to be wiped out. In 1911 Ishi was found to be the last of his tribe, The Yahi. Ishi was locked up until Alfred Kroeber met him. Alfred Kroeber was an anthropologist in search for Indians to take with him to San Francisco and study them. Kroeber got permission to take this Indian man and gave him a new name, “Ishi”. The name means “man” in Indian. Alfred was very interested in Ishi and wanted to learn more about Indians and their culture. Alfred later opened up a Museum of Anthropology and used Ishi as a display. After several months Ishi was diagnosed with and illness called pneumonia. He was then put in a case so people could not catch his illness and only see him. Ishi told hundreds of stories about the start of his tribe and the birth of the Indians. Alfred had trouble understanding Ishi’s native language because he didn’t speak of it or understand a word of it. A man named Edward Sapir was a scholar who would understand Ishi’s language but due to his busy work in Canada he didn’t have the time to come and translate Ishi’s language or even teach him how to speak English. Later, Alfred finally convinced Edward to come and work with Ishi. By this time people finally viewed Indians differently and considered Indians as “fallen people”. Ishi started telling Edward the story of his people as Edward wrote down everything about Ishi’s story.

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