El Nuevo mexicano., 1916-04-13
Ishi, Last Stone Age
Indian Is Dead

Indian Is dead
Ishi. last Of Stone Age Indians, is dead
in California, according to a dispatch from
from San Francisco. He was a victim OF
tuberculosis.
Some months ago DR.. Paul Radin, of San
Ia Fe, endeayored to have Ishi sent out to
New Mexico in an effort to prolong his life,
but it appears that the government had no
place for this lone member Of the Yahi tribe
in any of its Indian scohols in this state.
Commenting on the death of Ishi, the
New York Sun says:
Ishi, the last Of the Yahi, the stone age
tribe which once fourished and fought the
whites among the crags and cliffs east. OF
the Sacramento, is dead-a sacrifice to
science, which tore from him his green
forests and running streams to dispel the
darkness ~clouding the primitive life and
viewpoint.
Ishi, whose living presence at the Afh,
lated Colleges Museum served to revive a
memory of what once was, who brought
back the days when the Western plains
were scenes Of strife and massacre; and
further back, the time when the discoveries
of America, landing on its eastern shores.
found there a race of matchless physical
perfection, breathed his last upon a small
cot in the University of California Hos
pital.
Ish, died nameless, for .Ishi,'' in the Ian
guage of his vanished tribe, means simply
man. and Of tuberculosis For eighteen
months, says Drs. Herbert G. Mofitt and
E. H. Falconer, who attended him, his iron
constitution-the product Of his primitive
existence before science claimed him for its
own-resisted the ravages OF the disease.
Ishi explained by signs and in the few
words Of English which he had been taught
that he was i'll and must 60 to bed.
Ishi, whose age is placed between So and
go years, within the manner of his fore
fathers-be cremated. He will not carry
with him to the graves as was the custom
of his tribe, the crude, primitive creations
OF his nimble fingers. These will remain
as monuments to his memory in the Cali
fornia room of the museum to which Ishi
in his lifetime drew great, curious throngs.
"Wild Man. Found
Thin, hungry and clad only in a cast-off
undershirt, Ishi was discovered in August.
1911, four miles from Oroville. His appear
ance caused a Juror Of excitement, and the
sheriff of Butte county came out, took the
wild man. in charge and gave him, as the
most available lodging, the insane cell of
the Jail. The news of the capture travelled
through the newspapers to the University
of California, whose savants immediately
tagged him as a possible survivor Of the
Yahi tribe.
Sitting upon the side Of his cot in the in
sane cell, Ishi, uncertain of his fate, answer.
ed "ulsi' Il don't understand) in Yana, the
language OF his tribe, to a broadside Of .ques.
tions in Spanish, English and half a dozen
indian languages. A few weeks later he was
taken in charge by the department of an
thropolOgy and became a scientific spaci.
men at the museum, and later assistant
~janitor
With two twigs to assist him Ishi pro.
duced fire out of thin air; with nimble fin.
gers he produced monstrous fishnets; fash
toned with a flaker Of elk antler the finest
of arrOwheads; led scientists to the ancient
haunts OF his vanished tribe and initiated
them into the inmost details of primitive
life and ancient lore; explained his religious
and mythical ideas, but threw a wall of re-
serve around his parents and his movements
In the years preceding his capture From
Ishi's impressions OF present day ~ciyiliza-
ton scientists collected many curious and
interesting points which may be used in
filling up the many blank spaces in print
tive history
Tribe Almost Exterminated
According to the history Of the Yahi tribe
compiled by Prof. T. T. Waterman OF the
university, who has been a close friend and
observer Of Ishi. the Indian was one Of a
small party of survivors of Yahis, who fed
to the hills east OF sacramento IN 1860, after
suffering almost complete determination at
the hands OF an armed band Of whites.
IN 1908 evidences of the survival Of four
of the tribe, who Stunned both Indians and
whites as enemies, was discovered, when
they still used the bow and arrow and other
aboriginal appliances, and were, according
to Prof. Waterman, absolutely unfamiliar
with the usages of civilization.
Ishi has told the museum scientists that
one of the survivors Of whom evidence was
found in 1908 was his sister; another. his
mother, and the fourth, an old man. All
we're dead when lshi unTilIingyl passed the
borders of civilization and became a 'scien
tific specimen