Written when there were still those alive who knew Ishi, the warmth and caring they had for him shines through. The first half of the book is a history of the Yana and other peoples of California; this is heartbreaking on a macro scale as we read the horrors inflicted by whites on the native peoples, as the hunted and massacred them, many into extinction. Peoples who were not even warriors as the plains peoples were. And the second half is heartbreaking in the particular, as we read his story, and get to know this gentle and courageous man.

Reserving for my Native American bookbox

This oldie but goodie is going into the Native American Bookbox. One I found difficult not to keep.

Selecting from Erishkigal's Native American bookbox. I remember reading or hearing about Ishi when I was in college - probably during an anthropology class. Anyway, this looks very interesting.

Finished reading this one today and must say I really enjoyed it and found it to be very interesting and informative. The story of Ishi, who was the last of the Yahi people in California, was presented in such a way that the reader really became familiar with his culture and way of life. The first half of the book was a history of the Yana/Yahi people in California and was for me a real eye-opener. The California Native Americans were pretty much annihilated by the Caucasian ranchers and farmers who settled in Northern California. The Yahi were basically trying to survive on their homeland but were pursued and slaughtered by the whites. This in reality was a very horrible case of genocide against the native peoples. I did a search on the internet and found that almost all of California's Indians met similar fates. (See this article.) The second half of the story describes what happened to Ishi after he gave himself up in 1911. He was placed in the care of the University of California's school of anthropology and actually spent his last few years in the University museum in San Francisco. There he learned some English, made good friends, taught his native crafts, and earned his living doing janitorial work and assistance. He liked living there and did not want to return to his homeland or be put on a reservation with other tribes he did not know. I would recommend this one to anyone interested in Native American history and culture.

I also discovered that the author of this book, Theodora Kroeber, is the mother of the science fiction and fantasy writer, Ursula K. Le Guin.

This one is heading to HI77 in Florida. A wishlist tag. Enjoy!

Indian feathers have grown wet,

in the onslaught
of so many tears.

I love the cover on this book. It's a whole mood. :)

I've been meaning to read this book for quite some time, and I finally got around to it. I knew it would be something that I would like and I wasn't wrong.

I thought they did a decent job of background information so we knew where Ishi was coming from on how things would look from the Yahi perspective. I loved all the pictures too.

You could tell he was a very intelligent person, by his view point on all the new things being thrown at him and his way of adjusting. I'm glad, that after everything, that the people in the hospital and the people in museum were able to be good friends to him and make his last years happy. I think he needed friends. He spent most of his life with the few of his tribe left and then finally just he and his mother. So I'm sure he was craving interaction with others.

And though I could see it coming, I was very disheartened to know that one of our diseases ended his life so prematurely, as it has so many other Indian's in America's history, due to no immunity to any of them.