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1861 – March 25, 1916) was the last known member of the Native American Yahi people from the present-day state of California in the United States.

The rest of the Yahi (as well as many members of their parent tribe, the Yana) were killed in the California genocide in the 19th century. Widely described as the "last wild Indian" in the United States, Ishi lived most of his life isolated from modern North American culture, and was the last known Native manufacturer of stone arrowheads. In 1911, aged 50, he emerged at a barn and corral, 2 mi (3.2 km) from downtown Oroville, California. Ishi, which means "man" in the Yana language, is an adopted name. The anthropologist Alfred Kroeber gave him this name because in the Yahi culture, tradition demanded that he not speak his own name until formally introduced by another Yahi. When asked his name, he said: "I have none, because there were no people to name me", meaning that there was no other Yahi to speak his name on his behalf. Anthropologists at the University of California, Berkeley, took Ishi in, studied him, and hired him as a janitor. He lived most of his remaining five years in a university building in San Francisco. His life was depicted and discussed in multiple films and books, notably the biographical account Ishi in Two Worlds published by Theodora Kroeber in 1961.

Ishi was likely born in the year 1861 within the heart of Yahi and Yana territory. At the time of Ishi's birth, the Yana were based in the Sierra Nevada Mountains area between the Pit and Feather Rivers, with the Yahi subgroup living in the southern portion.

Studied by the university, Ishi also worked as a janitor and lived at the museum the remaining five years of his life. Waterman and Kroeber, director of the museum, studied Ishi closely and interviewed him at length in an effort to reconstruct Yahi culture.

According to Robert Fri, director of the National Museum of Natural History, "Contrary to commonly-held belief, Ishi was not the last of his kind.

Because Ishi's production was more typical of points of the Nomlaki or Wintu tribes, and markedly dissimilar to those of Yahi, Shackley suggested that Ishi had been of mixed ancestry, and related to and raised among members of another of the tribes.

Ishi is revered by flintknappers as probably one of the last two native stone toolmakers in North America. Writer and critic Gerald Vizenor led a campaign to have the courtyard in Dwinelle Hall at the University of California, Berkeley renamed as "Ishi Court". The Ishi Wilderness Area in northeastern California, believed to be the ancestral grounds of his tribe, is named in his honor.

Ishi: The Last of His Tribe, aired December 20, 1978, on NBC, with Eloy Casados as Ishi, written by Christopher Trumbo and Dalton Trumbo, and directed by Robert Ellis Miller. Ishi: The Last Yahi (1993), is a documentary film by Jed Riffe. In Search of History: Ishi, the Last of His Kind (1998), television documentary about him.

Ishi in Two Worlds: a biography of the last wild Indian in North America. Ishi the Last Yahi: A Documentary History (1981), edited by Robert Heizer and Theodora Kroeber, contains additional scholarly materials

Ishi Wilderness, Yahi tribe lands, now a wilderness area located in the Lassen National Forest

Ishi in His Second World: The Untold Story of Ishi in Oroville. "Yahi Archery: An article on how Ishi, the last Yana indian, practiced archery: how he made his bow, his arrows, flaked arrow points, his method of shooting, how he hunted, etc". "Hunting With Ishi – The Last Yana Indian".

"A Compromise between Science and Sentiment: A Report on Ishi's Treatment at the University of California, 1911–1916", University of California, San Francisco

Quick Facts

• Widely described as the "last wild Indian" in the United States, Ishi lived most of his life isolated from modern North American culture, and was the last known Native manufacturer of stone arrowheads.
• Anthropologists at the University of California, Berkeley, took Ishi in, studied him, and hired him as a janitor.
• His life was depicted and discussed in multiple films and books, notably the biographical account Ishi in Two Worlds published by Theodora Kroeber in 1961.
• Ishi, which means "man" in the Yana language, is an adopted name.
• The rest of the Yahi (as well as many members of their parent tribe, the Yana) were killed in the California genocide in the 19th century.

Source material: Wikipedia - "Ishi". Adapted and summarized for DiscoverScroll. Original contributors are credited through the linked Wikipedia article. Read original on Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes were made from the original.