Samantha Morrow
The Last Yahi
In August of 1911 a destitute local American man left the Butte County wild into Oroville
and turned into a moment journalistic sensation. He was recognized by UC anthropologists
Alfred Kroeber and T. T. Waterman as the remainder of a leftover band of Yahi individuals local
to the Deer Creek area. The UC anthropologists promptly went north to Oroville and expedited
him back to experience the Parnassus grounds, giving him the name “Ishi” which signified
“man” in the Yahi dialect. Amid the following four years, the anthropologists and doctors at UC
would gain much from Ishi, as he exhibited his toolmaking and chasing aptitudes, and talked his
innate stories and melodies. Daily papers often alluded to Ishi as the “last wild Indian,” and the
