Ishi's Brain: In Search of Americas Last "Wild" Indian

Download or read book Ishi's Brain: In Search of Americas Last "Wild" Indian written by Orin Starn and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2005-06-17 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the mountains of California to a forgotten steel vat at the Smithsonian, this "eloquent and soul-searching book" (Lit) is "a compelling account of one of American anthropology's strangest, saddest chapters" (Archaeology). After the Yahi were massacred in the mid-nineteenth century, Ishi survived alone for decades in the mountains of northern California, wearing skins and hunting with bow and arrow. His capture in 1911 made him a national sensation; anthropologist Alfred Kroeber declared him the world's most "uncivilized" man and made Ishi a living exhibit in his museum. Thousands came to see the displaced Indian before his death, of tuberculosis. Ishi's Brain follows Orin Starn's gripping quest for the remains of the last of the Yahi.