Frank H. (perryfran) reviewed on 3/24/2014 + 1223 more book reviews

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.

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