Solved: Final Mystery Of Ishi, The Last Of The Yahi Indians
Rebecca Lann
NEWS: After a two-year investigation, a report delivered today by a UC
San Francisco historian answers a troubling mystery surrounding the
autopsy and cremation of Ishi, the last Yahi Indian who became a
celebrity and ultimately another victim when he wandered out of the
California wilderness in 1911.
The report by Nancy Rockafellar, PhD, a research historian in the UCSF
History of Health Science Department, includes her discovery along
with Duke University anthropologist Orin Starn, PhD, that Ishi's
brain, removed at the time of the autopsy at UCSF for scientific
evaluation, has been stored for the past 83 years by the Smithsonian
Institution.
The discovery sets in motion a repatriation process mandated by the
Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act, which requires
federally-funded institutions to return Native American remains in
their possession to the individual's lineal or tribal descendants.
Rockafellar's report expresses the hope that the brain might now be
reunited with the rest of Ishi's cremated remains and given to
appropriate Native American representatives for a final and dignified
interment.
Rockafellar's investigation dates from 1997, after the Butte County
(Calif.) Native American Cultural Committee began an effort to locate
all of Ishi's remains and provide a burial in his tribal homeland near
Mount Lassen. Attempts by the committee to locate the brain had
failed, prompting UCSF Vice Chancellor Dorothy Bainton to initiate an
investigation to determine whether the brain was removed during the
autopsy and whether it had been cremated with the rest of the body.
Rockafellar's work uncovered verbal testimony that the brain had been
sent to Washington, but her attempts to locate it through telephone
interviews remained unsuccessful. In December 1998, Rockafellar sought
the assistance of Orin Starn, PhD, a Duke University anthropologist
who is writing a book related to Ishi.
Starn was able to find previously undiscovered correspondence
verifying that the brain was sent to the Smithsonian. He then met on
Jan. 27, 1999 with Smithsonian officials in Washington who confirmed
that the museum had the brain and that it has been kept in a Maryland
storage facility. Ishi's story, taught to generations of California
schoolchildren, began before the turn of the century when he and the
last few survivors of a series of massacres by so-called "Indian
hunters" retreated to an isolated valley deep in the Mount Lassen
wilderness. By 1911, Ishi later told anthropologists, only he remained
alive. After emerging in a nearly starved condition in 1911 near
Oroville, Ishi was first jailed by the local sheriff before being
turned over to anthropologists at the University of California in San
Francisco.
Ishi lived the rest of his life at the San Francisco campus, teaching
anthropologists about his language, beliefs and tribal arts, roaming
freely about the campus and the city, and greeting small groups during
Sunday afternoon sessions at the Anthropology Museum where he lived.
Anthropologist Thomas Waterman and museum curator Alfred Kroeber
befriended Ishi and attempted, in their way, to protect him from
excessive exploitation. But in the years before effective antibiotics
they could not protect him from a disease that devastated California's
Native Americans after the arrival of Europeans. In 1916, Ishi died of
tuberculosis.
Following his death, physicians performed an autopsy on Ishi's body.
Rockafellar notes in her report that this was a standard procedure
following all hospital deaths at the time.
"What was unique about Ishi's autopsy was the removal of the brain,"
the report states. "None of the other autopsy reports from 1914-1916
involved removal or examination of the brain."
Until Rockafellar and Starn completed their investigation, it remained
unclear whether the brain had been stored elsewhere or cremated with
the rest of Ishi's remains. The cremated remains currently rest in an
urn in a Colma, Calif., cemetery.
Through a meticulous review of records and numerous interviews with
individuals who recalled portions of the events, Rockafellar and Starn
determined that the preserved brain had indeed been sent to the
Smithsonian Institution for scientific purposes in early 1917 by
Ishi's friend Alfred Kroeber. This decision contradicts the
established historical view of Kroeber as an ardent opponent of an
autopsy.
"The inconsistency of cremating Ishi's remains and some of his
belongings without the brain in the face of their knowledge of his
beliefs reveals an odd rationale on the part of (the scientists who
cared for Ishi) Pope, Gifford, Waterman, and Kroeber. As Gifford wrote
at the time, they were truly attempting a "compromise between science
and sentiment," the report concludes.
Rockafellar's report suggests a series of steps for UCSF to consider
in an attempt to bring the past to a proper conclusion and to honor
Ishi's remarkable life in the future.
* The report asks that UCSF act as an institutional advocate for the
tribes seeking repatriation of the remains. "UCSF should take an
active role in assisting in the return of the cremated remains, so
that Ishi's body can be reunited and laid to rest in an appropriate
manner, according to the wishes of Native Americans," it states.
* The reports calls for the appointment of an Ishi Advisory Committee
in UCSF's newly formed Department of Anthropology, History and Social
Medicine to bring together the different groups and individuals
seeking an appropriate resolution.
* The report proposes using the new information and understanding of
Ishi's life as an opportunity to enhance and consolidate the record of
Ishi's story. Possible steps include creation of an internet web site
devoted to Ishi's story, making updated classroom materials available
to schools, or an interpretive center at UCSF's Parnassus Heights
campus, where Ishi spent his final years.
* Lastly, the report notes that Ishi's story serves as another
reminder of the ravages inflicted on Native Americans by infectious
disease in the early 20th Century. Rockafellar proposes that UCSF
explore the creation of a scholarship fund for Native American
students in recognition and remembrance of this tragedy.
The report concludes by offering Ishi's story as a "morality tale" for
scientists and physicians.
"The lesson here is not merely an indictment of anthropologists and
physicians of the past, but a harsh reminder of the destructive power
of hubris," Rockafellar wrote. "All participants in academic life must
recall the historical context of individuals like Pope, Kroeber, and
Waterman -- and remember that the source of their conviction that they
were "doing the right thing" was the scientific certainty of the day.
"We, in turn, must recognize that a sense of moral discomfort is
perhaps a better indicator for action than scientific curiosity."
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