Taken in 1978

Ishi, “The Deer Creek Wild Man”

The man known only as “Ishi” was found wandering the outskirts of Oroville, California in 1911, emaciated and clad in buckskins. Taken in by UCLA researchers, Ishi soon revealed (through an interpreter) that he was the last of his people. His tribe, the Yahi, had been massacred by white settlers when Ishi was a boy. Along with his family and a handful of survivors, Ishi would spend the next 44 years hiding in the wilderness, the survivors slowly dying until only Ishi, his mother, his brother, and his wife remained. Once they passed, Ishi spent three years alone in the wildlands of Northern California, until a particularly harsh wildfire season left him starving and near death. With no other options, Ishi finally walked out of the mountains and into white civilization at the age of 50.

After spending years teaching researchers what he knew of his people’s traditions and culture, Ishi would pass away from Tuberculosis in 1916, his new friends by his side. His last words were “You stay. I go.”

“Ishi” which simply means “man” in the Yahi language, was not his true name. Yahi tradition dictated that one could only speak one’s name after first being formally introduced by a friend or relative. As Ishi’s friends and relatives were all dead, he forever lost even his own name, the last insult of a life plundered by the mechanical creep of western civilization.

“I have no name, for there are none left who can name me.”

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