National Park After Dark - The Last of His People: Lassen Volcanic National Park

Episode Date: December 11, 2023

Today we tell the story of Ishi, the last surviving member of the Yahi people. The Gold Rush of California brought on the mass murder of Ishi's people and indigenous groups throughout the state. After years of surviving alone in the foothills of Lassen Volcanic, he came out of hiding, certain he would be killed just as his family had been.Interactive native land map: native-land.caFor the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!Thank you to this week’s partners!Aeropress: Use our link to save up to 20%.Skylight Frames: Use our link and get $15 off a Skylight Frame.Hello Fresh: Use our link and code npadfree for free breakfast for life.BetterHelp: National Park After Dark is sponsored by BetterHelp. Get 10% off.For a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Close your eyes. Listen to Monday.com. Feel the sensation of an AI work platform. So flexible and intuitive, it feels like it was built just for you. Now open your eyes, go to Monday.com. Start for free and finally, breathe. Girl, winter is so last season. And now Springs got you looking at pictures of tank tops with hungry eyes. Your algorithm is feeding you cutoffs.

You're thirsty for the sun on your shoulders. That perfect hang on the patio sundress. Those sandals you can wear all day and all night And you've had enough of shopping from your couch Done hoping it looks anything like the picture When you tear open that envelope It's time for a little in-person spring treat It's time for a trip to Ross

Work your magic It's hard to imagine California's beautiful coastlines Desert Vistas or mountainous landscapes Could be anything but beautiful We recreate in them Raise our families in them And travel across the country and world to see them. We're certainly not the first to see the value that California has to offer. In some

points in history, you might say the first were the settlers of the 1848 gold rush. People saw the monetary value of California in gold and rushed to be there. But in that, you would be gravely forgetting the people that resided there first, the indigenous communities who saw the real value in California's landscapes, the ones who lived off that land and thrived there for thousands of years. The value of California wasn't measured in gold to them, but was a tribal homeland until that homeland was dismantled in California's little-known genocide, where in just 20 years, 80% of California's indigenous communities were wiped out, where California became a state and then spent $1.7 million to murder 16,000 natives in cold blood to commemorate.

100,000 native peoples died during the California Gold Rush in the first two years alone. The indigenous communities, despite the odds and extensive attempts to eradicate them from existence in California, today have the largest population in the country, with 109 federally recognized tribes. And stories like that of Ishi, the last. Truly Wild Native, serve as a reminder of their perseverance and strength throughout time. Welcome to National Park After Dark. As depressing as that intro was, I am so thrilled that you are finally doing this story because I know it's been a long time coming.

It has been, and I actually found this story. So of course, I found a book for this. We're back on The Book Train. I found this book. It's called Ishi and Two Worlds, a biography. of the Last Wild Indian in North America by Theodora Krober. And I've had it on my bookshelf for months and I've been wanting to get to it. But we had a lot of traveling going on.

And I knew that this story needed some real sit-down dedication to get all of the points across. And it's really important. And I think it's a story that we should all know, especially just given our history here and knowing native history, I think it is really important. So I've been holding off on it and it's finally time to tell it. And before you get into that, I have two things, two things I want to say real quick, because I want to, I don't want to like divert once we get started. But two announcements. First, it was my birthday yesterday.

So I'm now 33 and it feels wonderful. Happy birthday. Thank you. Everyone wish Danielle, happy birthday. And then secondly, I was a guest on two different podcasts that I want to shout out really quickly in case you're interested in hopping over there and taking a listen. It has nothing to do in national parks. It's more personal. So the first one should be out. It was released last week. And the podcast is called Wild Americas. And the host, Isaac Black, actually started this podcast after he began a multi-year journey traveling the longest road in the world, which is the Pan American Highway. So his whole podcast is about that. But he had me on to talk about death, dying, and grief and kind of a little bit about my personal experience. with those things. And it's, I don't know when it's coming out because my interview is actually tomorrow, but I am going to be going on Dead Talks podcast, which I shouted out during your

9-11 episode. Yeah, I remember that. Yeah. So David got in touch with me after that and I'm going on his show tomorrow. So that should be out by the time this is out. So if you're interested in hearing our chat, please go over to his podcast, Dead Talks. And that's all. Yeah, two more episodes of Danielle coming at you. Yeah. So yeah, that's all I had to say. But as far as Ishi goes, I know a little bit just because you've been sharing over the last few weeks that you've been working through his book and then obviously everything that you've been learning and stuff. But I know it's one of your longer episodes as far as notes go. So yeah, we'll see how long it is. Sometimes my notes are longer than a speaking or they're even longer than I anticipate. So we'll just see what this episode turns

into, but it is definitely one of my longer notes episodes and we're visiting a national park today that we haven't been to before. So I'm excited for that as well. So today I will be telling the story of Ishi, who is the last surviving person of the Yahi tribe in the foothills of what is today, Lassen Volcanic National Park, and also Lassen National Forest. Very nice. Have you been there before? Yeah, Ian and I went on a day trip. Oh, cool. I've never been, but it's somewhere that it's on my list. I will say we briefly, because we had the dogs, and obviously we aren't permitted to go too far into the park with them. So we did a drive-through. We stopped at a few like viewpoints and things, but it was really just kind of like a drive-through drive-by type of visit. So I haven't really experienced it, but we've been.

But you saw it from afar. Yes. Well, for this story of Ishi, after his people and surrounding indigenous tribes were massacred and relocated in the massacred. in California, he managed to survive with only a few other surviving family members. Eventually, those family members perish too. And with no other options and on the brink of death, he left his home in search of help. So that is the story that I will be telling today of Ishi. And it really is, if you pick up the book, go get it because we're going to dive deep into the story and I'm going to tell you a lot. But as with every story we ever tell the books have so much more detail. And the person

who wrote this book actually knew Ishi in real life. Which is probably huge as far as like storytelling perspective. And I will have to say that I heard on, I forget what podcast I was listening to, but it reminded me kind of of us with like they were basically saying, this is a 101. Like what the information I'm giving you over the next hour is a 101 on this topic. This isn't 201, 301, 401. There's much more information. And I always forget that like in the midst of researching and creating each episode.

it's so difficult to pull back because you find so much information and you really want to be complete and you want to give as much as your finding. But it's just not doable in a podcast format the way that we have created it. So I think everyone obviously knows that. But for us, we're like, God, I could say this, this and this. But the episode's going to be 10 hours long and is it boring? We do singular episodes. This isn't like a whole podcast dedicated to one story. And it's like, I know there's more information. And it's so interesting. and we want you all to know it too. So just encouraging more research. Well, the other part of that also is like, at least for me, I don't know if it is for you,

but when I come across something that I'm like, okay, I'm going to omit this from my research for what I'm going to tell. But in the back of my mind, I'm like, someone is going to say something. Like, but did you know, but you forgot to say? It's like, okay, I know that. I know that. Like there are times that it's like, oh, I legitimately didn't know that or whatever. So we all are always open to like hearing things like that. But nine times out of ten, yes, I've spent a week 40 hours researching this. I'm pretty sure I came across that. You know, I'm well-versed, in it. Yeah. But anyway, okay, go on. This episode is brought to you by Prime. Obsession is in session. And this summer, Prime Originals have everything you want. Steamy romances,

Irresistible love stories and the book to screen favorites you've already read twice. Off campus, L, every year after, the love hypothesis, Sterling Point, and more. Slow burns, second chances, chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. So let's get into the story. The sun was just rising on August 29th, 1911, when a loud commotion of dogs barking awoke the workers of a butcher shop in Oroville, California.

Oroville at the time was a town with a population of a little under 4,000 people that sat at the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain ranges. It had been invaded several years prior in 1849 when gold miners flocked to the area to get rich. Previously, only inhabited by indigenous people, this town was built and established while thousands of natives were being pushed out of their homelands or murdered, all because the Sierra Nevadas were littered with gold. The men startled at the sounds of their dogs, grabbed their guns, and ran outside.

As they followed the sounds of their barking and snarling dogs, they found their pack in the back corner of one of the corrals at the slaughterhouse, where they had cornered something. When they got closer, they saw a man crouching against the corral fence. Quickly, they called off the dogs, and to their surprise, they noticed that this man was clearly an indigenous person. From first glance, it was apparent that he was emaciated to the point of starvation. His hair was burned off almost to his scalp, and he was naked except for a piece of canvas that draped over his shoulders like a poncho. Some words were spoken to the man, but he didn't respond or seemed to understand what they were saying.

One of the men stayed guarding him from moving from the corral while the other ran to a telephone. He called the sheriff's department a few miles down the road and told them that they had a wild man that they were holding and to come get him and take him off their hands. Shortly after, sheriffs and deputies arrived with their guns drawn. this wild man, emaciated, wide-eyed with fear, cowering in the corral. He made no sounds and did not resist at all when they clothed him with the butcher's apron, handcuffed him, and brought him back to the Orville jail. When he arrived, Sheriff J.B. Weber, not knowing what to do with him, and learning quickly that he understood no English, locked him up in the same jail cells that they used for people that they had deemed insane. He offered him food and water, but to each he refused. Then the sheriff made

phone calls around to get people from different tribes on reservations and within the town, along with some Spaniards and Mexican people to the jail to attempt to communicate with this indigenous man and find out what language he spoke. However, with each person that came in, no one could communicate with him. He sat politely in his cell, listening intently to each person, but as he communicated back, it was clear that no one he was speaking with spoke the same language as he did. Meanwhile, news of the capture of who they called a wild man, hit local newspapers and all the way to San Francisco. Reporters were traveling from far and wide to get a chance to see and photograph this quote-unquote wild man.

These news articles quickly caught the attention of two anthropologists who were professors at the University of California, Alfred Krober and Thomas Talbot Waterman. They had specific interests in indigenous culture and had even recently been on an expedition to the area to learn more about surviving tribes. When they had heard of this surviving indigenous man, they had suspicions that he might be part of a tribe who was thought to have been extinct, and they quickly sent a telegram to confirm that this story was real. That same day, Thomas was on a train to Orville to meet him. He arrived with a goal to identify exactly where this man had come from, and who he was. He brought a book with him of known vocabulary words of different tribes. As Thomas himself was not native, but through years of study, he could understand and communicate loosely in several different times.

dialects. He sat down in the jail cell with who the world was referring to as this wild man and started speaking the best he could words from the language of the northern and central Yana people. Based on geographical location, he suspected that he might be part of one of their tribes. The Yana people are indigenous groups in northern California in the central Sierra Nevada. With each word Thomas spoke, he listened intently, but he did not understand. After going down a long list of words, he finally spoke a word that he recognized Suini, meaning yellow pine. He repeated the word back to Thomas, but he corrected his pronunciation, and at that they both lit up and they cheered while also pointing at a pine cot that was in the jail cell. And after mismatching and finding more words to speak with him, Thomas discovered

where he had come from. This man was indeed part of the Yana people. However, he was specifically from a subgroup, known as the Yahi, a group of people thought to long have been extinct. And this man was now the only known person of the Yahi to still exist. The Yana people consisted of northern, central, southern, and Yahi. Each group had different customs and languages, however, some words between them could be distinguishable. There was thought to be no more than 3,000 Yahi at the height of their existence. They inhabited roughly 40 miles and width and 60 miles in length of the foothills of what today is Lassen Volcanic National Park, and they were there for close to 4,000 years. Now, after invasions and intentional removal and massacres of their people, they were thought to

have been extinct for over a decade. Today, the lands that once belonged to and homed the Yanna people, and were sites of the extensive gold mining and deadly battles, now sits as protected lands of Lassen Volcanic. And to go a little bit into the National Park, Lasson Volcanic sits at the northeastern part of California, protecting the most dominating feature of the park, which is Lassen Peak. the largest plug dome volcano in the world. Lassen volcanic is one of the few places in the world where you can find all four types of volcanoes. The plug dome, characterized by their circular mound shape, shield volcanoes, which are low-and-profile volcanoes that resemble the shape of a shield, cinder cones, and the strato volcano, characterized by their steep profile

in a crater on the summit. Lassen has been preserved as a national park since August 9, 1916, and ever since has become a treasured landscape of hydrothermal activity, geological wonders, pristine alpine lakes with meadows of blooming wildflowers. The park preserves about 106,000 acres of land and serves as an important part of the ecosystem and recreation area for outdoor enthusiasts. Lassen National Park lies within historic and ancestral grounds of the Ashtu Kui, Yana, Yahi, and the Mountain Midu people, who made semi-permanent camps and lived off of the lands for generations. The park today, however, however, is named after Peter Lassen.

And Peter Lassen was a man originally from Denmark, who in the height of the gold rush established the Lassen Trail. The Lassen Trail was used from 1848 to 1953 by large groups of gold miners traveling through the volcanic ranges where a lot of this gold was found. Isn't this? Because you found this story through another story. I did. Is this kind of where you first stumbled across it?

No, I actually, I stumbled across. It's funny that you say that because I found this. story when I was reading about the Wild Man of the Winucci up in Olympic National Park because the day that Ishi came out of hiding was the same day that John Turnow went into hiding in Olympic. Oh, so it was mentioned in that book. It was just one sentence in that book. And I was like, who are they talking about?

Okay. And then I found this in Lassen. So that's where actually the story started. Gotcha. Okay. For some reason, I thought you were researching something to do with the, gold rush, but... Mm-mm.

Okay. Totally different, but they just had a weird correlation of stories, which is how we actually find a lot of our stories is just from happenstance. It's always a footnote. Yeah. And you're like, wait a minute. Hold on. It's like a quick sentence.

And it's like, um, that sounds really interesting. Can we? Yeah. Wait a minute and actually talk about this for a second. Yeah. So basically this park is named after Peter Lassen because he created this trail. And this trail was also established directly through the lands of a change. of indigenous people. And this is the same trail where there were these horrible and deadly battles

that took place, eventually killing entire native tribes. So I just thought that that was an important note to put in here because Lassen B volcanic National Park is still, it's still named that. And the history there is basically this national park and surrounding areas is where mass genocide happened. And someone who contributed to that and created a trail through the park is that's who it's named after. He's commemorated for, yes. He's, Yeah. And we've we've talked about this before, but the movement to kind of revert names to either their original names or something honoring the indigenous histories in that particular area we're seeing more and more of. Most recently, for me locally, was one of the 14ers out here was named Mount Evans. And I have no idea that who Mr. Evans was. I don't know his story. But they just they just took down all the signs literally like two weeks ago and put up. all new signs and it's now named Mount Blue Sky. Oh, I remember seeing articles about that and I feel like even when I was in Colorado, I saw something about that happening. Yeah, well, it's done now. So it's really cool because that's like the closest

14er to me. I mean, it's, you know, not even a half hour away. But it's nice to see. And I think we'll start seeing more and more of it as the years go on. Yeah. I mean, it's just, it's the right thing to do, honestly. And in this circumstance, I mean, this part of California is where a lot of these horrible genocides were happening of indigenous people and to be named after people who are there for the gold rush, which was causing these mass murders is not really right. So I honestly haven't looked into if that's something that people are fighting to try and change this name. But I personally think that it should be changed. I don't know what to, but. Right. Well, and especially because, and I'm sure you'll get into this more because you've already alluded to it. But the whole gold rush, it's so

romanticized, I think. Like that whole, like, we went rushed to California and there was just all this gold waiting in the land for us to get rich. And like, we went from rags to riches. And I think that we never talk about the mass murders that, like, people were getting rich off of literally the slaughtered bodies of thousands of native and indigenous peoples. And And I've never heard that spoken about once until I was this year. And I heard an interview aside from what you're about to say. And it's when you stop to think about it, you're like, oh, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. But it's just not something that's spoken about. It's like this gold was just laying there for us to get rich. And it's like, you're forgetting

the part where this gold was in regions where people already existed and it was invaded to get this gold. Yeah. It was just kind of like in our mind's eye as far as how we were taught. It was just laying there sparkling untouched for thousands of years until we stumbled across it, you know what I mean, which is so awful. And I'm laughing because it's ridiculous to think about that. Yeah, it is. Yeah. It is. And I think that it's something that needs to be. And it is, I think, being more and more highlighted and as part of why I want to tell this story today is because it should be highlighted. People should know the story. And it's National Park related. And I think that it will give people a different view of these lands if you know, if you really know what happened to. So basically when California became a state in 1850, settlers flocked to the area to claim gold and plant their stakes on their own land, which they were basically showing up and being like, oh, I like this spot. This is my land now. When in all reality, people actually lived there before that. And they were coming in saying it was their land and they came in focused on removing the population of about 150,000 indigenous people who lived there. California at the time, was an extremely diverse place because they had a long history of Native peoples who lived there for thousands of years and they spoke over 80 different languages. So there were, there was a lot of culture here. And when white settlers came in, they saw them as a threat to their own livelihoods and battles were being raged against them. The first governor of California, Peter Burnett,

wanted them gone as well. And he put into law within the state legislator that white settlers had the right to take custody of native children. The law also stated that they could be arrested for small things and ultimately led to the enslavement of tens of thousands of natives in the name of their protection. To be like, this is for your safety. You have to work for me for free and be treated like shit, basically. It reminds me of the, um, oh my God, guardianship type of deal in Killers of the Flower Moon, which obviously the movie is out now, which we went to see when we were in Cape Town because I'm like, I am seeing that on opening dead. But in the book, it goes way more into depth, of course, about this like guardianship of, okay, so you have all this money,

but you can't be trusted to manage your own wealth. So we as white people are going to be assigned to you or to a household to manage your money to make sure that you're spending it appropriately and what you can and can spend can and can't spend your own money on. It's so great, like the more and more you learn about the honestly fucking audacity. Yeah, it's crazy. I mean, and basically for this, it was just like, we're enslaving you because it's for your own safety and protection. You're not safe out there and you can't survive out there when in reality that they've been there for thousands of years. And the governor, Peter Burnett, set aside state money to fund and actually arm local militias against indigenous people. The state, with the help of the U.S. Army, supplied weapons who were then given to local militias who then killed indigenous people. in the masses. The local governments even put out bounties for the death of natives and would actually pay white settlers for the horses that they stole from the people that they murdered. So not only were these murders happening, but they were being paid by the government and the ones that weren't paid

by the government were encouraged and then paid after. Yeah, it's government-funded massacre is what it is. It really is. You're being incentivized to kill people. It's like, we'll pay you for their horses if you kill them. It's like, it is. It's government paying for it. It's government paying for it. And it's an estimated that 100,000 indigenous people within the state of California were murdered or died of causes related to the settlement within the first two years of the gold rush. By 1873, approximately only 30,000 remained, but most lived within reservations where they were forced off their homelands to live on. Thomas, this anthropologist that had arrived at the jail, was sitting across and conversating with this man of the Yahi people. And this was immediately incredible to him because with this, he saw a huge opportunity. And he saw, because his study was of culture and of indigenous people, he saw this as an opportunity to learn about the Yahi people, to learn about this man and to learn how he was still even alive.

Because everyone thought that the Yahi had died out and there was no one left. The Yana people in general had been dwindling for years, many after the loss of their resources and family members and horrific battles or disease. and a lot of the Yanna people had surrendered and found themselves living within towns or reservations of white settlers. And basically they were forced to surrender. They were forced out of their resources. Many of their families were murdered and they had no other options or they were forcibly removed and captured. The Yana were considered extremely resilient people who were surviving in lands that offered little resources and had extreme weather seasons. So surrendering was just like,

This impossible decision that was made only after they were put into desperate situations. It was something that never would have happened otherwise. The Yahi people, however, never surrendered at any point. Their population went from thousands to hundreds and then to only a handful. But still, under these horrible conditions, they eluded capture. At one point in time, the yahi were considered the most feared and respected tribe in all of California. They were known for their hunting skills, survival skills, and being especially skilled in battles when protecting their own.

While they never accepted or turned to using guns or any white man's weapons, their reputation had spread to white settlers of their skills in battle, who in turn feared them. Anyway, even though they were equipped with more weapons. The Yahi people survived longer in the Sierras than most other tribes. A lot of that was due to their ability to adapt and constant movement farther into the wilderness when the gold rush began. Conflicts arose when the Yahi would come into Settlers' barn.

and hunt their livestock for food, which ultimately led to deadly battles where the Yahi lost many of their people. White settlers eventually forced them into the most remote corners of the Lassen foothills, where at some points they remained unseen for years. And then, after submissions to kill them off completely, the Yahi were deemed extinct. So basically, when I was reading this book about them, they were just saying how they survived off the land for many years on their own. But when settlers came in, they were cutting down forest with my mining, they were polluting the water, which was ruining their resources for fishing. A lot of the animals were leaving the area because of these new populations of the settlers who were cutting down

trees and farming and doing all the stuff. So they were losing huge resources in an area that was tough for resources in ways as well. And so they started actually hunting the livestock that they would go out. They would find a bow and arrow in their livestock. And then these people would go out and hunt the native peoples who were out there as like a revenge thing. You killed my cow. I'm killing your whole family, which is fucked up. Gotcha. So while in negotiations in the jail, Thomas had actually convinced the jail to let him take

this indigenous man back with him and to bring him back to the University of California, specifically to the Museum of Anthropology. There, he said he could live safely. and both he and fellow anthropologist Alfred Krober could learn about him and continue to try and communicate with him. And they actually, they talked to this man about it too. They gave him a choice. They said, you can go to a reservation. You'll be with, you'll be with other people who are a native and you can stay there or you can come back with us to the museum. And he actually chose to go to the museum, which at face value, you're like, I'm going to go live in a museum. That seems strange. But a lot happens.

Well, also the other thing that when you stop to think about it a little more in depth, it makes total sense. But, you know, growing up you didn't really think too much about. But when indigenous peoples were forced onto reservations, a lot of them were with other tribal nations or groups that they have had hundreds, if not thousands of years worth of conflict with. And now you're in one small area. And now this whole blanket statement of, oh, well, you're an indigenous person. and you might as, like, how are you not getting? It comes from a perspective of a white settler, you know, European of like, I don't understand. You're all the same. You know, like, you should all get along. And it's just for him to make the decision to go to the museum, whether or not that was part of that decision of, well, I'm not going to be with my people. So.

Because there are not. Who knows. Right. So who knows if that went into his final decision or not. But it's something that I think was highlighted in Killers of the Flower Moon as well, the book, if not the movie. But I think it's something that's important to think about when we were reflecting back on history of the decision to put, just group a bunch of different people together. It's, it's, it's like you said, it was just they figured everyone was the same and that wasn't even something that they put into, put any thought into. But at the same time, they are removing people from the homelands and saying, here, you can live here.

So there wasn't much thought, I think, put into any of that. But I think it's also important to note in the story that at this time, this man was nameless. It is custom that the yahi are only called by their names, by their own people. So when he was asked his name, he told them that he had none. And he said that he had none because there was no one left alive of his people to call him by it. And it was at that point that Alfred Krober decided to name him Ishi. And he chose this name because Ishi is a woman. word in Yahi that translates to man. So from then forward, he always referred to him as

Ishi. And he actually accepted that as a name as well. He was like, okay, you may call me that. Okay. But he throughout his time, the rest of his life, he never told anyone what his yahi name is. While at the museum, Ishi made friends and he settled into his new life slowly. He was given a place at the museum to live, which like I said, sounds strange. However, at the same time, this museum frequently had indigenous guests who were there because they wanted to share their culture and they wanted to share, they didn't want their people to be lost to history, basically. So him being there wasn't strange because there were lots of indigenous peoples who were coming in and out of the doors, staying for a long time. So him being there wasn't, wasn't that strange for the time.

And just to clarify, it's not like he was put on display there. He just lived at the museum or, like he wasn't an exhibit, right? He was an exhibit, but not. not 24 hours a day or anything. He lived at the museum and he actually did, and I'll talk about this more further too, is he actually did become an exhibit because people had heard of him and this was going all over the news. People were flocking to this museum to see him. And after a while he agreed, he's like, I want people to know about the yahi people. So people would come in and he would show them how he would make a bow and arrow. He would show them how he would make a shelter, how he would shoot a bow and arrow, how he would start a fire, like things like that.

Okay. He was doing on display. Like educating. Yeah. Okay. Everything or not everything, but most things that we know about the Yahi people are because of Ishi and because he decided to share them with the museum. So he definitely was an exhibit in the museum.

It just seems so, like I totally understand what you're saying and that he participated in those things and that's all wonderful. from our perspective now that we have this information in his story and all that because he actively participated in it. But it just, you can't help but feel gross about it. Yeah. I mean, he did it in a moment. And you read it more in the book and you hear what's happening. And it is a moment of he did make friends, it seems like. And this was this book was not written from Ishi's perspective. So this is written from an outside perspective of him that interacted with him. And the author, Theodore Grober is actually the anthropologist that worked with him. It's his wife who wrote it. So

it is not from his perspective, which I think is really important. But she states that he really did make friends while he was there and that he wanted to share his culture. But the reason he wanted to share his culture and wanted people to know about the Ahi people was because everyone he knew and loved had died and been killed. If he didn't tell the story, there would be no one to keep the Ahi people alive. He was doing it out of necessity. Yeah, right. Okay. And when he arrived at this museum to begin, Ishii, he was very shy, he was polite, he was

reserved. He at first, he refused to wear shoes, but he did agree to wear the white man's clothing. He continued Yahi traditions. He was able to make tools, bow and arrows, and he was actually able to make them with materials he specifically requested. So he would request to the museum, I need this, this, and this. And they would go out into probably the first. foothills of Lassen and collect them and bring them back to him. Media flocked to the museum to

try and get a view of him. And there were many people who were coming and offering money to basically buy him. There were circuses that were coming in. Like, hey, he would be a great, basically like a circus ornament, like have him perform in my shows, we'll pay you for him. Just treating him like like a wild animal or just an object, like no regard for him. And the museum adamantly denied it. They never even entertained the idea that they would sell Ishi to a circus or anything, but people were asking. And Ishi did agree to be on display. He would show off his woodworking tools and customs of the Yahi people to visitors. And once he was there, he was really eager to teach them, but only to the extent that he felt was respectful to the yahi culture. So there were things that were just between

the Yahi people that he would not divulge in and not tell. And he was asked frequently what his name is. and he never told it was just Ishi from then on. While he was in the museum, he befriended Juan Dolores, who was a Papago Navajo native, who also worked as a linguist. And he was able to have conversations with Ishi better than a lot of other people. So between the many people who worked to uncover the Yahi language and communicate with Ishi, they learned his story that way. They learned how he was the sole survivor of his people and how he found himself here

in the University of California's Anthropology Museum. They found out that Ishi was born sometime around 1861 during the height of the gold rush and the killing of California's indigenous communities. The Yahi had at one point had settlements all around the foothills of Lassen Volcanic, where they moved to depending on the season, but lived a relatively comfortable life. And Ishi, this was the point, this was kind of the turnaround point where they knew he was Yahi, but now he got into the museum and he was telling the story of his life. And there's definitely, it was saying that there were some translations that were difficult and his story has kind of changed through time and translations and things because it wasn't perfect. He was speaking a language that no one else spoke. So while they were conversating and stuff, there was a lot of, it was like two different dialects trying to speak with each other and figuring it out. So well, quite literally, things got lost in translation. Yeah, but they did discover a lot about his story. And at this point in the story, I want to tell you how. he got here and his life story before the museum. Ishi never knew the comfortable life that the Yahi had, where they were basically, they were the most respected tribe, they were the most feared tribe, they lived very comfortably, he never

knew that life because by the time he was born, the gold rush was in full swing and the indigenous communities were fearing for their life and constantly on the move. So as a young toddler and a young boy, they were constantly moving to different wilderness areas and they were trying to go to places where white settlers couldn't reach them on horseback and they were continuously living in fear. Many of the Yana people had already been killed or forcibly removed when he was a boy. The Yahi, who had once been a couple thousand, were down to a small number and they were desperate for survival. While Ishi was learning the yahi culture, he learned how to hunt, fish, survive on the lands. They were also in this time where they were raiding and stealing ranches for food, which until

actually Ishi arrived at the museum, he reveals that he didn't understand that the livestock belonged to a certain person. Their people thought that they were hunting fairly. They thought that these were just animals that were out. So actually, when he found out, she describes it in the book that he finds out that they were stealing from someone. And she said that he seemed like embarrassed and upset because they were just trying to survive and they thought these were fair game. Okay. Throughout the years, Ishi lived through and witnessed several massacres. of his family that he remembered as a child, one of the major ones being sparked from robbing a ranch. In clear desperation, a group from the Yahi robbed a ranch house and broad daylight of food and supplies.

The rancher's wife was outside with a ranch hand tending to the bees when they saw the group, loaded with provisions, escaping out of one of their windows and taking off into the woods. The group managed to get away, but shortly afterwards, the ranch owners contacted Robert Anderson, who was a civilian rancher who had taken it upon his house. himself with friends to hunt indigenous people of the area, which, as we mentioned before, was encouraged during this time period. He was also known to be extremely cruel and in one written account of witnessing Anderson after murdering a group of indigenous men, women, and children, and scalping them, they wrote, Anderson was riding a very small white mule and as we were

coming down the stage road, one of the parties said that Anderson must wear the flower hat, referring to a flower hat of a woman that he killed. We untied it from the top of the pack and Anderson being such a large man, we had tied it to his head. We then took a scalp and fastened it on the mule's rump. We met several emigrant wagons going to Oregon. The drivers would stop and the canvas would part and the women's and children's heads would poke out. It was a sight to see that large man riding such a mule, the long rifle laid across in front of him and the flower bonnet and long-haired scalp. Oh my God.

It's horrific and it's awful, but I also think it's important to realize how horrific and horrible these murders were. It wasn't just murdering. Like, they had no regard for anyone. It was parading. Yeah. And he was parading it and laughing, wearing a bonnet of a woman that he also had on his, her head on his hip. It's disgusting and it's horrible. And Anderson was known to be exceptionally skilled in hunting down native groups. And it was only a few hours before he and his friends caught up to the Yahi group who, had raided the ranch. The Yahi people had been following the waters of Mill Creek towards their home. They were in the area of the Mill Creek waterfall, which today is part of Lassen Volcanic National Park and is the tallest waterfall inside the park boundaries. It is here that Anderson and his men quietly followed behind them and when they were not expecting it, opened fire on the group with their guns. They killed each of them and when one attempted to hide behind a waterfall in the creek, I'm unsure if this was actually Mill Creek Falls or another one from nearby. It was hard to understand from the research, but this person was hiding behind

the waterfall to try and elude them, and the group unloaded their guns until the figure of a man slumped over and died. This news got back to Ishi and their family, which was obviously very devastating, especially because there were a few remaining Yahi anyway. And not long after this incident, a devastating murder of the Yahi people happened again. This time, it was considered the final massacre of the Yahi people, where 33 of them were murdered and scalped, and Ishi was a child when he witnessed it. A group of four hunters were in Yonah Country who were participating in a cattle roundup when they found a trail of blood.

They assumed it was a wounded steer, so they followed it, and then they found the steer dead with an arrow in it. It was clear from the state of the steer that whoever had killed it had been in a rush, And instead of skinning it, they cut out chunks of the meat and stashed it hidden in the brush, which looked to be hidden so they could come back later for it. So that evening, the four men went back to their camp, gathered up their hunting dogs, and prepared for the next morning. That following morning, they took back off on the trail where the scent their dogs picked up,

led them upstream to a cave. In this remote spot, secluded from view, were over 30 yahi people, including women, children, and babies. And with them was a large supply of food with both. fresh and dried meat. The men drew out their guns and killed what they believed to be every single one of them. Later, they detailed the slaughter, saying they switched out their guns at one point. One man said he switched from his 56 caliber Spencer rifle to a 38 caliber Smith and Weston revolver because the rifle, quote unquote, tore them up so bad, particularly the babies. Oh my God. It was believed that in this,

they had killed the last of the Yahi people. However, mysterious, the cave after this mass murder was cleaned out of their blood and their bodies were removed. In yahi culture, it was tradition to cremate their loved ones, but it is assumed that they buried them in this instance to avoid any smoke that they would get from cremation. And if that was true, Ishi never told. But he did say that after that, the remaining Yahi went into hiding. And the remaining Yahi people after this massacre was Ishi and only four other people. So he was there. He was there that day. And they basically went out and they said at this point, we can't be here anymore.

There's no one left. We can't even be close to them. And they retreated to the cover and remoteness of what is today Lassen National Forest. And this area is actually, it's known to be a passage of the Pacific Crest Trail, but it borders Lassen National Park. With him, the four, him and the other four remaining people was his mother, his sister, an old man and a younger man, both of whom were not related to him. Do you know how old-ish he was during this time?

During this time, he was relatively young. Like a teenager? I'm just trying to get a visual. He was, so he comes out of hiding when he's 49, and he was in hiding for almost 20 years. Okay, and that was in 1911, you said that. Or maybe he was in hiding for 11. I'll get to it. Okay.

But he's relatively young. Okay. And he's an adult, but he's relatively young. They took refuge under the old growth forest along sulfur and deer creek at the top of a steep canyon. They actually found an area where grizzly bears had once dend and used their trail to get down to the creek from this canyon. Basically, how it was described in the book was that this was an extremely forested, not used area that was full of laurel brush. And it was very thick and hard to get through. So they're like, no one's going to come up here. horses can't make it up here. We're on the steep canyon and there was a creek below it and they used these old grizzly bear trails to get to and from water. They made a village in this forest. They made shelters out of driftwood from the creek and other supplies that they could find, such as an old wagon canvas, strips of bark, and the laurel itself. They had a cookhouse with fireplace, stones for grinding acorns, cooking baskets, cooking stones, paddles, and stirrers. They used a brush roof of the shelter that diffused the

the smoke from their fires from rising in an obvious spiral that could have had them seen. Ishi had a workroom where he made his arrows and spear points. Ishi and his sister primarily were the hunters of the group and the creek offered a fantastic fishing area. They remained out of sight and surviving in these lands for close to 12 years before their food supply dwindled enough that they needed to resort to raiding ranches again. And they were very discreet about it, trying to take an animal here or going in and grabbing like coffee, rice provisions inside, but because they started noticing rating again, there

became rumors that maybe there were Yahi people in the mountains after all. Everyone had long thought that the Yahi had been killed off until sometime in late 1906 when a cabin at a nearby mine on Upper Deer Creek was broken into and a bag was taken. Although no one was seen, it quickly sparked the rumors that the Yahi were in fact still out in these forests. Then on November 9th, 1908, two engineers were sent out to the junction of deer and sulfur creek right in the area that they had been because a company was considering building a dam and a flume out there. They were moving quietly and as they approached the stream, they came across Ishi, who was naked, standing on a rock in a creek, fishing with a harpoon. And there were two different accounts from the people that

Ishi had gestured them away. One said he was like hissing and growling and the other said he was just like trying to shoe them away. But either way, whatever he did, both of these men turned around and left. But they went back to camp and they told the story to a guide who they had been traveling with. And this guide knew Yana country very well. The very next morning, this guide went back out to the area

and as he was traveling down the canyon, an arrow whizzed past him, narrowly missing him. He took that immediately as a hint that he needed to leave and went back to the crew who was clearing a flume line near the canyon shelf. And this canyon shelf is also very close to the location that the Yahi built their village in. And that was the indicator. Like, there are native people out here.

By 10 a.m., that same morning, by pure accident, just working in this area, they actually stumbled into the Yahi camp. Ishi and others, who were just four people now, had noticed them approaching. And after waiting out and hoping that they would just pass and unnoticed because they were in like this really thick brush as hidden as they could be, They hoped that they would just walk by it and totally miss it. They made the decision to actually leave because they were getting really close. Ishi's sister was seen by the group assisting the old man, half running in the opposite direction, but Ishi's mother was too old and weak to escape. Instead, they covered her with blankets and hides hoping that when they entered the camp, no one would see her.

The surveyors did see the village and they came in and they searched the village and quickly found her. Her face was full with deep wrinkles and her hair was cut. almost to her scalp. It was apparent at first that she was partially paralyzed and her legs were severely swollen and wrapped in buckskin. She stared back at them and she was wide-eyed and terrified. They continued to search the village and found dried salmon, acorns, deer snares, bows and arrows, and lots of tools. They decided to take everything that they could carry. They took their food, baskets, tools, moccasins, fur robes, made of pelts, anything they could for souvenirs and proof that they existed. They took everything that they could except for Ishi's mother. The following morning,

the guide was kind of feeling a little bad that they did all that. So for whatever reason, he went back to the camp to look for this older woman and found that she was gone. Along with her, all the tools they hadn't stolen were gone. And there was not a single footprint to follow indicating where they may have gone. He attempted to search the area, but there was just no trace of them anywhere. But that was the last time that Ishi saw his sister or the older man ever again. When the surveyors had come, they had both ran in different directions. And Ishi just assumed and was worried that the two of them drowned because the direction that she went, she had to do a river crossing, which was really difficult and treacherous. And he believed that she might have drowned in that or met some violent end in another way because he knew that if she was still alive or was well, they would have found each other.

And he never saw her again. When the surveyors had raided the village, Ishi had actually stuck close by because his mom. was there, and when it became clear, he came back for his mother and grabbed everything that he could. Ishi took care of his mother until only a few months later when she died. In a sign of deep mourning, Ishi burned his hair to almost his scalp. For the next three years, Ishi lived and survived with no human companionship at all. And for that entirety of that time, he kept his hair burnt short as a tribute to the deep sadness and mourning of his people and his loved ones that he had lost.

After years of surviving and being alone, he ventured into town to the slaughterhouse, fully in desperation for food and also in loneliness. The only interactions he had ever had in his lifetime, now at 49 years old, with white people were of violence and death, and he fully expected to be put to death as soon as he was found. But to his luck and his surprise, when the museum and anthropologists took him in, they offered him friendship, a home, and an opportunity. They offered him this opportunity to tell the story of his people, his culture, and allowed him to continue to practice things deeply rooted in his life. And that is why we know his story today and why we know that this is what led him to the slaughterhouse. And when he was in the museum, he worked as a janitor

in the museum for money and they paid him. And he worked as an assistant, which he was also paid for and earned money. He was then on display for visitors showcasing how he made tools, shot bow and arrows, created baskets and other things. He was the last of his people, and he was in deep sadness throughout this whole ordeal. But through that, he also communicated as he could, and he used his time to educate about the Yahi people and is a major reason why we know about them today.

He taught others words within his language and taught them traditional Yahi songs. So part of why his language lives on today is because of that, and there's actually recordings of his voice that exist as well. During his time there, he took the anthropologist and field workers out on an expedition to where he lived. He showed them how he lived out there, how he hunted, and how he lived off the wilderness. Sadly, during his time at the museum, he contracted tuberculosis, which he eventually succumbed to five years after he arrived at the slaughterhouse at the age of 54. His final words spoken were, you stay, I go.

And with his death, an entire population of people died. He was cremated as in Yahi tradition with the exception of his brain, which was sent for an autopsy. Which should be noted was very against Yahi tradition and has become a very controversial subject, which I'll get into. But that was for people who were trying to preserve his culture and be respectful to him, that was like very, very disrespectful to do that. His brain was sent to the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in Washington. his ashes were buried with bow and arrows and tools that Ishi had created. But in 1999, the Butte County Native American Cultural Committee and the Pitt River Tribe, who is most closely related to the tribal group of Ishi,

fought for his ashes and his brain to be brought back to his tribal homeland to be reburied according to tribal custom. In the year 2000, after court battles, it was agreed to release his remains and to have a private ceremony in his honor. And that is everything that I have for the story of Ishi. Whoa. His last words gave me goosebumps for sure. You stay, I go.

Oh, right in the heart. I mean, the whole story is incredible. Absolutely. Yeah. And it's awful that it had to come to that, that he had to make that decision. But thankfully, he did. Because imagine what we would have lost out on knowing about his people. And it just makes you wonder how many thousands and thousands.

thousands of stories are like that that we will just never know because there wasn't an ishi, you know. There wasn't a survivor. Yeah. It's it's so depressing. Honestly, it's so depressing, but it's also, I don't know, it's just, it every time. It's our history. Yeah, every time we do one of these stories, it's a double-edged sword, you know,

because it's so depressing to look back on all of the mistakes and missteps that we took. throughout American history and to reflect back on them. But like we say over and over, it's like kind of like a broken record, but it's just so important. And that's why I'm so glad you decided to cover a story. And I know you've just in our chats, you're like, I have this one and this one and this story and this native story. And I know you covered one for last month's bonus story as well, an indigenous history episode. And it's so important that we continue to keep weaving them into to our show. Because, you know, National Parks came second. And I know it's not always the funnest, lighthearted, thrilling story to share. Our podcast is not lighthearted, though. That's true. That's also true. So we're here to depress you and educate you. Yeah. And that's all. And educate ourselves, honestly. I mean, this is, we tell the stories, but in this, we're learning so much. I never, I never knew close to anything about the gold rush that I know now or about Ishi. I mean, it's, it's a learning process. And I think that's the most you can do is just learn about it. There's lots of indigenous communities who are educating on what happened and hearing it straight from the stories. I mean, I'm not of indigenous descent.

And I haven't been raised with these cultures and things. But there are lots of people who have and have so much information, which encourage you to look into. Even with Ishi, there have been books besides the one that I read that have been written that I discovered after. And especially there's a whole book written about the journey to get his brain back and looking into the culture of how he was basically for anthropologists in a museum who was trying so hard to respect and preserve his story, how deeply they disrespected him by his burial. And there's a whole story of someone going into his story and getting it back. And that person is of I'm not sure exactly where they're from, but they're from. They are from an indigenous culture. So there's lots of resources out there too.

Well, and speaking of resources, this actually came up in my research for this month's bonus story. The story isn't an indigenous story, but I obviously mention it a little bit. And I came across this website that is really, I spent like a half an hour on. I'm like, oh, well, now I'm doing this. And it's native dash land. and it's an interactive map. You can type in your address specifically or just the general area you live in in the world and it'll zoom in and it'll show you not only what native territory, ancestral territory or current territory that your land that you are now inhabiting has been,

but it also shows the different languages that have been spoken there over the last thousands of years and different like treaties that happen there and battles that happen there. And it's so interesting. What is it called? It's called native dash land dot CA. Is it a Canadian? Is that Canada? Yep. Yep. And there's little toggles that you can do. Okay, I just want to know the territories or the language is spoken here or the treaties or you can do all three. Do you see it? And just the US too. Oh yeah. Here's my address. It's the whole world. But yes, the United States and Canada are its primary. focus. The Wabanaki and the Abanaki. Yeah, and then I type in, if I type in mine, which I've always kind of known, just because there's a lot of indigenous names and stuff going on, you know,

through towns and street signs and all that, but the Ute and Cheyenne and Lakota are in my area. And it's just, it's a great, you know, if you're going to visit somewhere and you want to know the history of the land, just type it in real quick and at least get some sort of basic understanding. of the places. Like where you are. Yeah, the places that you visit and call home now. So that's just a little shout out to that. Oh, I love this.

I've never heard of this before. This is really cool. This is really educational. Yeah. So that's all I have to say on that. Cool. And it says right on the page, our mission, we strive to map indigenous lands in a way that changes, challenges, and improves the way people see history and the present day.

We hope to strengthen the spiritual bonds that people have. with the land, it's people, and its meaning. There we go. We should link it in the episode description also. Yeah, I'll add a link in there. Cool. Well, thanks for sharing Ishi's story with all of us, and we'll see everyone next time. Yeah. In the meantime, enjoy the view. But watch you're back. Bye, everyone. Bye. Thank you so much for joining us again this week. If you have a trail tale or story suggestion, send us an email at Stories at N-PADPodcast.com. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at National Park After Dark and on Twitter at NPAD podcast.

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