1 00:00:05,040 --> 00:00:08,840 Speaker 1: They're in concealment, doing everything they can to hide. They 2 00:00:08,880 --> 00:00:12,559 Speaker 1: go so far as to only walk on rock. They 3 00:00:12,560 --> 00:00:14,560 Speaker 1: don't walk on dirt where they could leave a track. 4 00:00:15,080 --> 00:00:18,880 Speaker 1: They go from rock to rock. They travel the waterways 5 00:00:19,079 --> 00:00:22,279 Speaker 1: so they don't leave a track. They never when they're 6 00:00:22,280 --> 00:00:25,200 Speaker 1: going through brush, break a branch. They always bend the 7 00:00:25,239 --> 00:00:28,600 Speaker 1: branches as they're going through. They get down on all 8 00:00:28,680 --> 00:00:32,280 Speaker 1: fours and crawl like a bear through the brush, so 9 00:00:32,360 --> 00:00:34,760 Speaker 1: it looks like it's a bear with There are a 10 00:00:34,760 --> 00:00:39,200 Speaker 1: lot of grizzly bears in California at that time, forty 11 00:00:39,400 --> 00:00:41,200 Speaker 1: years they live in concealment. 12 00:00:43,360 --> 00:00:45,360 Speaker 2: I want to tell you the story of a man 13 00:00:45,440 --> 00:00:48,040 Speaker 2: who stepped out of the Stone Age into the modern 14 00:00:48,080 --> 00:00:52,519 Speaker 2: world in nineteen eleven. As the last surviving member of 15 00:00:52,600 --> 00:00:56,360 Speaker 2: the Yahee tribe. He lived in complete secrecy in the 16 00:00:56,400 --> 00:01:00,440 Speaker 2: wild lands of northern California. His entire life, amidst the 17 00:01:00,480 --> 00:01:05,360 Speaker 2: extermination of his people, is interfaced with modern Anthropologists at 18 00:01:05,360 --> 00:01:09,680 Speaker 2: the University of California gave incredible insight into the lives 19 00:01:09,720 --> 00:01:14,560 Speaker 2: of North America's last surviving, most primitive people, and his 20 00:01:14,720 --> 00:01:20,240 Speaker 2: arrival to Berkeley, California, made national news. We don't know 21 00:01:20,400 --> 00:01:25,720 Speaker 2: his real name, but they called him Ishi. I really 22 00:01:25,880 --> 00:01:30,240 Speaker 2: doubt that you're gonna want to miss this one. Just 23 00:01:30,280 --> 00:01:33,440 Speaker 2: a note before we begin. This is a bit confusing 24 00:01:33,480 --> 00:01:36,280 Speaker 2: to me, but I hear rumblings of it being inappropriate 25 00:01:36,319 --> 00:01:40,800 Speaker 2: to refer to Native Americans as Indians. However, all the 26 00:01:40,880 --> 00:01:43,560 Speaker 2: Native people that I have personally met have conveyed to 27 00:01:43,560 --> 00:01:46,520 Speaker 2: me their comfort with the naming convention, so we'll be 28 00:01:46,720 --> 00:01:50,040 Speaker 2: using it here. My intent is to bring respect and 29 00:01:50,120 --> 00:01:53,760 Speaker 2: dignity to the Native community, and I hope that translates 30 00:01:53,920 --> 00:02:06,440 Speaker 2: one hundred percent. My name is Clay nukemb and this 31 00:02:06,480 --> 00:02:10,560 Speaker 2: is the Bear Grease Podcast, where we'll explore things forgotten 32 00:02:10,800 --> 00:02:15,000 Speaker 2: but relevant, search for insight and unlikely places, and where 33 00:02:15,120 --> 00:02:18,960 Speaker 2: we'll tell the story of Americans who live their lives 34 00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:24,720 Speaker 2: close to the land. Presented by FHF gear, American made 35 00:02:24,919 --> 00:02:28,640 Speaker 2: purpose built hunting and fishing gear as designed to be 36 00:02:28,720 --> 00:02:31,160 Speaker 2: as rugged as the places we explore. 37 00:02:40,840 --> 00:02:45,200 Speaker 1: Now, this is interesting because almost all of the books 38 00:02:45,240 --> 00:02:47,920 Speaker 1: you'll read and the stories that you hear say the 39 00:02:47,960 --> 00:02:51,600 Speaker 1: emergence was August twenty ninth, nineteen eleven, the morning the 40 00:02:51,639 --> 00:02:55,360 Speaker 1: early morning of August twenty ninth, in a stockyard outside 41 00:02:55,400 --> 00:03:01,200 Speaker 1: of Orville. The dogs are barking. The young boy comes 42 00:03:01,240 --> 00:03:05,040 Speaker 1: out and sees the snaked Indian cowering in the corner 43 00:03:05,080 --> 00:03:10,040 Speaker 1: of the stockyard. Yells, and the other people come out 44 00:03:10,120 --> 00:03:13,639 Speaker 1: and they find issue kneeling in the corner of one 45 00:03:13,639 --> 00:03:14,680 Speaker 1: of the fences. 46 00:03:19,280 --> 00:03:21,480 Speaker 2: The site must have been unnerving to the men in 47 00:03:21,480 --> 00:03:25,000 Speaker 2: the stockyard. The Yana Indians were believed to have been 48 00:03:25,040 --> 00:03:28,760 Speaker 2: completely gone from the rugged region of northern California since 49 00:03:28,840 --> 00:03:33,359 Speaker 2: the early eighteen nineties. However, for nearly two decades there 50 00:03:33,360 --> 00:03:36,200 Speaker 2: had been rumors of a small band of Indians still 51 00:03:36,240 --> 00:03:40,520 Speaker 2: in the mountains north of Oraville. Indigenous people were still 52 00:03:40,640 --> 00:03:44,600 Speaker 2: viewed as dangerous enemies of American progress. This was still 53 00:03:44,600 --> 00:03:48,000 Speaker 2: a real vibe. You're hearing the voice of a man 54 00:03:48,120 --> 00:03:50,120 Speaker 2: named Jeane Hopkins. 55 00:03:51,280 --> 00:03:55,480 Speaker 1: So the emergence again. He's been by himself since nineteen 56 00:03:55,480 --> 00:04:02,680 Speaker 1: o eight. He's hungry, he's lonely, he's starving, and you 57 00:04:02,720 --> 00:04:05,640 Speaker 1: can imagine it living three years by yourself in the mountains. 58 00:04:06,200 --> 00:04:11,360 Speaker 1: The loneliness must have been excruciating. So in nineteen eleven 59 00:04:12,200 --> 00:04:16,320 Speaker 1: he decides that he's going to I'm going to go down. 60 00:04:16,960 --> 00:04:18,719 Speaker 1: I know I go down, I may not come back. 61 00:04:18,720 --> 00:04:20,760 Speaker 1: I probably won't come back. They'll either kill me or 62 00:04:20,800 --> 00:04:23,760 Speaker 1: they'll hang me. But I'm going to go down there 63 00:04:24,160 --> 00:04:26,040 Speaker 1: and see what happens. 64 00:04:27,279 --> 00:04:31,839 Speaker 2: The man was in dire straits physically and psychologically. His 65 00:04:31,960 --> 00:04:34,800 Speaker 2: hair was burned off close to his scalp. He was 66 00:04:34,920 --> 00:04:37,799 Speaker 2: naked except for an old scrap of a covered wagon 67 00:04:37,920 --> 00:04:41,479 Speaker 2: canvas that he'd wrapped around his shoulders. He was stoic 68 00:04:41,640 --> 00:04:46,000 Speaker 2: and bewildered, like a man walking into certain death. These 69 00:04:46,040 --> 00:04:49,760 Speaker 2: people he was now engaging with had killed off every 70 00:04:49,800 --> 00:04:54,000 Speaker 2: single one of his family and his tribe. He'd watched 71 00:04:54,040 --> 00:04:55,480 Speaker 2: it happen in his lifetime. 72 00:04:56,880 --> 00:04:59,320 Speaker 1: So one way or the other is she is found 73 00:04:59,320 --> 00:05:04,720 Speaker 1: in the stockyard, starving, can't communicate with anybody. The people 74 00:05:04,760 --> 00:05:09,159 Speaker 1: of the stockyard are sympathetic. They call the local sheriff. 75 00:05:09,920 --> 00:05:15,200 Speaker 1: The local sheriff, fro Morrelville, comes over, recognizes this man. 76 00:05:16,200 --> 00:05:19,200 Speaker 1: They think he might be insane. This man needs help. 77 00:05:19,200 --> 00:05:23,080 Speaker 1: He's starving, he can't communicate. We've got to find out 78 00:05:23,080 --> 00:05:25,760 Speaker 1: what the story is here. So the sheriff takes him 79 00:05:25,800 --> 00:05:27,960 Speaker 1: back to Horrville and puts him into jail, puts him 80 00:05:27,960 --> 00:05:30,520 Speaker 1: in the cell that they reserve for the insane. 81 00:05:31,880 --> 00:05:35,600 Speaker 2: Sheriff JB. Weber came and took the man without incident. 82 00:05:36,120 --> 00:05:39,360 Speaker 2: He spoke no English and made no effort to communicate. 83 00:05:40,200 --> 00:05:42,719 Speaker 2: Over the course of the next twenty four hours, Yana 84 00:05:42,800 --> 00:05:46,640 Speaker 2: and Spanish speakers came, but none could communicate with the man. 85 00:05:47,120 --> 00:05:50,240 Speaker 2: It was a mystery who he was, where he came from, 86 00:05:50,520 --> 00:05:53,560 Speaker 2: what tribe he was from. The next day, the San 87 00:05:53,600 --> 00:05:57,120 Speaker 2: Francisco Call newspaper ran an article in a photo with 88 00:05:57,200 --> 00:06:03,400 Speaker 2: the headline Aborigine Who's tongue? No man can understand last 89 00:06:03,480 --> 00:06:07,000 Speaker 2: of the wildest Indian tribe in America, and he would 90 00:06:07,000 --> 00:06:12,240 Speaker 2: become known as the wild Man of Oraville. They believed 91 00:06:12,279 --> 00:06:14,120 Speaker 2: him to be around fifty years old. 92 00:06:15,800 --> 00:06:20,280 Speaker 1: Now at this time, the local newspapers are starting to 93 00:06:20,320 --> 00:06:26,160 Speaker 1: write stories about a wild man found captured in Oroville. 94 00:06:26,680 --> 00:06:29,640 Speaker 1: Could he be the Indians that we've been hearing about 95 00:06:29,640 --> 00:06:32,440 Speaker 1: over the last several years that have been reading. Could 96 00:06:32,520 --> 00:06:35,400 Speaker 1: he be one of the lost Yahee? Could he be 97 00:06:35,680 --> 00:06:37,560 Speaker 1: one of those tribe we thought was extinct. 98 00:06:38,680 --> 00:06:41,560 Speaker 2: Rumors that circulated that there were Indians still in the 99 00:06:41,600 --> 00:06:45,240 Speaker 2: Deer and Mill Creek area of Butte County, California, but 100 00:06:45,320 --> 00:06:48,640 Speaker 2: they were just rumors. In nineteen oh six, a hat 101 00:06:48,760 --> 00:06:51,360 Speaker 2: sewn with hide and sinew had been picked up near 102 00:06:51,360 --> 00:06:55,279 Speaker 2: a man's cabin where some supplies were stolen. In nineteen 103 00:06:55,320 --> 00:06:58,520 Speaker 2: oh eight, survey or scouting for the building of Lake 104 00:06:58,560 --> 00:07:02,599 Speaker 2: Oroville claimed that I saw a naked Indian fishing with 105 00:07:02,680 --> 00:07:06,440 Speaker 2: a harpoon on Deer Creek. This would be treated with 106 00:07:06,520 --> 00:07:11,120 Speaker 2: the same skepticism today as someone claiming to see you Bigfoot. 107 00:07:21,040 --> 00:07:23,720 Speaker 2: The room where Jeene Hopkins is telling us this story 108 00:07:23,920 --> 00:07:27,200 Speaker 2: is probably one of the most unique in America. There 109 00:07:27,200 --> 00:07:30,560 Speaker 2: are over twenty five hundred traditional bows on the walls, 110 00:07:30,760 --> 00:07:35,960 Speaker 2: along with arrows, quivers, stone points, hunting artifacts, and antlers 111 00:07:35,960 --> 00:07:41,400 Speaker 2: of all kinds. This is Jean's personal bowhunting museum in Columbus, Indiana. 112 00:07:42,000 --> 00:07:45,320 Speaker 2: Gene is no billionaire. This museum was founded on pure 113 00:07:45,440 --> 00:07:50,120 Speaker 2: passion for bowhunting, bordering on obsession. It's not open to 114 00:07:50,160 --> 00:07:53,560 Speaker 2: the public, just to people that he meets that are interested. 115 00:07:54,400 --> 00:07:57,440 Speaker 2: It's comprehend its significance. You'd have to be belly button 116 00:07:57,480 --> 00:08:00,840 Speaker 2: deep in the weeds of bow hunting history. You see 117 00:08:01,040 --> 00:08:05,240 Speaker 2: Native Americans archery hunted. Then archery died way down with 118 00:08:05,360 --> 00:08:08,440 Speaker 2: the advent of rifles and the breakup of the traditional 119 00:08:08,480 --> 00:08:12,520 Speaker 2: lifestyles of the tribes. But in nineteen eleven there was 120 00:08:12,560 --> 00:08:16,520 Speaker 2: a spark that started a bow hunting renaissance in America, 121 00:08:17,200 --> 00:08:21,640 Speaker 2: and that spark walked into the Oraville stockyard on August 122 00:08:21,720 --> 00:08:26,640 Speaker 2: twenty ninth. More on this ahead, Gene owns some bows 123 00:08:26,680 --> 00:08:30,280 Speaker 2: of Saxton, Pope, art Young, Will Compton, and Fred Baer. 124 00:08:30,720 --> 00:08:33,680 Speaker 2: Maybe those names are familiar to you, but if they're not, 125 00:08:34,200 --> 00:08:38,080 Speaker 2: these men are the Washington, Lincoln, and Roosevelts of modern 126 00:08:38,120 --> 00:08:42,360 Speaker 2: bow hunting. But perhaps the most prized artifact will fit 127 00:08:42,480 --> 00:08:45,880 Speaker 2: in the palm of your hand. It's an original stone 128 00:08:46,000 --> 00:08:49,400 Speaker 2: point made by a Yahee Indian first called the wild 129 00:08:49,480 --> 00:08:54,560 Speaker 2: Man of Oraville. Yes, he has an actual stone point 130 00:08:55,200 --> 00:08:58,080 Speaker 2: made by the man who would become known to the 131 00:08:58,120 --> 00:09:03,520 Speaker 2: world as Ishie. Those newspaper articles were read by two 132 00:09:03,640 --> 00:09:08,800 Speaker 2: anthropologists from the University of California, Professors Thomas Waterman and 133 00:09:09,000 --> 00:09:12,680 Speaker 2: Alfred Kroeber. They had big questions of where this man 134 00:09:12,800 --> 00:09:16,080 Speaker 2: came from, what tribe he'd come from, and what his 135 00:09:16,200 --> 00:09:16,920 Speaker 2: story was. 136 00:09:19,559 --> 00:09:24,560 Speaker 1: Waterman was a professor of anthropology at the University of California. 137 00:09:25,040 --> 00:09:29,080 Speaker 1: Waterman sees these stories. Waterman had actually come to Oroville 138 00:09:29,080 --> 00:09:31,600 Speaker 1: in nineteen oh eight because he had heard the story 139 00:09:31,640 --> 00:09:35,559 Speaker 1: of the surveyors. This was the first proof that the 140 00:09:35,640 --> 00:09:38,240 Speaker 1: Yahie might still exist in nineteen o eight when the 141 00:09:38,240 --> 00:09:41,000 Speaker 1: surveyors went into the mountains. So he goes in nineteen 142 00:09:41,040 --> 00:09:44,679 Speaker 1: oh nine and goes up into Grizzly Bear's hiding place 143 00:09:44,679 --> 00:09:50,079 Speaker 1: and actually tries to find those last surviving Yahid unsuccessfully. Okay, 144 00:09:50,440 --> 00:09:54,120 Speaker 1: now nineteen eleven, two years later, he's seeing newspaper articles 145 00:09:54,200 --> 00:09:57,480 Speaker 1: coming out of Oroville about the Yahi wild man being 146 00:09:57,520 --> 00:10:01,040 Speaker 1: captured in Oroville. He's in the jail down there. He 147 00:10:01,120 --> 00:10:06,000 Speaker 1: wires the sheriff and says, hold this man, because I 148 00:10:06,040 --> 00:10:10,760 Speaker 1: think this may be one of those Yahie the surveyors 149 00:10:10,800 --> 00:10:15,160 Speaker 1: saw three years ago. So the sheriff holds him. Waterman 150 00:10:15,200 --> 00:10:19,720 Speaker 1: gets on the train, comes to Oroville and he's interviewing 151 00:10:19,760 --> 00:10:24,760 Speaker 1: basically Ishi sitting on the bench, sitting on this bed 152 00:10:25,120 --> 00:10:27,920 Speaker 1: next to issue, and he's trying to communicate with Ishi 153 00:10:28,080 --> 00:10:31,920 Speaker 1: is a Yahi. The Yahi language has disappeared with the 154 00:10:32,000 --> 00:10:36,400 Speaker 1: Yahi people. They're part of the Yana. They're a subtribe 155 00:10:36,440 --> 00:10:39,640 Speaker 1: of the Yana, so there is some similarity between the languages, 156 00:10:39,679 --> 00:10:43,720 Speaker 1: but not a lot he had a book of Yana language, 157 00:10:44,440 --> 00:10:47,880 Speaker 1: so he was going through the Yana words and he 158 00:10:48,000 --> 00:10:51,320 Speaker 1: was trying to see if he could get any recognition. 159 00:10:51,360 --> 00:10:53,320 Speaker 1: He was going through Maydu, he was going through all 160 00:10:53,360 --> 00:10:56,360 Speaker 1: the different dialects of all the tribes in that area, 161 00:10:57,480 --> 00:11:02,240 Speaker 1: and he's almost exhausted every avenue he had and he 162 00:11:02,280 --> 00:11:05,520 Speaker 1: gets down almost to the end of the list and 163 00:11:05,559 --> 00:11:09,920 Speaker 1: he says one word, and Ishu's eyes light up, and 164 00:11:09,960 --> 00:11:17,160 Speaker 1: it's a word. Issue recognizes soweni soweni, yellow pine. And 165 00:11:17,679 --> 00:11:23,440 Speaker 1: Waterman goes soweny yellow pine, soweni and he knocks on 166 00:11:23,760 --> 00:11:28,840 Speaker 1: the bed's made of pine, and Ishi laughs and that 167 00:11:29,040 --> 00:11:32,080 Speaker 1: was the point of recognition, and Waterman looks at him 168 00:11:32,120 --> 00:11:34,600 Speaker 1: and says, yeah, you're a Yahi. You are a Yahi. 169 00:11:35,320 --> 00:11:37,360 Speaker 1: It can't be yah he or extinct. You're a Yahi. 170 00:11:38,679 --> 00:11:42,240 Speaker 1: And that's where now we know for the first time, 171 00:11:42,520 --> 00:11:43,480 Speaker 1: Ishui is a Yahi. 172 00:11:46,520 --> 00:11:50,960 Speaker 2: The communication was powerful for both men. Knowing he was Yahi, 173 00:11:51,160 --> 00:11:54,520 Speaker 2: Waterman was able to have a level of primitive communication 174 00:11:54,679 --> 00:11:58,200 Speaker 2: with him. But what Waterman didn't know yet was that 175 00:11:58,360 --> 00:12:02,840 Speaker 2: Ishi hadn't talked to other human in three years. And 176 00:12:02,920 --> 00:12:08,319 Speaker 2: in that first conversation, Ishi asked Waterman, I Ni my Yahi, 177 00:12:09,200 --> 00:12:14,880 Speaker 2: are you Indian, to which Waterman simply answered yes. The 178 00:12:14,920 --> 00:12:17,520 Speaker 2: comfort of hearing his own language coming from the mouth 179 00:12:17,559 --> 00:12:21,160 Speaker 2: of another human was visible on his face, and it's 180 00:12:21,360 --> 00:12:24,200 Speaker 2: likely hard for us to even grasp what that would 181 00:12:24,240 --> 00:12:27,600 Speaker 2: feel like. This is the part of the story, though, 182 00:12:27,760 --> 00:12:30,880 Speaker 2: where we've got to go back to understand the last century, 183 00:12:31,120 --> 00:12:35,120 Speaker 2: to understand how Ishi got here. Ishi had lived his 184 00:12:35,480 --> 00:12:41,079 Speaker 2: entire life in the wilderness, evading modern American civilization. Many 185 00:12:41,200 --> 00:12:45,920 Speaker 2: tribes had been killed out completely, some assimilated, and others 186 00:12:45,920 --> 00:12:49,960 Speaker 2: were forcefully moved to reservations, but the Yahi managed to 187 00:12:50,000 --> 00:12:54,480 Speaker 2: retreat deeper and deeper into the wilderness, never using any 188 00:12:54,600 --> 00:12:58,040 Speaker 2: modern tools, guns, or steel. It was as if they 189 00:12:58,120 --> 00:13:00,480 Speaker 2: lived in the Stone Age, right under the noose of 190 00:13:00,520 --> 00:13:05,200 Speaker 2: a civilization that had cars, electricity, and airplanes had flown 191 00:13:05,240 --> 00:13:08,880 Speaker 2: in the air nineteen oh three Kiddiehawk. Hi had no 192 00:13:09,080 --> 00:13:13,480 Speaker 2: concept of modern civilization except what he saw in distant 193 00:13:13,559 --> 00:13:16,400 Speaker 2: valleys from the tops of ridges, and when he made 194 00:13:16,520 --> 00:13:20,200 Speaker 2: raids to get food under the cover of darkness. It 195 00:13:20,280 --> 00:13:22,880 Speaker 2: was said that they never took to canned food, just 196 00:13:23,000 --> 00:13:26,599 Speaker 2: fresh food. They may not have understood what the glass 197 00:13:26,720 --> 00:13:31,280 Speaker 2: canned food was Later, Waterman would learn that Ishi's mother 198 00:13:31,400 --> 00:13:34,520 Speaker 2: taught him that the trains they heard whistling in the 199 00:13:34,640 --> 00:13:39,440 Speaker 2: valleys were demons that followed white men. The Yanna used 200 00:13:39,440 --> 00:13:42,800 Speaker 2: the word saw to for whites, which meant being from 201 00:13:42,840 --> 00:13:48,360 Speaker 2: another order or a non human. When Waterman asked Ishi 202 00:13:48,400 --> 00:13:51,520 Speaker 2: his name, he told him that he had been alone 203 00:13:51,600 --> 00:13:54,040 Speaker 2: so long that he had no one to give him 204 00:13:54,040 --> 00:13:58,640 Speaker 2: a name. The yahe never speak their own name, only 205 00:13:58,760 --> 00:14:02,679 Speaker 2: others can. This is really interesting and stands in start 206 00:14:02,840 --> 00:14:07,040 Speaker 2: contrast to the individualistic Western world, where a child is 207 00:14:07,080 --> 00:14:10,040 Speaker 2: often taught that their own name is the most special 208 00:14:10,080 --> 00:14:14,680 Speaker 2: in all the world. It's interesting that individualism was found 209 00:14:14,840 --> 00:14:19,840 Speaker 2: inside of community. When Waterman was finally asked by reporters 210 00:14:19,880 --> 00:14:23,720 Speaker 2: what the man's name was, he just said, we're gonna 211 00:14:23,720 --> 00:14:29,120 Speaker 2: call him Ishi, which means man. In Yahi. Ishi simply 212 00:14:29,200 --> 00:14:33,160 Speaker 2: means man, and to our knowledge, he would never reveal 213 00:14:33,320 --> 00:14:38,320 Speaker 2: his true name to anyone in white society. No one 214 00:14:38,360 --> 00:14:56,160 Speaker 2: really knows. California became the thirty first state in eighteen fifty, 215 00:14:56,480 --> 00:14:58,920 Speaker 2: but we need to understand what was going on there 216 00:14:59,040 --> 00:15:02,240 Speaker 2: to understand Ishu's life and the Yahee story. 217 00:15:03,560 --> 00:15:05,200 Speaker 1: Well, if we go back in history, we can look 218 00:15:05,240 --> 00:15:09,800 Speaker 1: at California, Northern California and the tribes that lived in 219 00:15:09,840 --> 00:15:14,880 Speaker 1: northern California, and that early eighteen hundreds timeframe, we're going 220 00:15:14,920 --> 00:15:18,120 Speaker 1: to zero in on the Yanna. And the Yana were 221 00:15:18,240 --> 00:15:22,280 Speaker 1: a tribe that lived up east of the Sacramento River 222 00:15:22,440 --> 00:15:25,800 Speaker 1: just south of Oregon, in an area that was about 223 00:15:25,840 --> 00:15:30,800 Speaker 1: sixty miles long deep and about forty miles wide. And 224 00:15:30,840 --> 00:15:33,960 Speaker 1: in that twenty four hundred square mile that the Yana occupied, 225 00:15:34,760 --> 00:15:38,560 Speaker 1: there were about three to five thousand Yana Indians. Now, 226 00:15:38,600 --> 00:15:44,600 Speaker 1: the Yana Indians consisted of three different subgroups, the Northern Yana, 227 00:15:44,800 --> 00:15:48,560 Speaker 1: the Central Yana, and then the southern Yaa, and then 228 00:15:48,640 --> 00:15:52,760 Speaker 1: below those was the Yahe. All of those are going 229 00:15:52,800 --> 00:15:56,720 Speaker 1: to come together to complete the story of issue Ishi 230 00:15:57,240 --> 00:16:00,320 Speaker 1: came from the area of the Yahe. Now go back 231 00:16:00,360 --> 00:16:03,360 Speaker 1: in the Ayahi culture. They were living in some of 232 00:16:03,400 --> 00:16:07,360 Speaker 1: the remote, most desolate, hard to reach areas of northern California, 233 00:16:07,800 --> 00:16:11,960 Speaker 1: so they were pretty well undisturbed as the country was 234 00:16:12,040 --> 00:16:13,760 Speaker 1: filling up going west. 235 00:16:15,120 --> 00:16:18,560 Speaker 2: It's estimated that three hundred thousand Native Americans lived in 236 00:16:18,640 --> 00:16:24,000 Speaker 2: pre European settlement California, constituting twenty one separate nations. With 237 00:16:24,200 --> 00:16:28,480 Speaker 2: languages as different as English and French. It included one 238 00:16:28,600 --> 00:16:33,440 Speaker 2: hundred and thirteen dialects in her book Issue in Two Worlds, 239 00:16:33,920 --> 00:16:36,240 Speaker 2: which is an incredible book that I would suggest if 240 00:16:36,280 --> 00:16:39,720 Speaker 2: you want to learn more. By a woman named Theodora Crober, 241 00:16:39,920 --> 00:16:43,240 Speaker 2: She said that only parts of the Sudan and the 242 00:16:43,240 --> 00:16:47,120 Speaker 2: island of New Guinea offer so much language variety within 243 00:16:47,240 --> 00:16:51,920 Speaker 2: comparable areas. She said that extreme language differences take a 244 00:16:52,000 --> 00:16:59,480 Speaker 2: long time, and they believe California to be inhabited immemorially long. Interestingly, 245 00:16:59,600 --> 00:17:03,360 Speaker 2: the yah Yahi language has a different dialect for men 246 00:17:03,640 --> 00:17:08,080 Speaker 2: in women, which is extremely rare. Men spoke to men 247 00:17:08,320 --> 00:17:11,240 Speaker 2: in a certain way, and they spoke to women in 248 00:17:11,280 --> 00:17:16,919 Speaker 2: a completely different dialect. That is wild. At its peak, 249 00:17:17,160 --> 00:17:21,800 Speaker 2: Ishi's Yahi tribe likely only had four or five hundred people, 250 00:17:22,240 --> 00:17:26,200 Speaker 2: and their territory was roughly three hundred square miles. Their 251 00:17:26,400 --> 00:17:30,440 Speaker 2: entire nation could be walked across in three or four days. 252 00:17:33,359 --> 00:17:36,800 Speaker 1: So in about that time period we start to see 253 00:17:37,200 --> 00:17:41,359 Speaker 1: something really big and really important happen. They found gold 254 00:17:41,800 --> 00:17:44,960 Speaker 1: in California. So in eighteen forty nine we see the 255 00:17:44,960 --> 00:17:48,640 Speaker 1: gold rush, and from just a few thousand people living 256 00:17:48,680 --> 00:17:51,880 Speaker 1: in California during the Spanish and the Mexican time. Now 257 00:17:51,880 --> 00:17:55,640 Speaker 1: we're having one hundred thousand people a year come from 258 00:17:55,680 --> 00:18:00,199 Speaker 1: the east to California to find fortune in gold. But 259 00:18:00,240 --> 00:18:05,159 Speaker 1: the Yanna still were living in this area of northern California. 260 00:18:05,200 --> 00:18:08,439 Speaker 1: They're still fairly remote. The yahe were living in an 261 00:18:08,440 --> 00:18:11,040 Speaker 1: area on the south side of that twenty four hundred 262 00:18:11,080 --> 00:18:15,280 Speaker 1: square mints that was really remote, really desert, really hard 263 00:18:15,280 --> 00:18:18,720 Speaker 1: to get into. Now when the prospectors start to come, 264 00:18:19,400 --> 00:18:24,520 Speaker 1: a flood of prospectors come and they more or less 265 00:18:24,560 --> 00:18:26,320 Speaker 1: take their wagon trains right through the middle of the 266 00:18:26,400 --> 00:18:29,680 Speaker 1: Yana country and the Yana some of the Yanna were 267 00:18:29,680 --> 00:18:34,480 Speaker 1: living in the lowlands, some more easily inhabited, more friendly 268 00:18:35,200 --> 00:18:39,199 Speaker 1: living spaces. Those people were almost immediately impacted by the 269 00:18:39,240 --> 00:18:43,119 Speaker 1: prospectors coming over. So that three to five thousand people 270 00:18:43,560 --> 00:18:47,920 Speaker 1: are seeing this rush of prospectors, miners, and surveyors coming 271 00:18:47,960 --> 00:18:51,560 Speaker 1: across the mountains invading their territory. It wasn't all that 272 00:18:51,600 --> 00:18:54,439 Speaker 1: friendly because in eighteen fifty it was actually legal in 273 00:18:54,480 --> 00:19:00,000 Speaker 1: California for these white prospectors and these settlers to actually 274 00:19:00,680 --> 00:19:06,800 Speaker 1: indenture captured natives, and they would capture young natives and 275 00:19:07,160 --> 00:19:09,440 Speaker 1: put them in a entured servitde they'd be your housemaid. 276 00:19:09,960 --> 00:19:14,159 Speaker 1: That was legaland in California in the eighteen fifties. So 277 00:19:14,280 --> 00:19:16,640 Speaker 1: the Yana, now we're talking about the Yanna, which are 278 00:19:16,840 --> 00:19:20,040 Speaker 1: north of where issue and the Yahi were, they're seeing 279 00:19:20,080 --> 00:19:24,240 Speaker 1: their numbers dwindled, and they're also seeing white man's disease. 280 00:19:24,400 --> 00:19:27,760 Speaker 1: It's not just them coming in and killing all the 281 00:19:27,800 --> 00:19:32,400 Speaker 1: deer and starving the Indians out or all that's happening, 282 00:19:32,400 --> 00:19:35,520 Speaker 1: but they're also bringing disease, all kinds of diseases the 283 00:19:35,520 --> 00:19:38,680 Speaker 1: Indians have never had before. And the Yana go from 284 00:19:39,119 --> 00:19:42,800 Speaker 1: three to five thousand people in that eighteen fifties timeframe 285 00:19:43,520 --> 00:19:46,640 Speaker 1: to just a few hundred by the eighteen sixties early 286 00:19:46,680 --> 00:19:51,160 Speaker 1: eighteen sixties. It's amazing how quickly things turned, and those 287 00:19:51,200 --> 00:19:55,640 Speaker 1: people just lost their culture. That was the Yuna. Now 288 00:19:55,680 --> 00:19:58,399 Speaker 1: we moved south of where the Yana were and we 289 00:19:58,480 --> 00:20:00,960 Speaker 1: go down into the Ishui country Yahe country. It's a 290 00:20:00,960 --> 00:20:05,720 Speaker 1: different story. Those people aren't really impacted yet because there again, 291 00:20:05,800 --> 00:20:09,160 Speaker 1: this is pretty inaccessible country. But then they start giving 292 00:20:09,240 --> 00:20:12,120 Speaker 1: land grants out and the land grants are starting to 293 00:20:12,280 --> 00:20:16,800 Speaker 1: grant the settlers areas they're going into the Yahee country, 294 00:20:17,359 --> 00:20:21,360 Speaker 1: and their impact is starting to reach the Yahi. They're 295 00:20:21,400 --> 00:20:24,560 Speaker 1: getting more and more pushed into the mountains, into the 296 00:20:24,640 --> 00:20:27,720 Speaker 1: higher elevations of the mountains the Yahi, and there starts 297 00:20:27,760 --> 00:20:30,520 Speaker 1: to be conflict because just as anybody would you and 298 00:20:30,560 --> 00:20:34,159 Speaker 1: I would probably be the same way if our families 299 00:20:34,160 --> 00:20:37,600 Speaker 1: are threatened, our families are starving, our livelihoods have been 300 00:20:37,600 --> 00:20:39,919 Speaker 1: taking away from us. What are we going to do. 301 00:20:40,160 --> 00:20:41,919 Speaker 1: We're going to find a way to feed our family. 302 00:20:42,720 --> 00:20:45,280 Speaker 1: So they started raiding some of the ranches. They started 303 00:20:45,359 --> 00:20:48,680 Speaker 1: raiding some of the ranches in the springs after their 304 00:20:48,720 --> 00:20:52,840 Speaker 1: sources have dried up, all the salmon and deer that 305 00:20:52,880 --> 00:20:56,000 Speaker 1: they have put away have exhausted during the winter. They 306 00:20:56,040 --> 00:20:58,960 Speaker 1: start to raid the ranches in the springs because there's 307 00:20:59,000 --> 00:21:03,080 Speaker 1: nothing to eat and we don't have anything else, So 308 00:21:03,119 --> 00:21:07,520 Speaker 1: they start rating the ranches for food. That triggers a 309 00:21:07,560 --> 00:21:11,440 Speaker 1: lot of animosity from the ranchers, and the ranchers start 310 00:21:12,280 --> 00:21:17,159 Speaker 1: singling out the Ahi for extermination. Now, one of the 311 00:21:17,160 --> 00:21:20,439 Speaker 1: things I've learned reading through the books over the years is, 312 00:21:20,680 --> 00:21:23,199 Speaker 1: you know, when I heard first started hearing the stories 313 00:21:23,200 --> 00:21:28,639 Speaker 1: of issue the last Stone Age wild Indian, my mind 314 00:21:28,760 --> 00:21:33,560 Speaker 1: thought that Ishi had never knew white man existed. Ishi 315 00:21:33,880 --> 00:21:38,080 Speaker 1: was on this island or this planet where he didn't 316 00:21:38,080 --> 00:21:39,720 Speaker 1: even know there was such a thing to the white man. 317 00:21:40,240 --> 00:21:44,120 Speaker 1: That's not true, because his culture, his ancestors have been 318 00:21:44,760 --> 00:21:47,800 Speaker 1: fighting with the white man and the Mexicans in the 319 00:21:47,800 --> 00:21:51,520 Speaker 1: Spanish since the eighteen thirties and forties. I didn't know that, 320 00:21:52,280 --> 00:21:56,920 Speaker 1: but it's true. What happened was Issu's tribe, Issu's people 321 00:21:56,920 --> 00:21:59,200 Speaker 1: are getting pushed further and further and further up into 322 00:21:59,240 --> 00:22:02,679 Speaker 1: the mountains, into the more desolate areas to escape the 323 00:22:02,720 --> 00:22:06,359 Speaker 1: persecution that they were getting from the settlers. It it's 324 00:22:06,400 --> 00:22:11,119 Speaker 1: a nasty you know that probably you know, we're looking 325 00:22:11,160 --> 00:22:17,080 Speaker 1: at four thousand plus Yana and Yahi killed during that 326 00:22:17,440 --> 00:22:21,840 Speaker 1: ten to fifteen year period, exterminating an entire culture. There 327 00:22:21,880 --> 00:22:26,600 Speaker 1: were not just the state government. Cities were paying for scalps. 328 00:22:28,000 --> 00:22:31,000 Speaker 1: Cities were offering fifty cents a scalp. Other cities would 329 00:22:31,000 --> 00:22:34,040 Speaker 1: bring a dollar a scalp. The government. In one year, 330 00:22:34,560 --> 00:22:38,000 Speaker 1: eighteen fifty, the state of California paid a million dollars 331 00:22:38,760 --> 00:22:42,760 Speaker 1: bounty on scalps. We you know, there were just to 332 00:22:42,760 --> 00:22:45,360 Speaker 1: put it in perspective, when you think about what's going on. 333 00:22:46,600 --> 00:22:49,439 Speaker 1: At the time this is happening. The state of California 334 00:22:49,520 --> 00:22:51,800 Speaker 1: is paying a million dollars a year and bounty for scalps. 335 00:22:53,480 --> 00:22:57,720 Speaker 1: Whole tribes, cultures of people are being wiped out mercilessly, men, women, 336 00:22:57,800 --> 00:23:01,920 Speaker 1: and children. And at the same time, in the cities 337 00:23:02,119 --> 00:23:05,760 Speaker 1: in Chico and the cities around the area, there are 338 00:23:06,080 --> 00:23:11,280 Speaker 1: ball fields of young people playing sports, there are theaters. 339 00:23:11,640 --> 00:23:17,679 Speaker 1: There's civilization at his finest, and we're killing indiscriminately men, 340 00:23:17,800 --> 00:23:32,679 Speaker 1: women and children in the mountains just outside of the towns. So, okay, 341 00:23:32,720 --> 00:23:36,159 Speaker 1: now we go. We're in the eighteen sixties. The Yahi 342 00:23:36,920 --> 00:23:40,800 Speaker 1: probably were a people of about four to five hundred 343 00:23:40,960 --> 00:23:43,840 Speaker 1: before all this really started. They were never a big tribe. 344 00:23:44,680 --> 00:23:46,960 Speaker 1: But when all that started, in a period of just 345 00:23:47,000 --> 00:23:50,000 Speaker 1: ten years, they had been taken down to maybe there 346 00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:52,879 Speaker 1: were forty to fifty Yah left. That was all that 347 00:23:52,960 --> 00:23:56,640 Speaker 1: was left. And we start to see some really big events, 348 00:23:56,640 --> 00:23:59,560 Speaker 1: and you can think of civilization a culture that's down 349 00:23:59,600 --> 00:24:04,439 Speaker 1: to its last forty or fifty people, that civilization is 350 00:24:04,480 --> 00:24:09,399 Speaker 1: going to die. One person removed from that chain of 351 00:24:10,400 --> 00:24:14,040 Speaker 1: reproduction is going to impact that tribe. But we start 352 00:24:14,080 --> 00:24:19,800 Speaker 1: to see the landowners now have taken a vengeance on 353 00:24:19,840 --> 00:24:23,080 Speaker 1: the Ahi, and they're sending raiding parties up into the mountains. 354 00:24:23,119 --> 00:24:25,639 Speaker 1: They're sending vigilanes up into the mountains. They're sending the 355 00:24:25,760 --> 00:24:28,480 Speaker 1: army up into the mountains to get these guys who 356 00:24:28,520 --> 00:24:31,080 Speaker 1: are raiding their cabins. Well, they're raiding their cabins because 357 00:24:31,080 --> 00:24:34,520 Speaker 1: they're starving to death. They're raiding your cabins because you 358 00:24:34,600 --> 00:24:38,000 Speaker 1: have killed all their deer. You have taken everything they've got, 359 00:24:38,080 --> 00:24:40,240 Speaker 1: and this is the only way they have left to survive. 360 00:24:52,080 --> 00:24:57,840 Speaker 1: In that early eighteen sixties timeframe, we've now seen the 361 00:24:57,920 --> 00:25:03,080 Speaker 1: tribe being decimated. Around probably eighteen sixty one to eighteen 362 00:25:03,119 --> 00:25:06,280 Speaker 1: sixty two is when Issue was born. We don't know 363 00:25:06,359 --> 00:25:08,919 Speaker 1: for sure. The only thing we know is after he 364 00:25:09,000 --> 00:25:13,159 Speaker 1: was captured, doctor Pope Saxton Pope in the medical exam 365 00:25:13,680 --> 00:25:19,119 Speaker 1: said his age appears to be around fifty, so he 366 00:25:19,200 --> 00:25:22,639 Speaker 1: extrapolated that back to Issue must have been born in 367 00:25:22,680 --> 00:25:26,240 Speaker 1: the early eighteen sixties. And then we take the stories 368 00:25:26,800 --> 00:25:29,440 Speaker 1: from the tribe and from the settlers, from the ranchers, 369 00:25:29,480 --> 00:25:34,119 Speaker 1: from the vigilans about the raids and about the eyewitness 370 00:25:34,119 --> 00:25:39,080 Speaker 1: accounts of seeing three Indians, a woman with a you know, 371 00:25:39,160 --> 00:25:42,639 Speaker 1: a small child, then a woman with a middle aged child, 372 00:25:42,800 --> 00:25:46,159 Speaker 1: and then a woman with a teenage boy. That was 373 00:25:46,200 --> 00:25:50,280 Speaker 1: all issue. So everything together puts his time a birth 374 00:25:50,320 --> 00:25:54,639 Speaker 1: around eighteen sixty one eighteen sixty two. I think that's interesting. 375 00:25:55,040 --> 00:25:57,560 Speaker 1: You know that issue was living through all of this. 376 00:25:57,720 --> 00:26:00,640 Speaker 1: Vigilani he was seeing all this And when you think 377 00:26:00,640 --> 00:26:02,639 Speaker 1: about now, keep this in mind. When we get to 378 00:26:02,840 --> 00:26:07,760 Speaker 1: Ishi after his capture, he's an eyewitness to his whole 379 00:26:07,800 --> 00:26:11,760 Speaker 1: tribe being murdered. He's an eyewitness to the extinction of 380 00:26:11,760 --> 00:26:15,119 Speaker 1: a people, the last of his tribe. But when we 381 00:26:15,200 --> 00:26:21,080 Speaker 1: get to Issian captivity, Ishi being transformed from the last 382 00:26:21,119 --> 00:26:27,280 Speaker 1: Stone Age Indian to civilized man. I'll quote air quote civilized. 383 00:26:28,080 --> 00:26:31,560 Speaker 1: He was the most joyful, the most cheerful. He never 384 00:26:32,040 --> 00:26:38,400 Speaker 1: ever came across as bingeful, never very happy, very cheerful, 385 00:26:39,119 --> 00:26:41,760 Speaker 1: didn't talk about a lot of things. But how could 386 00:26:41,760 --> 00:26:44,040 Speaker 1: you do that? How could you witness everything that he 387 00:26:44,400 --> 00:26:46,439 Speaker 1: went through and be so cheerful. 388 00:26:52,000 --> 00:26:54,840 Speaker 2: All humans are capable of putting on a happy face 389 00:26:54,920 --> 00:26:58,119 Speaker 2: in the midst of grief, But by all accounts is 390 00:26:58,200 --> 00:27:02,520 Speaker 2: she would become known as friendly, kind and generous to 391 00:27:02,600 --> 00:27:05,640 Speaker 2: those that he got close to. I want to mention 392 00:27:05,760 --> 00:27:09,080 Speaker 2: something about the use of the words civilized when referring 393 00:27:09,160 --> 00:27:13,240 Speaker 2: to Native Americans. It's partly ease of semantics and describing 394 00:27:13,280 --> 00:27:16,600 Speaker 2: two ways of life, with living in towns using modern 395 00:27:16,640 --> 00:27:22,159 Speaker 2: technology described as civilized and the hunter gatherer lifestyle as primitive, 396 00:27:22,520 --> 00:27:26,480 Speaker 2: and there's kind of a derogatory sense of civilized is 397 00:27:26,520 --> 00:27:30,280 Speaker 2: a higher way of life. In describing a primitive lifestyle, 398 00:27:30,440 --> 00:27:33,040 Speaker 2: you kind of get this idea that there were just wild, 399 00:27:33,320 --> 00:27:36,000 Speaker 2: unintentional people just living the best they could. But that 400 00:27:36,240 --> 00:27:39,879 Speaker 2: is not true. It's completely worth noting that indigenous people 401 00:27:39,920 --> 00:27:45,240 Speaker 2: had built an intentional, robust civilization for thousands of years, 402 00:27:45,840 --> 00:27:49,840 Speaker 2: likely more complex than those living in the California cities. 403 00:27:50,440 --> 00:27:54,159 Speaker 2: So to say they were uncivilized, as you know, really 404 00:27:54,200 --> 00:28:02,960 Speaker 2: not accurate. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. Vigilantes were 405 00:28:03,040 --> 00:28:07,040 Speaker 2: sent to literally hunt Indians, and in eighteen sixty eight, 406 00:28:07,080 --> 00:28:10,600 Speaker 2: the massacre at Kingsley's Cave was believed to completely wipe 407 00:28:10,600 --> 00:28:14,520 Speaker 2: out the Yahe when the remaining twelve to fifteen were 408 00:28:14,600 --> 00:28:17,760 Speaker 2: killed in a single event by people from the town 409 00:28:17,800 --> 00:28:20,800 Speaker 2: who gathered up to kill the Indians when they trapped 410 00:28:20,840 --> 00:28:24,520 Speaker 2: them in a cave. Ischi would have been a young 411 00:28:24,640 --> 00:28:27,760 Speaker 2: boy at this time, so it couldn't have been all 412 00:28:27,840 --> 00:28:29,560 Speaker 2: of them. 413 00:28:29,880 --> 00:28:32,640 Speaker 1: So in that battle of Kingsley's Cave in eighteen sixty eight. 414 00:28:33,240 --> 00:28:37,640 Speaker 1: For a period of several years, there were no incidents, 415 00:28:37,880 --> 00:28:41,640 Speaker 1: There was no evidence that there were any Yahi left. 416 00:28:42,600 --> 00:28:45,360 Speaker 1: But then we start to see in the early on 417 00:28:45,360 --> 00:28:48,480 Speaker 1: in the mid eighteen eighties, we start to see stories. 418 00:28:48,560 --> 00:28:52,080 Speaker 1: We started to hear stories of evidence of maybe there 419 00:28:52,120 --> 00:28:56,080 Speaker 1: are some Yahi left. We start to see cabins being 420 00:28:56,120 --> 00:29:01,240 Speaker 1: raided again. We start to see evidence of Indians's leaving 421 00:29:01,320 --> 00:29:05,320 Speaker 1: sign We start to hear about people being in the 422 00:29:05,360 --> 00:29:09,120 Speaker 1: mountains and seeing Indians. So the maybe they I hear 423 00:29:09,240 --> 00:29:11,760 Speaker 1: not extinct after all. 424 00:29:11,800 --> 00:29:14,880 Speaker 2: According to Krober in her book Those twelve Years from 425 00:29:14,920 --> 00:29:19,080 Speaker 2: eighteen seventy two to eighteen eighty four, quote, the concealment 426 00:29:19,160 --> 00:29:23,400 Speaker 2: of those twelve years was complete. Not a footprint, not 427 00:29:23,520 --> 00:29:26,200 Speaker 2: a telltale bit of ash or a wisp of smoke 428 00:29:26,280 --> 00:29:30,080 Speaker 2: from fire was seen. Not a single broken arrow shaft 429 00:29:30,200 --> 00:29:32,840 Speaker 2: or a lost spear point, or a remnant of a 430 00:29:32,920 --> 00:29:37,600 Speaker 2: milkweed rope. They traveled sometimes long distances by leaping from 431 00:29:37,640 --> 00:29:41,320 Speaker 2: boulder to boulder their bare feet, never leaving a print, 432 00:29:41,880 --> 00:29:44,520 Speaker 2: and if they did, each footprint on the ground was 433 00:29:44,600 --> 00:29:48,800 Speaker 2: covered with dead leaves. Their trails went under heavy chapparral. 434 00:29:49,440 --> 00:29:53,920 Speaker 2: Even deers sought more open spaces. They never chopped, the 435 00:29:54,000 --> 00:29:58,040 Speaker 2: sound of chopping being the unmistakable announcement of human presence. 436 00:29:58,560 --> 00:30:02,760 Speaker 2: They kept their fires. Small end of quote. Remember we're 437 00:30:02,800 --> 00:30:06,120 Speaker 2: piecing together this story of how Ishi ended up at 438 00:30:06,120 --> 00:30:12,600 Speaker 2: that stockyard alone in Araville on August twenty ninth, nineteen eleven. 439 00:30:13,720 --> 00:30:15,880 Speaker 1: So you go further down into the story of Ishi. 440 00:30:16,280 --> 00:30:19,800 Speaker 1: Now we're after Kingsley's Cave, and now we're down to 441 00:30:19,880 --> 00:30:24,880 Speaker 1: the last five of the Yahi. There were Issi is 442 00:30:25,480 --> 00:30:30,720 Speaker 1: either sister or cousin Ishi's mother, an older man, and 443 00:30:30,760 --> 00:30:36,040 Speaker 1: a middle aged man aged man dies somewhere along the 444 00:30:36,080 --> 00:30:41,200 Speaker 1: line during this concealment period. Now after Kingsley's Cave, the 445 00:30:41,280 --> 00:30:44,800 Speaker 1: Yahi more or less are in concealment. They just now 446 00:30:44,880 --> 00:30:49,520 Speaker 1: have done. They know they can't fight anymore. They know 447 00:30:49,960 --> 00:30:52,600 Speaker 1: the only way to survive is to be concealed, so 448 00:30:52,640 --> 00:30:54,840 Speaker 1: they go up into the highest part of the mountains, 449 00:30:54,880 --> 00:30:57,440 Speaker 1: the most difficult part of the mountains, the most thick 450 00:30:57,480 --> 00:31:01,840 Speaker 1: part of the mountains, and the last five Yahi now 451 00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:06,840 Speaker 1: or in concealment for a period between eighteen seventy eighteen 452 00:31:06,920 --> 00:31:11,680 Speaker 1: seventy two until nineteen eleven, about nineteen o eight, I'll 453 00:31:11,680 --> 00:31:15,160 Speaker 1: go back to nineteen o eight. They're in concealment doing 454 00:31:15,200 --> 00:31:18,480 Speaker 1: everything they can to hide. They go so far as 455 00:31:18,600 --> 00:31:22,200 Speaker 1: to only walk on rock. They don't walk on dirt 456 00:31:22,200 --> 00:31:24,720 Speaker 1: where they could leave a track. They go from rock 457 00:31:24,800 --> 00:31:28,440 Speaker 1: to rock. They travel the waterways so they don't leave 458 00:31:28,480 --> 00:31:32,200 Speaker 1: a track. They never when they're going through brush, break 459 00:31:32,240 --> 00:31:35,400 Speaker 1: a branch. They always bend the branches as they're going through. 460 00:31:36,320 --> 00:31:38,560 Speaker 1: They get out on all fours and crawl like a 461 00:31:38,560 --> 00:31:42,200 Speaker 1: bear through the brush, so it looks like it's a bear. 462 00:31:43,040 --> 00:31:45,800 Speaker 1: With a lot of grizzly bears in California at that time. 463 00:31:47,520 --> 00:31:55,520 Speaker 1: Forty years they live in concealment. The middle aged man 464 00:31:55,560 --> 00:31:59,720 Speaker 1: dies mysteriously. I can't find any evidence of what happened 465 00:31:59,720 --> 00:32:02,560 Speaker 1: to him that he die. Was he killed? Did he starve? 466 00:32:02,960 --> 00:32:05,120 Speaker 1: I don't know. Now we're down to the last four. 467 00:32:06,240 --> 00:32:10,600 Speaker 1: They find an area in the thickest part of the 468 00:32:10,720 --> 00:32:15,320 Speaker 1: last concealment area that's maybe an area of about three 469 00:32:15,360 --> 00:32:19,160 Speaker 1: miles long and maybe a half mile wide, and this 470 00:32:19,200 --> 00:32:27,600 Speaker 1: is where they spend the last thirty years of Issue's life. 471 00:32:28,320 --> 00:32:31,280 Speaker 2: Some of the most compelling human stories of all time 472 00:32:31,920 --> 00:32:36,000 Speaker 2: are of people hiding under the threat of persecution. I 473 00:32:36,000 --> 00:32:39,520 Speaker 2: immediately think of Anne Frank, whose family hid from the Nazis. 474 00:32:40,120 --> 00:32:43,280 Speaker 2: But make no bones about it, the Yahee were targets 475 00:32:43,320 --> 00:32:46,520 Speaker 2: of genocide, and it's hard to imagine what they went 476 00:32:46,560 --> 00:32:50,000 Speaker 2: through hiding out for thirty years right under the nose 477 00:32:50,040 --> 00:32:55,440 Speaker 2: of civilization. Theodora Kroeber says that ethnologists are agreed that 478 00:32:55,520 --> 00:32:59,400 Speaker 2: they pursued a way of life most totally aboriginal and 479 00:32:59,520 --> 00:33:03,479 Speaker 2: primitive of any on the continent, at least after the 480 00:33:03,480 --> 00:33:07,720 Speaker 2: coming of white man to America. Can you imagine the psychology? 481 00:33:08,320 --> 00:33:13,960 Speaker 2: Can you imagine their prayers? Theodora's husband was a L. Krober, 482 00:33:14,040 --> 00:33:18,320 Speaker 2: Alfred Kroeber, who interacted with is she We'll see? He 483 00:33:18,440 --> 00:33:24,520 Speaker 2: called Ishi's band quote the smallest free nation in the world, which, 484 00:33:24,760 --> 00:33:29,760 Speaker 2: by an unexampled fortitude and stubbornness of character, succeeded in 485 00:33:29,920 --> 00:33:34,360 Speaker 2: holding out against the tide of civilization twenty five years 486 00:33:34,400 --> 00:33:37,760 Speaker 2: longer than Geronimo's famous band of Apaches. 487 00:33:39,400 --> 00:33:42,520 Speaker 1: So in the concealment, you know they were so effective 488 00:33:42,720 --> 00:33:45,960 Speaker 1: issue and his family, and you know, the last four 489 00:33:46,200 --> 00:33:50,120 Speaker 1: survivors were so effective during the concealment that they were 490 00:33:50,400 --> 00:33:54,720 Speaker 1: thought to be extinct until around eighteen eighty five. They 491 00:33:54,760 --> 00:33:58,120 Speaker 1: start to be desperate and more and more desperate, and 492 00:33:58,200 --> 00:34:01,200 Speaker 1: they start to read the cabins again and they start 493 00:34:01,240 --> 00:34:03,240 Speaker 1: to leave a little bit of evidence and they actually 494 00:34:03,240 --> 00:34:06,239 Speaker 1: get caught a couple of times breaking into cabins. And 495 00:34:06,280 --> 00:34:10,480 Speaker 1: one guy came and caught them red handed leaving the cabin, 496 00:34:10,880 --> 00:34:14,040 Speaker 1: leaving his cabin with their hands full of food and 497 00:34:14,120 --> 00:34:17,360 Speaker 1: clothing and things like that. But this is a guy 498 00:34:17,400 --> 00:34:22,319 Speaker 1: who understands, and the AHI come out and issue is 499 00:34:22,360 --> 00:34:24,640 Speaker 1: probably one of those that comes out of the cabin. 500 00:34:25,000 --> 00:34:27,200 Speaker 1: He would have probably been at that time, twenty years old. 501 00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:30,360 Speaker 1: They come out of the cabin and they're caught red handed, 502 00:34:30,600 --> 00:34:33,600 Speaker 1: and here's the guy standing with the rifle. They don't 503 00:34:33,600 --> 00:34:38,120 Speaker 1: have rifles, and they expect the worst, but he just 504 00:34:38,160 --> 00:34:40,920 Speaker 1: looks at him. And one of the four that came 505 00:34:40,960 --> 00:34:43,440 Speaker 1: out of the cabin was a lady, an Indian lady, 506 00:34:44,400 --> 00:34:49,359 Speaker 1: and she speaks in broken English slash Spanish that she's 507 00:34:49,719 --> 00:34:53,720 Speaker 1: this is for our children, you know that we're starving, 508 00:34:54,640 --> 00:34:57,480 Speaker 1: and he says, okay, okay, you can have it. You 509 00:34:57,840 --> 00:35:01,640 Speaker 1: just go you can have it, no problem. That was 510 00:35:01,640 --> 00:35:05,560 Speaker 1: in the spring. That fall, his cabin was broken into 511 00:35:05,640 --> 00:35:09,960 Speaker 1: again and nothing was taken. They came and they left 512 00:35:10,040 --> 00:35:16,320 Speaker 1: him some baskets, probably thank you for the spring. Here's 513 00:35:16,440 --> 00:35:20,200 Speaker 1: a little bit of something in return, a token of gratitude. 514 00:35:20,680 --> 00:35:22,880 Speaker 1: So there's the good and the bad. You know, not 515 00:35:23,080 --> 00:35:25,479 Speaker 1: every rancher in the area was bad. 516 00:35:27,760 --> 00:35:30,440 Speaker 2: When I hear this story, it validates to me that 517 00:35:30,520 --> 00:35:33,960 Speaker 2: it's okay to stand against the trends as an outlier. 518 00:35:34,640 --> 00:35:37,600 Speaker 2: That rancher's culture and even the law would have been 519 00:35:37,640 --> 00:35:41,080 Speaker 2: okay with him killing those people who were stealing from him, 520 00:35:41,719 --> 00:35:46,000 Speaker 2: but he chose mercy. Here's another story of contact with 521 00:35:46,080 --> 00:35:48,799 Speaker 2: the outside world that wasn't so good. 522 00:35:51,040 --> 00:35:53,880 Speaker 1: They've been in concealment since eighteen seventy two. In nineteen 523 00:35:53,920 --> 00:35:58,200 Speaker 1: oh eight, a party of surveyors are going up into 524 00:35:58,239 --> 00:36:02,880 Speaker 1: the mountains, remember the Yahi. These last four now Yahee, 525 00:36:03,120 --> 00:36:05,800 Speaker 1: are living in an area maybe a half mile wide, 526 00:36:06,360 --> 00:36:11,120 Speaker 1: maybe three miles long. That's their entire world. These surveyors 527 00:36:11,600 --> 00:36:15,160 Speaker 1: happened into their camp, and these last four survivors were 528 00:36:15,200 --> 00:36:17,680 Speaker 1: so careful of building their camp, so it couldn't be seen. 529 00:36:18,120 --> 00:36:20,719 Speaker 1: They built it in the thickest undergrowth. They built it 530 00:36:20,760 --> 00:36:24,480 Speaker 1: so it couldn't be seen from above. They disguised all 531 00:36:24,520 --> 00:36:26,960 Speaker 1: their trails. They never walked the same path to the 532 00:36:27,040 --> 00:36:30,480 Speaker 1: river more than once, so that they didn't make a trail. Well, 533 00:36:30,520 --> 00:36:35,600 Speaker 1: these surveyors just happened into their camp and probably iss. 534 00:36:35,640 --> 00:36:39,600 Speaker 1: She and the sister and the old man ran into 535 00:36:39,640 --> 00:36:42,799 Speaker 1: the bushes as they saw the surveyors coming. The old 536 00:36:42,840 --> 00:36:47,520 Speaker 1: woman is she's mother. She's too frail, she can't so 537 00:36:47,560 --> 00:36:50,919 Speaker 1: they hide her under some blankets. The surveyors come into 538 00:36:51,000 --> 00:36:56,680 Speaker 1: camp and they start looking around and they find the 539 00:36:56,719 --> 00:36:59,840 Speaker 1: bed where the mother is, and they raise the b 540 00:37:00,920 --> 00:37:04,360 Speaker 1: and they think it's an infant because she's so small, 541 00:37:04,960 --> 00:37:10,040 Speaker 1: she's so starved. She looks so small that she they 542 00:37:10,040 --> 00:37:13,279 Speaker 1: think at first she's a young person, and then they 543 00:37:13,320 --> 00:37:16,080 Speaker 1: look at her face. They uncover her face and they 544 00:37:16,120 --> 00:37:19,719 Speaker 1: realize she's an old lady. And she's scared that they're 545 00:37:19,760 --> 00:37:22,880 Speaker 1: going to kill her. And they try to reassure he 546 00:37:22,920 --> 00:37:24,080 Speaker 1: or we're not going to hurt you. We're not going 547 00:37:24,160 --> 00:37:27,000 Speaker 1: to hurt you, and they don't. But what do they do? 548 00:37:27,520 --> 00:37:31,120 Speaker 1: Here are these last four survivors. Everything they own is 549 00:37:31,160 --> 00:37:34,240 Speaker 1: in this camp. They call it Grizzly Bear's hiding place. 550 00:37:34,960 --> 00:37:37,560 Speaker 1: And as they leave, they don't hurt the old lady, 551 00:37:38,000 --> 00:37:42,640 Speaker 1: but they raid everything in the camp. They steal the blankets, 552 00:37:42,960 --> 00:37:47,480 Speaker 1: they steal the bows and arrows, they steal the things 553 00:37:47,520 --> 00:37:51,960 Speaker 1: that they cook with, and they take it as souvenirs. Now, 554 00:37:52,000 --> 00:37:55,120 Speaker 1: one of those people in the white people that were 555 00:37:55,120 --> 00:37:58,480 Speaker 1: in that i'll call it a raid, was this gentleman 556 00:37:58,560 --> 00:38:02,800 Speaker 1: named Apperson. He he doesn't feel good about what's happening here, 557 00:38:03,160 --> 00:38:06,279 Speaker 1: and he tries to leave her something. He goes through 558 00:38:06,280 --> 00:38:08,160 Speaker 1: his pocket, he goes through his pack, and he's trying 559 00:38:08,200 --> 00:38:11,400 Speaker 1: to find something to leave her as a gift, and 560 00:38:11,400 --> 00:38:15,200 Speaker 1: he can't find anything, so he doesn't. He just, you know, 561 00:38:15,239 --> 00:38:17,359 Speaker 1: they pack up everything and they leave. Now what did 562 00:38:17,360 --> 00:38:19,520 Speaker 1: they do. They just took everything that these people needed 563 00:38:19,520 --> 00:38:22,880 Speaker 1: to survive and they took it as souvenirs. And they 564 00:38:22,960 --> 00:38:26,680 Speaker 1: left this old lady laying there. And if she and 565 00:38:26,800 --> 00:38:29,960 Speaker 1: the sister cousin and the old man were probably off 566 00:38:30,400 --> 00:38:33,279 Speaker 1: in the bushes watching all this happen, they knew they 567 00:38:33,280 --> 00:38:36,480 Speaker 1: couldn't do anything. They didn't have any way to defend themselves. 568 00:38:36,560 --> 00:38:39,480 Speaker 1: They knew these people doing the rating had rifles. There 569 00:38:39,560 --> 00:38:43,440 Speaker 1: was nothing they could do. So those people left. They 570 00:38:43,480 --> 00:38:45,680 Speaker 1: come back the next day. Apperson comes back the next 571 00:38:45,760 --> 00:38:47,880 Speaker 1: day with a couple other people to check on the 572 00:38:47,920 --> 00:38:50,799 Speaker 1: old lady, and the old lady's gone. So if she 573 00:38:51,239 --> 00:38:54,680 Speaker 1: had come back and got her, because the sister cousin 574 00:38:54,680 --> 00:38:57,120 Speaker 1: and the old man went out the camp, one direction 575 00:38:57,680 --> 00:39:00,040 Speaker 1: is she went out to camp. The other direction, I 576 00:39:00,120 --> 00:39:02,279 Speaker 1: never saw the sister cousin again. He never saw the 577 00:39:02,320 --> 00:39:06,160 Speaker 1: old man again. He thinks in later years that they 578 00:39:06,280 --> 00:39:08,640 Speaker 1: probably drowned as they were trying to escape. They got 579 00:39:08,640 --> 00:39:11,640 Speaker 1: down in the water in the creek and probably drowned. 580 00:39:12,280 --> 00:39:16,120 Speaker 1: So is she comes back after those people left, the 581 00:39:16,160 --> 00:39:19,239 Speaker 1: souvenir hunters stole everything and left. Is she comes back 582 00:39:19,239 --> 00:39:23,040 Speaker 1: and gets the old woman his mother, and he takes 583 00:39:23,080 --> 00:39:26,320 Speaker 1: her away. We don't know what happened to her. He 584 00:39:26,440 --> 00:39:29,719 Speaker 1: never told us what happened to her. How long did 585 00:39:29,719 --> 00:39:34,280 Speaker 1: she live? We don't know. But in between that time 586 00:39:34,719 --> 00:39:37,720 Speaker 1: of nineteen oh eight when they were Grizzly Bear's hiding 587 00:39:37,760 --> 00:39:41,400 Speaker 1: place was raided. In nineteen eleven, when Issue was found 588 00:39:41,400 --> 00:39:45,360 Speaker 1: in the stockyard, he was by himself. So she died 589 00:39:45,480 --> 00:39:46,759 Speaker 1: somewhere soon after that. 590 00:39:51,120 --> 00:39:53,799 Speaker 2: After is She's mother died in nineteen oh eight, he 591 00:39:53,920 --> 00:39:58,160 Speaker 2: remained alone until August twenty ninth, nineteen eleven, when he 592 00:39:58,239 --> 00:40:02,280 Speaker 2: walked into the stockyard and Orville, assuming he was walking 593 00:40:02,480 --> 00:40:06,040 Speaker 2: into his own death. But let's fast forward just six 594 00:40:06,120 --> 00:40:10,120 Speaker 2: days later to September fourth, nineteen eleven. Is She has 595 00:40:10,160 --> 00:40:14,080 Speaker 2: been staying in the Oraville jail, and remember Professor Waterman 596 00:40:14,160 --> 00:40:17,360 Speaker 2: has come down from the University of California at Berkeley, 597 00:40:17,400 --> 00:40:18,839 Speaker 2: which is near San Francisco. 598 00:40:20,560 --> 00:40:26,120 Speaker 1: So Waterman then starts to communicate because again Ishi could 599 00:40:26,400 --> 00:40:31,200 Speaker 1: understand a few Yana words. But interestingly enough, because historically 600 00:40:31,800 --> 00:40:36,239 Speaker 1: the Jahi and Yana had enough Spanish and Mexican interaction 601 00:40:36,840 --> 00:40:40,000 Speaker 1: in the decades and the generations before, there are actually 602 00:40:40,040 --> 00:40:43,600 Speaker 1: a few Spanish Mexican words that were in the Yana 603 00:40:43,800 --> 00:40:48,480 Speaker 1: Jahi language. So they start to build up very slowly 604 00:40:48,840 --> 00:40:51,520 Speaker 1: a communication. They can start to communicate with each other. 605 00:40:52,000 --> 00:40:56,799 Speaker 1: Waterman understands, now what a treasure this man is. So 606 00:40:57,160 --> 00:41:00,319 Speaker 1: within a week, within just a couple of days, he 607 00:41:00,400 --> 00:41:03,880 Speaker 1: wires back to the university and he says, I'm bringing 608 00:41:04,280 --> 00:41:08,720 Speaker 1: this man back and he gets permission to take Ishi 609 00:41:09,200 --> 00:41:12,400 Speaker 1: into their care, takes him back to the University of 610 00:41:12,400 --> 00:41:17,680 Speaker 1: California where they have the University of Anthropology, Department of Anthropologist, 611 00:41:17,760 --> 00:41:18,879 Speaker 1: School of Anthropology. 612 00:41:21,480 --> 00:41:25,920 Speaker 2: On September fourth, nineteen eleven, just six days after Ishi 613 00:41:26,040 --> 00:41:29,479 Speaker 2: came out of his wilderness homeland. And remember this man 614 00:41:29,600 --> 00:41:33,120 Speaker 2: was believed to be fifty years old, so fifty years 615 00:41:33,120 --> 00:41:35,560 Speaker 2: in the wilderness. And on that day he left with 616 00:41:35,680 --> 00:41:42,920 Speaker 2: Professor Waterman it headed to San Francisco, California. This chanting, 617 00:41:43,040 --> 00:41:46,239 Speaker 2: this singing that you've been here, and throughout this episode, 618 00:41:46,800 --> 00:41:48,839 Speaker 2: I wanted to wait to the end to tell you 619 00:41:48,880 --> 00:41:53,759 Speaker 2: that that is the actual voice of Ishi, that is 620 00:41:53,880 --> 00:41:59,240 Speaker 2: him singing a yahee song. Ishi would become the most 621 00:41:59,280 --> 00:42:03,880 Speaker 2: important link to understanding the Stone Age world, perhaps of 622 00:42:03,960 --> 00:42:08,239 Speaker 2: all time. In the next episode, we'll follow Ishi into 623 00:42:08,239 --> 00:42:12,840 Speaker 2: San Francisco and his unthinkable transition into the modern world, 624 00:42:13,280 --> 00:42:17,920 Speaker 2: his massive contribution to modern archery, and his untimely death. 625 00:42:19,080 --> 00:42:25,359 Speaker 2: Truly an incredible story. We can't thank you enough for 626 00:42:25,480 --> 00:42:29,680 Speaker 2: listening to this Bear Grease Channel. Thanks for listening to 627 00:42:29,760 --> 00:42:34,279 Speaker 2: Brent's This Country Life podcast. Into the Lakes Backwoods University. 628 00:42:34,840 --> 00:42:37,800 Speaker 2: Thank you all so much. Keep the wild places wild, 629 00:42:38,040 --> 00:42:39,279 Speaker 2: because that's where the bears live.