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Ishi in Two Worlds: A Biography of the Last Wild Indian in North America
 
 
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Ishi in Two Worlds: A Biography of the Last Wild Indian in North America [Paperback]

Theodora Kroeber (Author), Karl Kroeber (Editor), Lewis Gannett (Foreword)
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)


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There is a newer edition of this item:
Ishi in Two Worlds, 50th Anniversary Edition: A Biography of the Last Wild Indian in North America Ishi in Two Worlds, 50th Anniversary Edition: A Biography of the Last Wild Indian in North America 4.6 out of 5 stars (24)
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Book Description

October 7, 2002
The life story of Ishi, the Yahi Indian, lone survivor of a doomed tribe, is unique in the annals of North American anthropology. For more than forty years, Theodora Kroeber's biography has been sharing this tragic and absorbing drama with readers all over the world.
Ishi stumbled into the twentieth century on the morning of August 29, 1911, when, desperate with hunger and with terror of the white murderers of his family, he was found in the corral of a slaughterhouse near Oroville, California. Finally identified as an Indian by an anthropologist, Ishi was brought to San Francisco by Professor T. T. Waterman and lived there the rest of his life under the care and protection of Alfred Kroeber and the staff of the University of California's Museum of Anthropology. Karl Kroeber adds an informative tribute to the text, describing how the book came to be and how Theodora Kroeber's approach to the project was both a product of her era and of her insight and her empathy.


Editorial Reviews

Review

"A book that all Americans should read." -- New York Times

"A highly original literary work and a great human story." -- San Francisco Chronicle

"A moving, poetic document." -- Christian Science Monitor

"Absolutely fascinating." -- Chicago Tribune

"One of the most moving, tragic and ultimately triumphant human stories I have ever read." -- Los Angeles Times

"Remarkably lively and interesting." -- Atlantic Monthly

"This magnificent biography of the lone survivor of the Yahi Indians shows man at his best." -- San Francisco Examiner

"[A] beautiful and compelling book . . . . Highly recommended." -- New Yorker

From the Publisher

6 1.5-hour cassettes --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 272 pages
  • Publisher: University of California Press; 2 edition (October 7, 2002)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0520229401
  • ISBN-13: 978-0520229402
  • Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #126,036 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

24 Reviews
5 star:
 (19)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.6 out of 5 stars (24 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The last free Native American in California, November 18, 2003
This review is from: Ishi in Two Worlds: A Biography of the Last Wild Indian in North America (Paperback)
This book is one of two I routinely give to people who move to northern California. The other one is The Ohlone Way, by Malcolm Margolin. Ishi was the lone survivor of a doomed tribe of Yahi Indians on the slopes of Mt. Lassen. Other members of his tribe were murdered by a planned campaign of genocide during the settling of the West. When Ishi stumbled out of the hills of his birth in 1911, he landed in the 20th Century, huddled in the corner of a cattle corral on a ranch, dressed in rags, starving, desperately lonely, and probably certain he would be killed. Instead, a wise sheriff in Oroville called on some anthropologists from Univ of CA in Berkeley, and Ishi eventually came under the benevolent but somewhat demeaning (he was made the centerpiece of a museum exhibit) protection of Alfred Kroeber. It is Kroeber's wife who wrote this touching, heartwarming, illuminating and ultimately tragic history of Ishi's life in the 'modern' world.
Most moving for me was a long middle section that recounted a magical summer when Ishi took Kroeber and his teenage son back to Mt. Lassen and showed them his native territory. They lived together as unspoiled and free Native Americans for the summer, hunting deer, swimming in cold streams, living in huts and caves, building fires, making bows and arrows... An experience that was destined never to be repeated.
Wonderful archival photographs supplement the imminently readable text.
Don't miss this very special and quintessentially Californian piece of history. But there's no rush: this book is destined to remain in print forever.
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27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Best book I've read this year, May 15, 1998
By 
Imagine this: it's the 20th century, we have electricity, movies, telephones, trains, cars, the latest audio recording devices, indoor plumbing, and access to the usual luxuries and amenities of our western world. Then one day - here in the United States, out of our own country - a man appears out of the wilderness, almost magically transferred from the stone age to the steel age. Truth is said to be stranger than fiction, and the story of Ishi is one such example. Ishi was the last of the Yahi Indians, living in Northern California under a cloak of fear, secrecy, and evasion from white men, carrying on this lifestyle for the better part of four decades. In this thoroughly researched book, Theodora Kroeber tells Ishi's story. She covers the historical and geographical background of the Yahi Indians, how their lives began to change and their numbers decimated with the coming of the caucasions in the mid- 19th century, and how Ishi and the few remaining people of his tribe lived until Ishi was the last one left. She then tells us about the man himself, the last (happy) five years of his life in San Francisco, and the adjustments and learning Ishi went through in his new home. The author does a superb job of comparing and contrasting Ishi's stone age world with the steel age world, without the tedious prose often involved in such writing. This book is highly readable and strongly recommended.
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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful, tragic book, April 21, 1999
By A Customer
I've read this excellent book three times now, and each time it is rewarding. My family has vacationed near the area where Ishi walked out of the woods, and his story became even more real and more tragic to me when I saw the beautiful land that his people lost. Kroeber has provided an important last glimpse of a Native American living in the old way. In addition to the obvious issue of our decimation of indigenous peoples, the book also raises important questions about the treatment given Ishi when he came to live in white culture.
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
The story of Ishi begins for us early in the morning of the twenty-ninth day of August in the year 1911 and in the corral of a slaughter house. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
museum files, three captives, stone age man
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Mill Creek, Deer Creek, San Francisco, California Indians, Central Yana, Mount Lassen, Sacramento Valley, Southern Yana, Sacramento River, Kingsley Cave, Lassen Trail, Round Valley, United States, Wood Duck, Feather River, Hiram Good, Antelope Creek, Juan Dolores, Parnassus Heights, Yana Indians, American Indian, Butte County, Captain Starr, Colorado River, Dry Creek
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