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Ishi's Brain: In Search of America's Last "Wild" Indian

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The story of Ishi is fairly well known. He was the mythologized last lonely "unconquered" Indian who was captured in California in 1911, then spent the last few years of his life as either a guest or prisoner at a San Francisco museum, looked over by scientists who were friendly but had suspicious motives. Since Ishi's death, rumors had persisted that his brain was removed for scientific study, and modern California Indians yearned for the brain to be reunited with Ishi's ashes (themselves kept in a San Francisco cemetery), so Ishi could be given a proper Indian burial in his mountain homeland. The author, modern anthropologist Orin Starn, was instrumental in finding the brain in an obscure Smithsonian storeroom, and for helping with the process of repatriation. This detective work is the main impetus for this moving book.

However, Starn describes much more than a dry academic detective story. While he tends to talk about himself a little too much and his philosophical explorations could use some editing, Starn fills this book with highly compelling coverage of modern cultural identity politics for all the parties involved in the Ishi saga. These include the modern California Indians and their divisive struggles to prove their ancestral connection to Ishi, modern whites who embrace stereotypical native mythology with misguided or even ulterior motives, and anthropologists (Starn's forbears) who have displayed shifting loyalties and ethics in their study of so-called "primitive" peoples. Starn also find inconsistencies in the knowledge of Ishi's life and background as espoused by caretaker anthropologist Alfred Kroeber and his wife Theodora, who wrote the famous but not entirely accurate biography "Ishi in Two Worlds." Most importantly, Starn also turns up new evidence and raises new questions about the mysterious Ishi himself, who was surely more complex and human than the semi-mythological image that surrounds his life and identity. This book is a strongly considered and moving look into the far-reaching cultural legacies of a single Indian, the decimation of his people, and the modern lives of Native Americans and all others who are concerned about these legacies. [~doomsdayer520~]

At its simplest, this book is a beautifully lucid and often poignant account of how the author, anthropology Professor Orin Starn, tracked down the mysterious whereabouts of the last "wild" Indian's brain some 80 years after it was excised from his lifeless body on a California autopsy table. As such, the book reads like a compelling mystery novel, one that will keep the most jaded and disinterested readers hitched to a twisting and ever-surprising cross-country chain of discovery until the very end. At its most complex, it represents a keen, engaging, and constantly balanced overview of classical anthropological history in the 20th century as Professor Starn carefully uncovers, interprets, and weighs the motives and actions of one of the field's first luminaries, Alfred Kroebur, the man responsible for Ishi's emergence as a museum curiosity and stark emblem of man's "uncivilized" nature. The book will therefore delight Native American historians, political activists, college and grad students steeped in social and culture theory, and even casual readers interested in 20th century Americana. But regardless of the reader's background or incentive, he/she will find Professor Starn's ease and clarity in recounting this captivating story an uncommon joy indeed. Highly recommended!

A wonderful read, like a super-smart mystery. Full of fascinating stories, and they are all true! It also pulls together many threads -- history and current issues facing Native Americans, stones and bones, contemporary politics, the way we think about scientific inquiry -- terrific!

Ishi's story is too well known to need to be recounted here. In 1911, wandering aimlessly -- or was he going somewhere? Ishi (which wasn't really his name), the last of the Yahi Indians-- or was he? early one morning -- or was it late one afternoon? was taken in by a white community -- or was that taken capture?

Theodora Kroeber turns out to have taken considerable liberties in writing her book about Ishi. In retrospect, I should not be surprised, considering the way she dressed California Indian tales in tuxedos and evening gowns for the Inland Whale.

But just who was Ishi? What does he represent? How should we envisage him? Starn, who did so much to put Ishi's body back together again, in this book helps us put Ishi back together with California history, so we can better appreciate where Ishi stood at this confluence. He approaches every question with great fairness and balance. Many of his investigations of possibilities and interpretations would not occur to the average reader, and help us round out the picture.

Although I say Starn writes with justice and balance, this is not a cold treatment of a dead man. He brings Ishi back to life for us, with bones beneath his flesh. He writes movingly about Grizzly Bear's Hiding Place. The whole book is beautiful, in writing style, in treatment, in reflection, in the care he takes. I, for one, am grateful for his detailed recitation of these events, because even though it may slow the book a bit, it shows proper respect for the importance of those events.

I can't believe I am writing a whole review without saying anything nasty about a book. Okay, the photos, although superbly reproduced, are jumbled together in no particular order that I could conceive, and I have questions about one caption: which one is Hi Good?

Great book, one that was never intended to supplant Ishi in Two Worlds, but complements it perfectly.

Somewhere in my early years I read Theodora Kroeber's books on Ishi and they have remained among my favorite books that I have occasionally reread. After reading Ishi's Brain, however, these books will keep their mystique but never have the same ring of truth.

I was amazed to learn that I am a member of what Orin Starn calls the "Ishi cult". I had no idea there were so many people as compelled as I am by Ishi's mythology. And now I have learned that Ishi may have been far more touched by "civilization" than I had formerly believed.

I recently published a novel, Treasure Forest, in which a character shapes his life according to the Ishi I believed in before reading Starn's book. Daggett grows up in San Francisco in the 30's and comes under the care of a man who had known Ishi through the museum. When Daggett runs away at age 14 to head north, it is to capture the freedom he believes that Ishi had as a lone survivor in the wilderness. My character succeeds living his own version of Ishi's life right up into his 70's, when -- I won't ruin the story for you. But as I wrote, I sometimes wondered what Ishi would have thought of the story, if he would have felt a kinship with Daggett, and I've often wondered how Ishi would have liked Daggett's underground version of Grizzly Bear's Hiding Place.

I would recommend that anyone who is fascinated by Ishi read Orin Starn's book. The discoveries it shares ground the Ishi mythology in very human details, bringing it closer to our own experience, coloring it with more authenticity. I am sure it will influence me as I continue to write the rest of my novel's trilogy.

An essential account, and the most recent explaining the great fascination with Ishi, who was, to the best of our knowledge, the last truly `Wild' native American. Although some would argue that the Eskimos have retained their independence, the truth is that Ishi was an amazing person simply because he remained true to his lifestyle, not affected by the outside chaos of invading euro-American cultures. Ishi was a California Indian, living on land that had once been perhaps the most heavily populated Native American lands in the United States. Unlike the Indians in `Last of the Dogmen' he didn't live in some secretive enclave of hold out Indians, ala Machu Pichu, but instead he was all alone, perhaps more sad then romantic. And this wonderful book explores Ishi, his story and his `brain'. It explores the nature and character and extraordinary story of Americas last truly Native American. A terrible testimony to a lost culture and lost way of life. A very necessary update on the famous, but not well known, story of Ishi.

The greatest downside of this telling is that it is too much narrative and not enough history. This is a shame because the story of Ishi is fascinating without the unnecessary personal jibes.

Seth J. Frantzman

"Ishi" was by historical consensus the "last wild Indian" -- the last Native American in the United States living "traditionally" outside a reservation and the direct constraints of Anglo/American society or government. Ishi was found, about the age of 50, in a desperate and destitute condition near Oroville, California in 1911. The anthropology department at U.C. Berkeley, headed by a noted anthropologist, Alfred Kroeber, took responsibility for Ishi's welfare and care. Although he was "exhibited" on Sundays at a museum in San Francisco, it appears that Ishi was relatively content during his final few years in that city, before dying of tuberculosis in 1916.

The story of Ishi has been published several times before, most notably by Kroeber's wife Theodora. The pretext for this book was the "repatriation" of Ishi's brain from the Smithsonian, where it had been sent shortly after his funeral and cremation, and after an autopsy had been performed on Ishi (against Kroeber's wishes) and the brain removed and preserved (almost certainly also contrary to Kroeber's wishes). The author Starn was the one who found and brought to light the correspondence documenting the transmittal of the brain to the Smithsonian, where it then had been stored, almost completely ignored and forgotten, for more than eighty years. In addition to telling the story of Ishi and how he discovered that Ishi's brain had been shipped to the Smithsonian, Starn also chronicles the efforts and political machinations surrounding the return of the brain to Native Americans, as well as the difficult decision as to who the proper recipients should be.

In the course of the book there is much of interest about American Indians (especially those in California) and their callous mistreatment by the practitioners and beneficiaries of Manifest Destiny. There also is much of interest about some of the contemporary problems confronting the "new" American Indians, many of whom are now engaged (some unhappily) in squabbles over authenticity and the right to participate in the economic and commercial trappings that now inure to being an American Indian, or at least a member of a recognized tribe.

To Starn's credit, the Indians are not idealized or romanticized. ISHI'S BRAIN is no politically correct screed. It reflects a conscientious effort, difficult as it may be, to be historically objective and accurate. It also reflects admirable sensitivity to and understanding of the circumstances impinging on the lives and actions of the various people Starn encountered in following the story of Ishi's brain.

Turning to the negatives: ISHI'S BRAIN contains far too much that is personal to Starn. The writing tends to be verbose, sometimes seemingly the product of considerations of style rather than content. There also is unnecessary repetition. Finally, too many pages are devoted to the goings on after the Smithsonian made its decision to repatriate Ishi's brain to the Indians of the Redding Rancheria and the Pit River Tribe. For the last third or quarter of the book I truly was ready and eager for it finally to come to an end.

Bev and I have just discovered a fascinating new book............ a real story of intrigue, mystery, science, flawed human nature and a dozen other superlatives. Unlike The DaVinci Code This story is real and starts a long time ago and is only solved in modern times. This remarkable book should climb to the top of the best seller list. Orin Starn is a gifted writer and Professor of Antropology At Duke University. The book is written for readers like us rather than the academic world.

Ishi you may recall was the "last wild indian" to come out of the stone age in the USA. You'll recall his tribe had all been murdered or died of white man's diseases. Ishi was alone and spoke a language that no one on earth understood. Ishi was "captured" studied and exploited. You'll become as excited as we are about the story, Ishe the man, and Orin the author. You will find the story riveting and a real page turner. You will want to know what became of Ishi's Brain as much as Orin did

ISHI'S BRAIN BY ORIN STARN PUBLISHED BY W.W. NORTON AND COMPANY

read this book for my english class, and i enjoyed it. learned a lot about how society treated Ishi this last known of his tribe, he was some what of a rare creature during that time. overall Orin Starn did a job introducing Ishi and telling us his own adventure in the book.

I read the original Ishi written by Kroeber's wife back in the 1970s and this new updating of Ishi's history was interesting to read. I purchased these 2 books (Kroeber's wife's book & Ishi's Brain)for my father for Xmas as he had never heard or read about Ishi and he is a history buff.