Ishi's Brain

Frankie Runnels
Post about Ishi's Brain In Search of America's Last "Wild"Indian by "Orin Starn

Here we have a story about an Anthropologist named Orin Starn who so happens to be in search of any artifact or clue can help him shed light on life of Ishi. For those of you who don’t know about the life of this man an author by the name of Theodora Kroeber wrote a book, Ishi in two worlds, about him. Wrapping the book up in a nutshell, you have this Indian from the tribe of Yahi and soon attacked by the settlers that came for gold during the Gold Rush era. About two to three times they had trouble with the settlers and because of this the tribe decreased dramatically until Ishi’s family was the only one left. Soon after his mother and sister became ill and couldn’t run from the settlers any more so Ishi departed from them never to see them again. For two years he lived on his own and soon starved; making it impossible for him to live anymore so he gives up and allows himself to be captured. He does this by sneaking in a butcher’s shop and was found to be skin and bones. Authorities took Ishi into custody and he was put in jail, but the news of a wild man Indian spread like wild fire and he became a celebrity during that time. He lived out the remainder of his years in a museum under the care of Alfred and Theodora Kroeber. The man died from an awful disease, tuberculosis. Before he died researchers had the opportunity to get a glimpse at what the Yahi tribes’ culture was like. Unfortunately we couldn’t get much because of the conditions that Ishi was put through.

Now if you fast forward a few years later you have an anthropologist who is inspired by the life of this man and the book by Theodora Kroeber and continues to search for more information about his story. It’s safe to say that Orin Starn is obsessed with Indian culture. He grew up in the sixties just off the bay of San Francisco in the university town of Berkeley. His first memory that sparked his interest in Indian culture was back at his old summer camp they played make-believe with the kids and had them practice the art of archery and called them Indian names. Since he was surrounded by radicals that used the treatment of Native Americans as incentive to continue to protest against the government for various reasons this further strengthened his interested in Native Americans. After College he left to volunteer at a Navajo Reservation in a school. There he worked various jobs such as cooking and janitorial duties all the while trying to satisfy the need to learn more about the Native American culture. Soon after he went back to the University of Chicago than to graduate school in Stanford he decided that he wanted to change anthropology and how he did it was by following up the life of Ishi. He sacrificed his time and energy trying to find anything he can on the Yahi culture. Then throughout the book he explains the his findings on what happened in the story of Ishi's life and how he finds out about the misplacement of his brain. Then after the book end he discusses his view of the whole situation.