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Subject: Investigation Solves Final Mystery of Ishi, the Last of...
Date: Fri, 19 Feb 1999 14:52:40 EST
Investigation Solves Final Mystery of Ishi, the Last of the Yahi Indians
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 19, 1999--After a two-year
investigation, a report delivered today by a UC San Francisco historian
answers a troubling mystery surrounding the autopsy and cremation of Ishi, the
last Yahi Indian who became a celebrity and ultimately another victim when he
wandered out of the California wilderness in 1911.
The report by Nancy Rockafellar, PhD, a research historian in the UCSF
History of Health Science Department, includes her discovery along with Duke
University anthropologist Orin Starn, PhD, that Ishi's brain, removed at the
time of the autopsy at UCSF for scientific evaluation, has been stored for the
past 83 years by the Smithsonian Institution.
The discovery sets in motion a repatriation process mandated by the
Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act, which requires
federally-funded institutions to return Native American remains in their
possession to the individual's lineal or tribal descendants. Rockafellar's
report expresses the hope that the brain might now be reunited with the rest
of Ishi's cremated remains and given to appropriate Native American
representatives for a final and dignified interment.
Rockafellar's investigation dates from 1997, after the Butte County
(Calif.) Native American Cultural Committee began an effort to locate all of
Ishi's remains and provide a burial in his tribal homeland near Mount Lassen.
Attempts by the committee to locate the brain had failed, prompting UCSF Vice
Chancellor Dorothy Bainton to initiate an investigation to determine whether
the brain was removed during the autopsy and whether it had been cremated with
the rest of the body.
Rockafellar's work uncovered verbal testimony that the brain had been
sent to Washington, but her attempts to locate it through telephone interviews
remained unsuccessful. In December 1998, Rockafellar sought the assistance of
Orin Starn, PhD, a Duke University anthropologist who is writing a book
related to Ishi.
Starn was able to find previously undiscovered correspondence verifying
that the brain was sent to the Smithsonian. He then met on Jan. 27, 1999 with
Smithsonian officials in Washington who confirmed that the museum had the
brain and that it has been kept in a Maryland storage facility. Ishi's story,
taught to generations of California schoolchildren, began before the turn of
the century when he and the last few survivors of a series of massacres by so-
called "Indian hunters" retreated to an isolated valley deep in the Mount
Lassen wilderness. By 1911, Ishi later told anthropologists, only he remained
alive.
After emerging in a nearly starved condition in 1911 near Oroville, Ishi
was first jailed by the local sheriff before being turned over to
anthropologists at the University of California in San Francisco.
Ishi lived the rest of his life at the San Francisco campus, teaching
anthropologists about his language, beliefs and tribal arts, roaming freely
about the campus and the city, and greeting small groups during Sunday
afternoon sessions at the Anthropology Museum where he lived. Anthropologist
Thomas Waterman and museum curator Alfred Kroeber befriended Ishi and
attempted, in their way, to protect him from excessive exploitation. But in
the years before effective antibiotics they could not protect him from a
disease that devastated California's Native American's after the arrival of
Europeans. In 1916, Ishi died of tuberculosis.
Following his death, physicians performed an autopsy on Ishi's body.
Rockafellar notes in her report that this was a standard procedure following
all hospital deaths at the time.
"What was unique about Ishi's autopsy was the removal of the brain," the
report states. "None of the other autopsy reports from 1914-1916 involved
removal or examination of the brain."
Until Rockafellar and Starn completed their investigation, it remained
unclear whether the brain had been stored elsewhere or cremated with the rest
of Ishi's remains. The cremated remains currently rest in an urn in a Colma,
Calif., cemetery.
Through a meticulous review of records and numerous interviews with
individuals who recalled portions of the events, Rockafellar and Starn
determined that the preserved brain had indeed been sent to the Smithsonian
Institution for scientific purposes in early 1917 by Ishi's friend Alfred
Kroeber. This decision contradicts the established historical view of Kroeber
as an ardent opponent of an autopsy.
"The inconsistency of cremating Ishi's remains and some of his belongings
without the brain in the face of their knowledge of his beliefs reveals an odd
rationale on the part of (the scientists who cared for Ishi) Pope, Gifford,
Waterman, and Kroeber. As Gifford wrote at the time, they were truly
attempting a 'compromise between science and sentiment,'" the report
concludes.
Rockafellar's report suggests a series of steps for UCSF to consider in
an attempt to bring the past to a proper conclusion and to honor Ishi's
remarkable life in the future.
-- The report asks that UCSF act as an institutional advocate for
the tribes seeking repatriation of the remains. "UCSF should take
an active role in assisting in the return of the cremated
remains, so that Ishi's body can be reunited and laid to rest in
an appropriate manner, according to the wishes of Native
Americans," it states.
-- The reports calls for the appointment of an Ishi Advisory
Committee in UCSF's newly formed Department of Anthropology, History
and Social Medicine to bring together the different
groups and individuals seeking an appropriate resolution.
-- The report proposes using the new information and understanding
of Ishi's life as an opportunity to enhance and consolidate the
record of Ishi's story. Possible steps include creation of an
internet web site devoted to Ishi's story, making updated
classroom materials available to schools, or an interpretive
center at UCSF's Parnassus Heights campus, where Ishi spent his
final years.
-- Lastly, the report notes that Ishi's story serves as another
reminder of the ravages inflicted on Native Americans by
infectious disease in the early 20th Century. Rockafellar
proposes that UCSF explore the creation of a scholarship fund for
Native American students in recognition and remembrance of this
tragedy.
The report concludes by offering Ishi's story as a "morality tale" for
scientists and physicians.
"The lesson here is not merely an indictment of anthropologists and
physicians of the past, but a harsh reminder of the destructive power of
hubris," Rockafellar wrote. "All participants in academic life must recall the
historical context of individuals like Pope, Kroeber, and Waterman - and
remember that the source of their conviction that they were 'doing the right
thing' was the scientific certainty of the day.
"We, in turn, must recognize that a sense of moral discomfort is perhaps
a better indicator for action than scientific curiosity."
--30--eb/sf
CONTACT:
UCSF News Service
Bill Gordon, 415/476-2557
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit)
Unenh onhwa' Awayaton
http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/
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