Ishi

Ishi (c. 1861 – March 25, 1916) was the last known member of the Native American Yahi people from the present-day state of California in the United States. The rest of the Yahi (as well as many members of their parent tribe, the Yana) were killed in the California genocide in the 19th century. Ishi, which means "man" in the Yana language, is an adopted name. The anthropologist Alfred Kroeber gave him this name because in the Yahi culture, tradition demanded that he not speak his own name until formally introduced by another Yahi.

You stay. I go.

Ishi was the last known member of the Native American Yahi people from the present-day state of California in the United States.

Quotes

• You stay. I go.
  • Attributed last words, Kevin Starr (2002). The Dream Endures: California Enters the 1940s. Oxford University Press. p. 330. ISBN 978-0-19-515797-0. 

About

• The Sheriff handed me a pair of handcuffs and told me to put them on him, and to hang on to him. Ishi made no attempt to run or resist the handcuffs but seemed very pleased. At no time did he seem to be real scared but he did a lot of smiling. He did not try to run away or get excited. The Sheriff put him in the buggy, accompanied by Constable John Toland and took him to the county jail.
  • Adolph Kessler, "Taken from the Butte County Historical Society Diggin's". Oroville Mercury-Register. Retrieved on 11 February 2021. 

• Contrary to commonly-held belief, Ishi was not the last of his kind. In carrying out the repatriation process, we learned that as a Yahi–Yana Indian his closest living descendants are the Yana people of northern California.
  • Robert Fri, director of the National Museum of Natural History, NMNH – Repatriation Office – The Repatriation of Ishi, the last Yahi Indian. Anthropology.si.edu. Retrieved on 2013-08-11.