Editing Ishi (section)

===Early life===
Ishi was likely born in the year 1861 within the heart of Yahi and Yana territory. At the time of Ishi's birth, the [[Yana people|Yana]] were based in the [[Sierra Nevada Mountains]] area between the Pit and Feather Rivers, with the Yahi subgroup living in the southern portion. Written accounts from the 19th century suggest that the Yahi were hunter-gatherers who lived in small egalitarian bands without centralized political authority, chose to seclude themselves even from neighboring peoples, and fiercely defended their territory of mountain canyons. Like many indigenous tribes in California, the Yana and especially the Yahi suffered heavy population losses when European settlers entered their territory during the [[California Gold Rush]] of 1848–55; prior to this the Yahi probably numbered several hundred, while the total Yana in the larger region numbered around 3,000.<ref name="ucsf-Ishi-Chronology-Rockafellar"/>

[[File:Ishi (First Captive Day) circa 1911-08-29.jpg|thumb|upright|Ishi, August 29, 1911:<br />''Deer Creek Indian''<br />''The Wild Man''<ref name="Sometimes-Interesting">{{cite web |last1=O'Dell |first1=Cary |title=Ishi: The Last Wild North American Indian |url=https://sometimes-interesting.com/2015/04/04/ishi-the-last-wild-north-american-indian/ |website=Sometimes Interesting |access-date=15 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201201163238/https://sometimes-interesting.com/2015/04/04/ishi-the-last-wild-north-american-indian/ |archive-date=1 December 2020 |date=4 April 2015}}</ref>]]
In 1865,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.parks.ca.gov/|title=Butte|website=CA State Parks|access-date=February 8, 2021|archive-date=October 23, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171023212933/https://www.parks.ca.gov/|url-status=live}}</ref> the Yahi were attacked in the [[California Indian Wars|Three Knolls Massacre]], in which 40 of them were killed. Although 33 Yahi survived to escape, cattlemen killed about half of the survivors. The last survivors, including Ishi and his family, went into hiding for the next 44 years. Their tribe was popularly believed to be extinct.<ref name="mpress_ishi">[https://www.mohicanpress.com/mo08019.html ''Ishi: A Real-Life Last Of The Mohicans''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210303173216/https://www.mohicanpress.com/mo08019.html |date=March 3, 2021 }}, Mohican Press</ref> 

The gold rush brought tens of thousands of miners and settlers to northern California, putting pressure on native populations. Gold mining damaged water supplies and killed fish; deer became scarcer. The settlers brought new infectious diseases such as [[smallpox]] and [[measles]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://biography.yourdictionary.com/ishi|title=Ishi|website=biography.yourdictionary.com|access-date=July 21, 2018|archive-date=October 22, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181022155218/http://biography.yourdictionary.com/ishi|url-status=live}}</ref> The northern Yana group went extinct while the central and southern groups (who later became part of [[Redding Rancheria]]) and Yahi populations dropped dramatically. Searching for food, they came into conflict with settlers, who set bounties of 50 cents per scalp and 5 dollars per head on the natives. In 1865, settlers attacked a group of Yahi while they were asleep.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Thornton|first=Russell|title=American Indian Holocaust and Survival|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|year=292|isbn=978-0806122205|page=110}}</ref>

Richard Burrill wrote, in ''Ishi Rediscovered'': 
{{blockquote|In 1865, near the Yahi's special place, Black Rock, the waters of Mill Creek turned red at the Three Knolls Massacre. "Sixteen" or "seventeen" Indian fighters killed about forty Yahi, as part of a retaliatory attack for two white women and a man killed at the Workman's household on Lower Concow Creek near Oroville. Eleven of the Indian fighters that day were Robert A. Anderson, [[Hiram Good|Harmon (Hi) Good]], Sim Moak, Hardy Thomasson, Jack Houser, Henry Curtis, his brother Frank Curtis, as well as Tom Gore, Bill Matthews, and William Merithew. W. J. Seagraves visited the site, too, but some time after the battle had been fought.

Robert Anderson wrote, "Into the stream they leaped, but few got out alive. Instead many dead bodies floated down the rapid current." One captive Indian woman named Mariah from Big Meadows (Lake Almanor today), was one of those who did escape. The Three Knolls massacre is also described in Theodora Kroeber's ''Ishi in Two Worlds.''

Since then more has been learned. It is estimated that with this massacre, Ishi's entire cultural group, the Yana/Yahi, may have been reduced to about sixty individuals. From 1859 to 1911, Ishi's remote band became more and more infiltrated by non-Yahi Indian representatives, such as [[Wintun]], [[Nomlaki]], and [[Pit River Tribe|Pit River]] individuals.

In 1879, the federal government started [[American Indian boarding schools|Indian boarding schools]] in California. Some men from the reservations became renegades in the hills. Volunteers among the settlers and military troops carried out additional campaigns against the northern California Indian tribes during that period.<ref name="burrill">Burrill, Richard (2001). ''Ishi Rediscovered''. Barron's art guides, Anthro Company. {{ISBN|978-1878464514}}.</ref>}}

In 1908, a group of surveyors came across the camp inhabited by two men, a middle-aged woman, and an elderly woman. These were Ishi, his uncle, his mother, and a woman who was either a relative or Ishi's wife. The former three fled while the elderly woman tried to hide herself, as she was crippled and unable to flee. The surveyors ransacked the camp, taking fur capes, arrows, bows, and nets. When Ishi appeared near Oroville three years later, he was alone and communicated through mime that his three companions had all died, his uncle and mother by drowning.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Kamiya |first1=Gary |title=Ishi, last 'wild' Indian, found refuge in S.F. |url=https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Ishi-last-wild-Indian-found-refuge-in-S-F-5737149.php |access-date=14 February 2021 |work=SFGate.com |date=6 September 2014 |quote=In the late 1860s, when Ishi was a small boy, a rancher named Norman Kingsley and three other whites shot 30 Yahi, including babies and young children, in a cave on Mill Creek. In the midst of the slaughter, Kingsley exchanged his .56 Spencer rifle for a .38-caliber Smith and Wesson revolver, because the rifle "tore them up so bad," especially the babies. |archive-date=November 16, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201116055613/https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Ishi-last-wild-Indian-found-refuge-in-S-F-5737149.php |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:ishi.jpg|thumb|A. L. Kroeber, Ishi<ref>{{cite web |last1=Kroeber |first1=Alfred Louis Kroeber |title=The Indian Ishi |url=https://bancroft.berkeley.edu/Exhibits/anthro/5research6_kroeber_ishi.html |website=Foundations of Anthropology at the University of California |publisher=bancroft.berkeley.edu |access-date=11 February 2021 |date=8 September 1911 |quote=In these notes, Kroeber summarized what was known of Ishi just four days after his discovery. |archive-date=October 23, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191023010007/http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/Exhibits/anthro/5research6_kroeber_ishi.html |url-status=live }}</ref> (Cropped from: ''Sam Batwi, Alfred L. Kroeber, and Ishi, at  [[Mount Sutro|Parnassus Heights]] in 1911'') <ref name="ucsf-Ishi-Chronology-Rockafellar">{{cite web |last1=Rockafellar |first1=Nancy |title=The Story of Ishi: A Chronology |url=https://history.library.ucsf.edu/ishi.html |website=A History of UCSF |access-date=13 February 2021 |quote=Yahi translator Sam Batwi, Alfred L. Kroeber, and Ishi, photographed at Parnassus in 1911...Deer Creek area of Tehama county...December 10, 1914 to Feb. 1, 1915: Ishi hospitalized for 62 days, First Tubercular Diagnosis in early 1915.  Summer 1915: Linguistics work with Edward Sapir; Ishi stays with Watermans at Berkeley for three months and is "carefully looked after."  August 22, 1915: Ishi hospitalized for six weeks, then moved to the Museum of Anthropology. |archive-date=July 4, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180704153052/http://history.library.ucsf.edu/ishi.html |url-status=live }}<!--   https://history.library.ucsf.edu/theme_photo8b.html  https://history.library.ucsf.edu/theme_photo8.html  https://history.library.ucsf.edu/theme_photo9.html  https://history.library.ucsf.edu/theme_photo10.html  https://history.library.ucsf.edu/theme_photo11.html    --></ref><!-- https://alumni.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/styles/960x400/public/ishi_batwi_kroeber.jpg -->]]