Wild Men: Ishi and Kroeber in the Wilderness of Modern America (New Narratives in American History)

When Ishi, "the last wild Indian," came out of hiding in August 1911, he was quickly whisked away by train to San Francisco to meet Alfred Kroeber, one of the fathers of American anthropology. When Kroeber and Ishi came face to face, it was a momentous event, not only for each man but also for the cultures they represented. Each stood on the brink--one was in danger of losing something vital while the other was in danger of disappearing altogether. Ishi was a survivor, and he viewed the bright lights of the big city with a mixture of awe and bemusement. What surprised everyone is how handily he adapted himself to the modern city while maintaining his sense of self and his culture. Kroeber was professionally trained to document Ishi's culture and his civilization. What he didn't count on was how deeply working with the man would lead him to question his own profession and his civilization--how it would rekindle a wildness of his own. Although Ishi's story has been told before in film and fiction, Wild Men is the first book to focus on the depth of Ishi and Kroeber's friendship. Exploring what their intertwined stories tell us about Indian survival in modern America and about America's fascination with the wild, this text is an ideal supplement for courses on Native American history, the U.S. West, and the history of California.

When Ishi, the last wild Indian, came out of hiding in August of 1911, he was quickly whisked away by train to San Francisco to meet Alfred Kroeber, one of the fathers of American anthropology. When Kroeber and Ishi came face to face, it was a momentous event, not only for each man, but for the cultures they represented. Each stood on the brink: one culture was in danger of losing something vital while the other was in danger of disappearing altogether.
Ishi was a survivor, and viewed the bright lights of the big city with a mixture of awe and bemusement. What surprised everyone is how handily he adapted himself to the modern city while maintaining his sense of self and his culture. He and his people had ingeniously used everything they could get their hands on from whites to survive in hiding, and now Ishi was doing the same in San Francisco. The wild man was in fact doubly civilized—he had his own culture, and he opened himself up to that of modern America. Kroeber was professionally trained to document Ishi's culture, his civilization. What he didn't count on was how deeply working with the man would lead him to question his own profession and his civilization—how it would rekindle a wildness of his own.
Though Ishi's story has been told before in film and fiction, Wild Men is the first book to focus on the depth of Ishi and Kroeber's friendship and to explore what their intertwined stories tell us about Indian survival in modern America and about America's fascination with the wild even as it was becoming ever-more urban and modern. Wild Men is about two individuals and two worlds intimately brought together in ways that turned out to be at once inspiring and tragic. Each man stood looking at the other from the opposite edge of a chasm: they reached out in the hope of keeping the other from falling in.

... Focus[es] On The Depth Of Ishi And Kroeber's Friendship, Exploring What Their Intertwined Stories Tell Us About Indian Survival In Modern America And About America's Fascination With The Wild Even As It Was Becoming Ever-more Urban And Modern--jacket. Prologue: One Small Step -- The Yahi In Three Worlds -- The Anthropologist In Three Worlds -- Worlds Of Stuff -- Making Tracks -- City Lights -- Nature Walks In The City And The Sierras -- The Call Of The Wild -- Death Mask -- Epilogue: The Hearth Of Prometheus And The Wilderness Of Ishi -- Afterword: Google Earth, Earthquake Weather. Douglas C. Sackman. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. In late August of 1911, from deep within the shadows of a remote canyon in northern California, an Indian of the Yahi people, long-believed to have disappeared, suddenly showed himself. A fugitive, he had hidden for decades from the lethal gaze of white intruders, keeping fires small and wiping the earth clean of his footprints. The sheriff took him into custody, and, having no better place for him, put him in the cell reserved for those who were not quite right in the head-the insane. The man soon aroused local and then national curiosity, and was christened the Wild Man or Wild Indian. Alfre