The story of Ishi is among the most improbable and intriguing episodes in the history of the American West. After pioneers massacred most of his Yahi tribe in the mid-nineteenth century, Ishi hid out for more than fifty years in northern California's mountains, living in skins a…
An anthropologist retraces his efforts to locate the brain of Ishi--the "last wild Indian" of California who became an icon of dying Native American culture when he was captured in 1911--and his struggle to repatriate the remains.