Ishi of the Yahi Tribe

The last of the Yahi tribe lived for 40 years without detection in the mountains of California. He walked out into civilization in 1911 and became an instant attraction for anthropologists of Berkeley. The scientists wanted to protect him, the businessmen wanted to put him in a side show and charge for the public to see him "the last savage of the wild frontier." The scientists protected him from this and studied him instead. 

The most phenomenal thing about this Indian was even though he was the last of his tribe because the government had ordered the slaughter of his people, he did not show animosity or bitterness.  The United States government paid gold coin for every scalp of an Indian that was turned in proving another savage was dead.  Many white bounty hunters commissioned by the US government were eager, heartless, ruthless, and unfeeling as they killed a nation of indigenous people becoming rich in the process.

When Ishi was given a choice to move to an Indian reservation or back to the mountains he chose to stay with the scientist in the town of San Francisco. He loved to ride the trolley and noticed that white men were clever in their inventions in this new century but not wise. He taught Saxton Pope his doctor how to hunt with a bow and after Ishi died Pope became known as the founder of modern day bow hunting.

This Ishi lived in the present moment, one with the earth. Today we are still clever with technology development and science revealing more and more, and in time we will be wise, to care for the land and people more than things.