And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: from Victor's pechanga.net Martha Ture Ishi May Not Have Been Last Member of His Tribe Smithsonian could return remains to Indians Robert B. Gunnison, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau Tuesday, April 6, 1999 �1999 San Francisco Chronicle Ishi, the Indian who emerged from the wilds of Northern California more than 87 years ago and became a living exhibit in a San Francisco museum, may not have been the last of his tribe, after all. A top representative of the Smithsonian Institution told a special committee of California lawmakers yesterday that he is close to finding a legitimate American Indian group with ancestral ties to Ishi. That link will permit the Smithsonian to release Ishi's preserved brain, which has been in Washington, D.C., since 1916, for an appropriate Indian burial in California. Thomas Killion of the Smithsonian said he has now identified surviving Yana Indians in far Northern California and believes they may be related to Ishi or at least descended from Ishi's tribe. ``There is a large group of Yana speakers,'' he said, noting that he based his conclusions on research and testimony at the hearing. ``They were not all eliminated.'' he said. Killion's announcement marked a breakthrough for Northern California Indians, who were told two weeks ago by Smithsonian experts that their tribes had no legal right to Ishi's brain. For many American Indians, the legal limbo over Ishi's brain amounted to a final indignity for a man whose tribe was the victim of genocide by early California settlers. Ishi walked out of the wilderness in the Butte County town of Oroville in 1911, and soon moved into the University of California's new anthropology museum in San Francisco as a kind of living exhibit. Ishi died of tuberculosis in 1916. His body was cremated and the remains were sent to Colma, where they rest in a small pottery jug in Olivet Memorial Park. But his brain, removed after a routine autopsy, was sent to the Smithsonian. Alfred Kroeber, a founder of UC's department of anthropology and Ishi's biographer and friend, described it at the time as ``a gift with the compliments of the University of California.'' Existence of the brain was all but forgotten until two months ago, when a San Francisco researcher, Nancy Rockafellar, learned that the Smithsonian had it in a Maryland warehouse -- wrapped in fabric, cataloged and preserved in formaldehyde. The news ignited a sense of urgency among American Indian groups eager to give Ishi a proper burial where he lived most of his life. ``We are committed to returning Ishi's remains in a respectful way,'' Killion told the lawmakers who were taking testimony on the issue. Killion estimated that the matter will be resolved soon. ``Two months is a realistic estimate,'' he said. An obstacle to returning Ishi's brain has been determining the person or group to whom it is to be given. Federal law requires that remains of American Indians may be returned only to federally recognized tribes than can claim a blood relationship with the deceased. In the case of Ishi, that is difficult because most members of his tribe were killed in massacres between the time of the Gold Rush and the turn of the century. Since his death, Ishi has been thought to be the last of the Yahi tribe. But in recent years, anthropologists have theorized that Ishi might not have been a Yahi at all, based on his technique of making stone tools while he was working at the San Francisco museum. In addition, they believe, some of his band may have been assimilated into other groups, such as the Yana. Mickey Gimmill of the Redding Rancheria told the committee yesterday that more than 100 members of the Pit River and Wintun tribes may be related to Ishi or members of his tribe. ``They were already married into or hid with the Wintun or Pit River tribes,'' he said. ``We shared the same sacred mountain (Lassen).'' To Art Angle of the Butte County Native American Cultural Committee, such distinctions mattered little. He said Ishi's brain should be returned to all the American Indians of the state. ``I have a claim for the repatriation of Ishi's brain on behalf of the entire California Native American community,'' he told the committee. ``The Native American community will decide just who, when and where Ishi's remains will be returned to the earth so that he can continue his journey.'' �1999 San Francisco Chronicle Page A1 URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/0 4/06/MN61890.DTL &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
