An Ishi Projectile Point A particularly interesting and rare object changed hands during an auction held at Skinner in Boston in late 2014. This was an unusually elongated and graceful Native American projectile point expertly fl aked from clear glass. Measuring only 7 cm. in length, this small object represents a unique juncture between confl icting societies, 116 cataclysmic cultural change, and the evolution of anthropology as a science. Recognition of its signifi cance requires an understanding of the circumstances under which it was created and the remarkable history of the man who made it. Our perspective on this object opens with the discovery of gold in 1848 in the central foothills of California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains. At the time, this region was sparsely populated by relatively small bands of Native Americans living the lifeways they had for centuries if not millennia, little impacted by the scattered Spanish and other European and Anglo-American settlers of Mexican-controlled Alta California. The discovery of gold brought a massive infl ux of prospectors from Europe, Asia, and elsewhere in the Americas, placing tens of thousands of these in direct confl ict with the native population for land and resources. It also brought immediate annexation to the United States, and in 1851 California’s fi rst US governor, Peter Burnett, acknowledged the inevitability of the eradication of the entire native population of the state. Bounties for proof of Indian deaths were posted and paid to white settlers and militias. Much of the nonassimilated native population was killed or driven into hiding, where many more perished from disease or the consequences of cultural disruption. The survivors were indentured, integrated, or forced onto reservation lands. In late August of 1911, an emaciated middle-aged man was found cornered by dogs in the corral of a slaughterhouse near Oroville in the northern foothills. He spoke no English or Spanish, and attempts to communicate in the languages known by local native residents were fruitless. It quickly became clear that this was an Indian who had been little exposed to Western society, and within a day local newspapers picked up the story of the “Wild Man” who had been “captured.” The headlines caught the attention of Professor Alfred Kroeber at the University of California, a proponent of the rising science of anthropology that was By Sebastian Miller FIG. 1 (right): Projectile point created by Ishi, 1911–1914. Ex Charles Shewey, Kansas City; Jeb Taylor, Clearmont, Wyoming. Glass. L: 7.2 cm. Private collection. Photo courtesy of Skinner, Boston. OBJECT history FIG. 3 (above): Headline from the Sacramento Bee, August 29, 1911. Courtesy of the California Digital Newspaper Collection. FIG. 4 (right): Article from the San Francisco Call, August 30, 1911. Courtesy of the California Digital Newspaper Collection. FIG. 2 (below): Early portrait of Ishi, 1911. Silver gelatin print. 29.9 x 43.2 cm. Inscribed in 1938. Private collection. Photo courtesy of Skinner, Boston.
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