Discovery Site of the Last Yahi Indian

The bronze is titled The Last Yahi Indian, and the Smithsonian said in 1999 that he was not: the Yana, his closest relatives, had survived. Ishi, a Yana word for man, was not his name; he never gave his own. He came out of the hills to a slaughterhouse corral near here on August 29, 1911, and died in San Francisco in 1916. His brain went to the Smithsonian until a Butte County campaign brought it back, and in August 2000 the Redding Rancheria and Pit River Tribe buried it with his ashes in Deer Creek Canyon.

What the plaque says

The Last Yahi Indian For thousands of years the Yahi Indians roamed the foothills between Mt. Lassen and the Sacramento Valley. Settlement of this region by the white man brought death to the Yahi by gun, by disease, and by hunger. By the turn of the century only a few remained. Ishi, the last known survivor of these people, was discovered at this site in 1911. His death in 1916 brought an end to Stone Age California. California Registered Historical Landmark No. 809 Plaque placed by the California State Park Commission in cooperation with the N.S.G.W. Argonaut. No. 8 and N.D.G.W. Ophir No. 190, January 29, 1966.

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Mother Orange Tree of Butte County — 0.9 mi
• Chinese Temple — 2.2 mi
• Old Suspension Bridge — 3.9 mi
• Bidwell's Bar — 3.9 mi