Reviews for Ishi in Two Worlds: A Biography of the Last Wild Indian in North America [With Earbuds] (Pla...

The average rating for Ishi in Two Worlds: A Biography of the Last Wild Indian in North America [With Earbuds] (Pla... based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2021-06-04 00:00:00 frankie eubanks This was one of the most educating books I've ever read. I can completely understand why it changed people's views o native Americans when it came out in 1961. It is written by renowned SFF author Ursula K Le Guin's mother, Theodora Kroeber, who wrote an unsentimental and fact driven account and biography of Ishi, the last surviving Yahi indian who wandered into a white town in 1911, prepared to die. He didn't, though, but was instead befriended by two anthropologists, one who would later become Theodora Kroeber's husband, and was moved in to rooms at the museum they worked at, where they helped him to live a relatively independent life under drastically different circumstances than he had been living under for 50 years. Ishi, in turn, taught them what he could of his language and culture, much to their mutual delight. Kroeber doesn't just talk about Ishi, his culture and his language (a bonus if you're as fascinated with language like I am), but unflinchingly tells of the white man's senseless and relentless slaughter of indigenous peoples. How many cultures have been lost we don't even know because no one bothered to even write down the tribes of the people they killed. She never gets sentimental, though. This is enlightening and fascinating, and as we follow Ishi and his acceptance of his new life and we get to know a curious, intelligent and well-humored man. He had his quirks. For example he had no problems with wearing clothes but shoes took him months to do. When asked if he didn't want any shoes, he responded that he could see he was walking on stone. If he wore shoes he would just wear them out, but his feet would never wear out. How do you even beat logic like that? For all the first contact SF I love to read, one truly needs to go no further than this real life account. Informative, sober and timeless, highly recommended. As a sidenote, it is blatantly obvious where Ursula K Le Guin got her intellect from and it makes sense now why Le Guin's SF is so heavy on anthropology, which was both of her parents' specialty.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-09-07 00:00:00 Patricia Mullaney What an amazing man Ishi was. His entire people, the Yahi of California, were wiped out by white settlers in the late 1800s - for no justifiable reason, I might add - and after years of living in hiding with just 3 or 4 other people, the others' deaths/disappearances had left him all alone. In profound loneliness and despair, he stumbled into white man territory, fully expecting to be killed or worse. Instead he was taken in by kindhearted scholars who showed him respect and love, and who wanted to learn whatever he was willing to teach them about his long-dead people. Ishi showed them the same respect, love, and willingness to learn in return, and his cheerful disposition and childlike wonder at everyday things the white man took for granted inspired a generation. Inspired me, too, 100 years later. That a man could go through so much and not have a trace of anger or distrust in his heart is just about as inspiring as you can get. I'll say it again - what an amazing man! He left a lot of brokenhearted friends behind when he died, much too soon, the last of his kind in more ways than one. His close friend, Dr. Saxton Pope, wrote this when Ishi died - "And so, stoic and unafraid, departed the last wild Indian of America. He closes a chapter in history. He looked upon us as sophisticated children - smart, but not wise. We knew many things, and much that is false. He knew nature, which is always true. His were the qualities of character that last forever. He was kind; he had courage and self-restraint, and though all had been taken from him, there was no bitterness in his heart. His soul was that of a child, his mind that of a philosopher." Not many books can be so tragic and yet so hopeful at the same time. The description in this book of the long-dead Yahi culture is so vivid and beautiful that it really brings it home to you what the world lost because of the recklessness and greed of the gold rush settlers. They wiped out a beautiful cuture that was completely in-tune with nature simply because they'd found lumps of shiny metal in nearby rivers and streams. But Ishi himself didn't get angry about it or demand to be reimbursed for what he'd lost. He accepted that that phase of his journey was over, and he moved on to enjoy the next phase. What a lesson we all can learn from him.