Ishi is believed to be the last survivor of the Yahi, a Native American tribe that was wiped out by the white man. Ishi walked into a white town one day, where he was jailed because they did not know what to do with him. Living in the north California wilderness, Ishi and his family hide from the white people. They were scared for their lives.

After Ishi's last relative died, he decided to go into the white city in 1911. Ishi headed south. The Yahi believed that the person went south after they died, called the “journey of the dead.” No one could speak Ishi's language anymore, an anthropological dilemma since language is important to culture. News spread quickly of the “aboriginal” stumbled into.

Alfred Kroeber, head of the new Department of Anthropology at the University of California found interest in Ishi. He enlisted T.T. Waterman to help him decipher Ishi's language. He wanted to know as much as he could about Ishi. They attempted to use a similar language of a nearby tribe to translate what Ishi was saying. Ishi was not his real name. According to his beliefs, he could not say his name if directly asked. Ishi means “man” in Yahi.

Ishi would eventually be taken to Anthropology Museum of the University of California Parnassus Heights, where he would live the remainder of his life. Kroeber attempted to enlist the aid of Edward Sapire, a brilliant linguist, to help decipher Yahi but he was too busy. Kroeber studied Ishi extensively and learned as much as he could about Ishi's people. Ishi wore Yahi robes when posing for pictures but he refused to remove his pants because it would not be right since he was now in a white man's world. Ishi became friends with a physician, Doctor Saxton Pope. He was also invited to join the Blackfoot Tribe but refused once he figured out it was a political scheme, a very interesting part of Ishi's character.

The most interesting part was when Ishi was amazed by large crowds. In his entire life, he had not seen more than 40 people. When taken on a tour of San Francisco, Ishi just looked at all the people. When he was taken to a play, for most of the play he just looked at the crowd of 2,000 people shoved into one building. Rumors claim he was captivated by white female singer.

When the museum opened, Ishi was placed on exhibit. He showed people how he lived in the wild. He drew large crowds. More people would visit on Sunday, the day Ishi would perform, than any other day of the week combined. When Ishi got sick with Phenomnia, they contemplated about placing him in a glass box for people to see.

In 1840, there were about 400 Yahi. They endured massacre after massacre since about 1865. Ishi's father was killed at the Massacre at Three Knobs. Because of these atrocities, Ishi had refused to return to his homeland. Finally, Kroeber convinced him. An expedition into Ishi's hideout for years was laid out and documented. Pictures of Ishi in his natural environment were taken. No one has been able to find Ishi's hide out since.

In 1915, Edward Sapire finally went to work with Ishi. For an entire summer both men worked hard recording and translating stories from the Yahi. At the end, Ishi became sick with Tuberculosis and died in 1916. With Ishi died the rest of the Yahi. Kroeber wrote a telegram to the coroner not to perform an autopsy because the Yahi believed the body had to be whole to make its journey, but the letter arrived too late. An autopsy was performed, and Ishi cremated and his was brain was preserved. When someone would asked Kroeber about Ishi, he talked about him with great emotion. Both Kroeber and Pope lost a close friend.