Ishi

I was particularly affected by the story of Ishi that was told in class the other day so I decided to do a wikipedia search to see what would come up, and whether or not it was parallel to what was said in class. Most of the things that I found especially troubling (Ishi being put on display, being viewed as a sort of zoo animal, being forced to recite his stories to death) are all absent from the article. I am honestly not surprised that the most offensive things about Ishi's story are not readily available to the public. This seems to fit with what I have been seeing as my Native American knowledge increases. I find, while talking to friends and thinking about how little I know about the subject, that no one has been taught any of this in school. How is it possible that all of this information, that the atrocities that have occurred are just omitted from textbooks and class discussion? Most people have a vague understanding of what happened to the Native American people, that there was genocide and that many were killed, but the extent of the inhumanity is forgotten. I told the story of Ishi to my friends at a dinner party a few nights ago and everyone was as upset and dumbfounded as I was. No one had any idea that such a thing had happened so near in time and place. This really made me realize the importance of this class and of the Native American Studies department at Davis. If public education will not teach the facts then it is up to individuals to spread the knowledge.