Ishi [SEP] medical condition
Ishi provided valuable information on his native Yana language, which was recorded and studied by the linguist Edward Sapir, who had previously done work on the northern dialects.
Lacking acquired immunity to the diseases common among European Americans, Ishi was often ill. He was treated by Saxton T. Pope, a professor of medicine at UCSF. Pope became close friends with Ishi, and learned from him how to make bows and arrows in the Yahi way. He and Ishi often hunted together.
Ishi died of tuberculosis on March 25
.
The medical school where Pope taught was located near the museum where Ishi worked as a janitor, having been brought there for study by Professor T. T. Waterman of the University of California Department of Anthropology. Because Ishi had grown up in the isolated Yahi tribe, he had little immunity to diseases, and Pope met Ishi during his stays at the University hospital. Pope learned some of the Yahi language, and spent much time with Ishi, learning of his life and listening to the Yahi tribal folklore. Ishi taught Pope