California Story Fund
Hi Good and the Last Yahis
Butte County Historical Society
Oroville
Project Director: Lee Lynch
Teens to dramatize little-known incident in Yahi Indian history
On Aug. 29, 1911, the last surviving member of the Yahi tribe, a subgroup of the Yana people of California, presented himself to authorities in Oroville, Calif. after hiding in the wild for 41 years. He was given the name Ishi.
Prior to European contact, the Yahi population numbered about 3,000. The Yahi were victims of a series of massacres, and their numbers were reduced to about 30 by 1866.
This project is a multimedia retelling of the Incident of the Five Bows, which involved Ishi, the last Yahi, and Hi Good, the last Indian hunter.
This is the story: On his final hunt, Hi Good encountered a pocket of Yahi in the hills near Deer Creek in the Sierra Nevada foothills south of Mount Lassen. Taking them to be a violent tribe, Good opened fire on the settlement, killing an elder and taking three women hostages. The remaining Yahi retreated into the countryside only to surrender two weeks later at Good’s cabin.
The Yahi presented their five bows to Good as a peace offering. In response, Good and his teenage slave, Indian Ned, tried to hang the Yahi. The Yahi escaped to the hills but continued negotiations with Good over the hostages, with Indian Ned watching over them.
A month later, Indian Ned murdered Hi Good and bragged about his actions to Good’s companions, who in turn killed Ned. The Yahi again escaped into the wild. Among them was 16-year-old Ishi, whose exile lasted until he appeared near Oroville some 41 years later.
“This aspect of the Ishi story is important because it has never been told,” said filmmaker Lee Lynch, who is directing the project.
Teenagers from the community of Oroville, including Native American youth from the Concow Maidu Rancheria will dramatize the event. Documentary filmmaker Ned Riffe and historian Richard Burrill will develop the script. An unfinished film about the Yahi by anthropologist filmmaker Samuel Barrett will serve as a backdrop for the onstage drama. In conjunction with the performance, students at various high schools in the Butte County area will create a graphic novel based on the Hi Good/Yahi story.
“Hi Good and the Last Yahis” will be presented at the eighth annual Ishi seminar in Oroville, Calif., on May 18, 2008. After the performance, Jed Riffe and Richard Burrill will lead an audience discussion, and each member of the audience will receive a graphic novel of the story.
Lynch said, “This rural community has been divided for more than a century by land grants and reservations, and it is time for new perspectives to help bridge cultural differences. I hope that this presentation will help bring that about.”