TV REVIEWS : ‘Ishi’ Chronicles a Well-Known Tale of Two Cultures

“Ishi, the Last Yahi Indian” boldly goes where others have gone before--in TV movies (cable and network), books and magazine articles--to chronicle the life of “the last wild Indian in North America.” That may be why this “American Experience” segment, airing tonight at 9 on Channels 28 and 15 (at 7 on Channel 24), seems so flat--this is very familiar turf.

The details are well-known. In 1911, Ishi, after 40 years in hiding with a tiny band of fellow Yahis, left the Mount Lassen foothills in Northern California and walked into Oroville as the sole survivor of his tribe. His appearance was a windfall for Berkeley anthropologist Alfred Kroeber, who was thrilled to have an “uncontaminated and uncivilized” native to study. Ishi spent the rest of his life with Kroeber at the Museum of Anthropology in San Francisco, functioning as a living exhibit until his death in 1916 of tuberculosis.

“Ishi” is at its best when showing still photographs and archival film footage of the dignified Ishi coping in his strange new world. It is weakest when relying on dramatized readings of letters and articles from those years.

“Ishi, the Last Yahi Indian” is not up to par for the usually excellent “American Experience” series, but it serves as a decent introduction to those unfamiliar with the story.