Thomas Talbot Waterman traveled to see him.

Communication was difficult at first, but enough words could be exchanged to identify him as a Yahi speaker, part of the southernmost group of Yana-speaking peoples.

Within days, Waterman brought him to San Francisco.

That journey is often told as a rescue.

And in one important sense, it was.

Local officials had considered sending him to a reservation, possibly far from the country he knew.

The University of California museum offered another option, and Ishi apparently chose to go with Waterman.

But what waited for him in San Francisco was not ordinary freedom.

It was a museum.

And almost immediately, thousands of people came to see him.