The researchers photographed Ishi extensively.

They recorded techniques.

They mapped places.

They documented activities that later became key parts of the visual archive used to represent Yahi culture.

Many of the famous photographs of Ishi in the landscape come from this return.

But photographs can conceal as much as they reveal.

A picture of Ishi using a bow near Deer Creek may appear timeless.

The viewer sees a Native man in a Native homeland using traditional technology.

What the photograph may not show is the university expedition around him, the camera, the scientific purpose, the recent history of massacre, and the fact that the scene was being documented precisely because researchers believed the way of life it represented had ended.

The picture can therefore look more “traditional” than the historical moment actually was.