His modern legacy is more useful as a beginning — a way into questions about genocide, anthropology, museums, language, scientific ethics, and the right of Indigenous communities to control their own ancestors and stories.

His Arrowheads Revealed Another Unexpected Debate

Among the objects most associated with Ishi are the projectile points he made from obsidian and colored glass.

Museum visitors watched him shape them.

Researchers studied his technique.

Collectors admired the precision.

Saxton Pope wrote about his archery.

Decades later, those same points became evidence in an unexpected scholarly debate.

Researchers comparing Ishi’s flintknapping style with archaeological examples from Yahi sites noticed differences.

Some argued that his technique more closely resembled methods associated with neighboring Native peoples such as the Wintu or Nomlaki.