Coaching with the Brain in Mind

Preface: Who Should Read This Book?

Ishi is the name given to the last surviving member of the Yahi tribe when he was “captured” outside Oroville in north-central California in the year 1911. Workers caught sight of him when they were preparing to go home after a day at the slaughterhouse just outside of town. The “wild Indian,” as he was described then, was wearing tattered remnants of clothes and seemed near starvation. Most of his fellow Yahi had been systematically exterminated over the previous five decades as a massive influx of prospectors and settlers arrived in Northern California searching for gold. Ishi was about 50 years old at the time of his capture, so he had been born around 1860. He had been living in the foothills north and east of the rich marshlands that have become Sacramento, the state capital of California. After most of his tribe had been decimated, he went into hiding with his uncle, mother, and a woman who was his wife or sister. They lived as much as possible as they had when their tribe numbered in the thousands, hunting deer and rabbits, gathering and cooking acorns, grains, and roots, and fishing in the tributaries of the Sacramento River. They also took cans of bean and flour from cabins. But they had to keep away from the invaders who had proven to be dangerous.

After the other members of Ishi’s party died, he allowed himself to be captured on a late summer’s evening. No one else in the world spoke his language. According to his people’s customs, ...