Respect for all: Ishi, the last Yahi (drama activity)

This activity was used with pupils in key stage 3, year 8.

Aim

• To understand cultural similarities and differences through the exploration of a historical character.

Activity objectives

• To develop an understanding of performance values.
• To use the drama form to explore persecution and prejudice and to explore the dangers of rumour.
• To offer a historical context to the character.

Activity description

The pupils were asked to investigate the story of a historical character, Ishi, using drama-related activities. Ishi was a native American who, in 1911, became the last surviving Yahi Indian after his tribe had been wiped out by European settlers. He made his way from his home in the foothills of a mountain in California to a nearby town. He then lived at the anthropology museum in San Francisco. In 1916 he died from tuberculosis.

This activity was part of a wider unit of work that covered six sessions. Each session was supported by homework about the story of Ishi as well as the history of the period. The pupils were involved in a wide range of drama-related activities that linked to work in history and ICT.

Offering a historical context for the work enabled pupils to gain a perspective on the sensitive issues involved and prevented pupils identifying too closely with any particular character. This still allowed the teacher to make pertinent comparisons and analogies. The focus here was on understanding the issues through dramatic re-enactment; it was not simply a history lesson.

First, the pupils studied in pairs a photograph of Ishi with the background removed. This encouraged the pupils to make predictions about Ishi's character before they learnt about him. The pupils placed each other in the same pose as Ishi, as if they were going to take a photo. The teacher encouraged them to imagine how this character might be thinking and feeling.

Next, the pupils completed a 'role on the wall' exercise, which involved labelling a diagram to describe Ishi's features and characteristics. This helped them to build up a picture of Ishi in their minds.

They moved on to imagine who might have taken the photograph and who else might be nearby, just out of camera shot. Then the teacher asked them why they thought this photograph had been taken.

After the pupils had discussed their ideas, the teacher revealed the story of Ishi. The teacher explained that in 1911 Ishi was discovered in the corral of a slaughterhouse near Oroville, California. As the last surviving member of his tribe, he had walked until he had come to this spot, exhausted and weak from hunger. People he did not know or understand surrounded him in a world that was alien and hostile to him. The sheriff initially locked Ishi in jail, as he feared that the townspeople might harm him.

The class then acted out a confrontation between the sheriff and the townspeople. The teacher, in the role of the sheriff, faced the pupils, in the role of the townspeople, and listened to the rumours that were sweeping though the town about this stranger in their midst.

Commentary

At first, there were some stereotypical reactions from the pupils. However, the teacher challenged these impressions - not by saying that they were wrong, but by encouraging the pupils to think again. This meant that the pupils gradually looked beyond their initial responses and became drawn into the details of Ishi's life. The more they worked on the life of this character, the more they saw him as a fully rounded individual.

They also began to realise what their 'civilised' world had taken away from him. Their understanding of Ishi's situation grew as they became involved in ICT activities such as researching information about Ishi on the internet and in the library.

The pupils responded to this activity with imagination and ingenuity, attempting to understand customs and practices that were not their own. Some pupils pointed out that Ishi had acted wisely and they came to understand his reasoning. For example, a small group defended Ishi's decision to reject the sturdy leather boots that the sheriff offered him. They realised that covering his feet would be uncomfortable for him. They also understood that the boots would be a physical barrier between Ishi and the world around him.

The images of Ishi, which the pupils built up and symbolised through the drama form, gave a strength of understanding that listening to the story alone would not have provided. The pupils, in the role of the townspeople, were genuinely moved and frustrated by their inability to help this person who had been transported into an unfamiliar world.

Follow-up activities

The pupils could:

• mime a day in the life of Ishi before and after his arrival in Oroville;
• use still images to represent the key moments in Ishi's life;
• explore the rumours that began to spread through the town and how this might have been taken up by the newspapers of the time;
• act out a protest meeting encouraging the sheriff to remove 'this dangerous figure' from 'our town';
• explore Ishi's final days once he decides to leave the museum, through reading out stories.

In addition, a Forum Theatre setting could be used to explore the first meeting between Ishi and the anthropologist Theodore Waterman (who finally finds a way to communicate with him).

Resources

There are natural history programmes as well as feature films on the life of Ishi, and many websites offer further information and photographs. A few are listed below.

Ishi: the last Yahi, University of California, San Francisco, 2001. This online academic resource is available at the UCSF website: www.library.ucsf.edu/sc/hist/ishi/

A summary of the story of Ishi is available on the UCSF website: www.ucsf.edu/about_ucsf/history_philosophy/ishi.html

Photographs of Ishi and a bibliography are available at the American Aboriginal arts and crafts website: www.gilanet.com/amerabo/ishipage.htm

Information about the town where Ishi first appears (Oroville in California) is available online from Oroville City Hall: www.oroville-city.com/city/index.html

The online national curriculum can be found at www.nc.uk.net

English introduction

All subjects and activities

Respect for all introduction