GILROY
– A true to life
”
Last of the Mohicans
”
story, the tale of Ishii, the last of the Yahi Indian tribe, has
become a part of the culture in the Bay Area.
GILROY – A true to life “Last of the Mohicans” story, the tale of Ishii, the last of the Yahi Indian tribe, has become a part of the culture in the Bay Area.
The man who once was a strange curiosity for the people of bustling San Francisco in 1911, the story of the last “uncivilized” man in North America now is taught in area schools.
And while Marlo Schalesky had never heard about Ishii when she was growing up, when she came across Ishii’s story, she knew she had to tell it.
“What I loved when I started the book was the mystery of Ishii,” Schalesky said about the Indian man who never told anyone his real name and was referred to as “Ishii,” which means “man” in his language. “That intrigued me, the idea that no one knew his name or spoke his language. I was particularly intrigued because it was a part of California history.”
Schalesky will talk about and sign copies of her new book, “Only the Wind Remembers,” at the Wize Owl Bookstore at 2:30 p.m. Sunday.
Schalesky, who has lived in Gilroy since 1989, moved to Prunedale just a month ago. The Stanford graduate, who taught science classes at Gilroy High School for four years while she lived here, said she always loved writing but it took a while before she was able to chase her dream.
“When I was 13, I fell in love with writing, so, of course, I began chemistry and biology in college,” Schalesky laughed. “But it was always in the back of my mind that I wanted to do that.”
All four of Schalesky’s books have been written in Gilroy, along with her contributing to several magazines and to The Gilroy Dispatch and Morgan Hill Times. She moved a month ago because she is building a house in Prunedale.
While “Only the Wind Remembers,” helps to tell the story of Ishii, Schalesky also uses Ishii to tell another story – one that hits close to home – through two of her own characters, Allison and Thomas Morgan.
“My mother was abandoned as a small child, and I saw how it affected her,” she said. “They bring up the point.”
Allison started out as a representation of her mother, but the character took on a life of her own.
“I started out trying to write about my mom, but I couldn’t do it,” Schalesky said.
However, while Allison may be a different character, Schalesky still explored some of the emotion that comes with feeling unloved.
“(The book deals with) how those things would affect you later in life, even when you think you have it together,” Schalesky said.
In the book, Allison is the wife of Thomas, who is an anthropologist studying Ishii in San Francisco. While no one knows Ishii’s language, Allison quietly learns it without anyone knowing.
“He begins to tell this fable … about a great eagle that gives its life to clean a girl who feels dirty. The book intertwines the telling of the fable,” Schalesky said.
The fable helps Allison begin to come to an understanding about her own life.
But while Schalesky makes a few adaptations to characters around Ishii to help tell Allison’s story, she stayed true to form on the historic accuracy of Ishii’s life.
“I tried to keep the character of Ishii as close to reality as possible,” said Schalesky, who only shortened the timeline of Ishii’s life in the book while maintaining his experiences. “I think you can really get a feel of who he was.”
It took several months of research for Schalesky to find out everything to know about Ishii.
“The good thing about Ishii is most of his life is contained in just a few books,” she said.
And while anthropologists learned countless things about Ishii during the five years he lived in San Francisco before dying of tuberculosis in 1916, much of his life remained unknown.
“He maintained this deep mystery,” Schalesky said. “What was going on in the depth of his heart?”
Schalesky also said it was interesting to see what parts of the modern world impressed Ishii, and what parts didn’t.
“Window shades for hours would fascinate him, but a man in a plane was nothing,” she said. “He wasn’t impressed with tall buildings because he had seen mountains.”
And, according to Schalesky, those interesting tales about a man who was seeing the modern world for the first time was what makes the story so interesting.
“That what makes it fun to read,” she said. “It definitely made it more fun to write.”
Marlo Schalesky will sign copies of “Only the Wind Remembers” and talk about the book at 2:30 p.m. Sunday at the Wize Owl Bookstore, located on the corner of Santa Teresa Boulevard and First Street.
