Known as the "Father of Modern Bow Hunting," Saxton Pope is also famous for his close relationship with Ishi, the last member of the Yahi tribe of California.
In his 1918 book "Yahi Archery," archery expert Saxon Pope relates how Ishi, last of the Yahi tribe, taught Pope how to make bows and arrows as the Yahi did, and how to hunt with them. This book is particularly noteworthy as it was Ishi who really introduced this father of modern bow hunting to the sport he would come to personify.
As noted by Pope in 1918, "we have very little accurate information as to how the Indians used their weapons, and still less as to how they made them. The present paper is an attempt to present the facts concerning the archery of one tribe, the Yahi, as represented in the person of its last survivor, Ishi, who lived from 1911 to 1916 at the University of California."
After growing up in Texas, the son of an Army Surgeon, Pope moved to California to attend the University of California medical school, where he would become professor after his graduation.
The medical school where Pope taught was located near the museum where Ishi worked as a janitor, having been brought there for study by Professor T. T. Waterman of the University of California Department of Anthropology. Because Ishi had grown up in the isolated Yahi tribe, he had little immunity to diseases, and Pope met Ishi during his stays at the University hospital. Pope learned some of the Yahi language, and spent much time with Ishi, learning of his life and listening to the Yahi tribal folklore. Ishi taught Pope how to make bows and arrows as the Yahi did, and how to hunt with them. Pope and Ishi remained close until Ishi's death from tuberculosis in 1916.
Pope became an avid bowhunter during his time with Ishi, and he continued that after Ishi's death. In 1920, with special permission, Pope and a companion, Arthur Young, went hunting grizzly bears in Yellowstone National Park with hand made bows and steel tipped arrows, taking several. The stuffed and mounted bears are still on display at the California Academy of Sciences. Pope later wrote a book, Hunting with the Bow and Arrow, which remains in print. He continued bowhunting until his death in 1926.
Saxton Pope and Arthur Young have been honored as the namesakes of the Pope and Young Club, an organization dedicated to bowhunting which continues today and includes its own world record book for North American game. In order to be entered into the Pope and Young records, the game animal must be taken with a bow and arrow. He also reintroduced traditional bow and arrow making skills learned from Ishi to other Indians whose communities had lost the art.
Ishi (c. 1861 – 1916) was the last known member of the Native American Yahi people from the state of California in the United States. The Yana were destroyed during the California Genocide in the 19th century. Ishi, who was widely acclaimed as the "last wild Indian" in America, lived most of his life isolated from modern American culture. In 1911, aged 50, he emerged near the foothills of Lassen Peak in Northern California.
Pope's "Yahi Archery" is a well-regarded historical source, being cited in the following modern works:
• Additional Notes on Arrow Release, Edward Morse
• Archaeological Artefacts as Material Culture, Linda Hurcombe
• Ishi in Two Worlds, 50th Anniversary Edition, Theodora Kroeber, Karl Kroeber
• Ishi's Brain: In Search of America's Last "wild" Indian, Orin Starn
• Returns, James Clifford
• Museums and difference, Daniel Sherman
• Chariot: From Chariot to Tank, Arthur Cotterell
• Ishi in Two Worlds
