Trying to remember the name of this movie

[deltadoc]

Many years ago, I saw this movie where this "wild Indian" was the last of his kind, approaches people in the town (somewhere in California I think), and he is befriended by this museum director who gives him a job in the museum. I think his name was like Itchee or something. Anyway, he gets Tuberculosis, and spits up blood and then dies.

The museum director goes out in the wilderness and sings this Indian song, so that Itchee can find the road to his eternity. The guy was successful in singing the song, and Itchee appears. He asks Itchee how he is feeling, and Itchee says "I feel strong! I think I could walk forever." And the movie ends.

Does anybody remember the name of this movie? I've searched www.imdb.com (International movie data base) for plots, characters, and titles and can't find it. I thought the museum guy was Christopher Walken, but I was wrong, cause I looked at all his movies and this one wasn't among them.

Tx,
doc

[foodnfoto]

I've seen that movie. Graham Greene played Ichi a nd Jon Voight played the professor. It was really good.
Here's the imdb linkhttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104690/

It was based on a book that I remember was required reading in Anthropology 101 in college.Ichi was the title, I think.

[phatch]

My mom had Kroeber's book when i was a kid. Very interesting story of Ishi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishi

Phil

[chrose]

Originally Posted by phatch

My mom had Kroeber's book when i was a kid. Very interesting story of Ishi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishi

Phil

Right you are Phil! We had that book in the house when I was growing up. I remember the book, it was very good, and the pictures in it were also very interesting. I would think you could pick it up on Amazon or Ebay.

[Mezzaluna]

This was a staple title in middle schools (well, junior high schools) for a long time. When I took my first reading specialist job there were several class sets of this book in the building. When the curriculum changed and moved Native American studies to lower grades, the book went out of favor. (They didn't want to buy more copies of an older book.)

I think it's written at the fifth or sixth grade reading level but the story transcends the age of the reader.

[phatch]

Seven Degrees of Separation, but no Kevin Bacon

Seems that the guy who studied Ishi's dialect, Edward Sapir went on to formulate the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapir-Whorf_hypothesis ), which became the basis of E-Prime ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_Prime ) a language style I find rigorous and mentally stimulating. I'm not good at it but it helps refine my thinking because it requires precision.

Phil

[Mezzaluna]

Wow! You never know what you're going to learn here.