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[1190] Anonymous, Joaquin, the Mountain Robber (c. 1848), courtesy of the California State Library.
Despite his commitment to Cherokee politics, Ridge also identified with his white mother’s cultural heritage. He frequently wrote about the need for Native Americans to assimilate to white culture and become “civilized.” He believed that Native Americans risked extinction unless they acculturated themselves to white values and customs. Sent to school in New England for a time, he received a classical education and showed an early love for literature, writing his first poems around the age of ten.
Ridge’s life was radically disrupted in 1849 when he shot and killed a man during a brawl. Rather than face prosecution for the crime, he fled first to Missouri and then joined a Gold Rush party headed for California. There he worked briefly as a miner, but found the labor strenuous and unprofitable. He soon found work as a writer, journalist, and editor in the newspapers and literary journals springing up in the boomtowns of northern California.
In 1854, Ridge published The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta, the Celebrated California Bandit, which is considered the first novel written in California and the first novel published by a Native American. His editor used Ridge’s Cherokee name, “Yellow Bird,” on the title page of the original edition, perhaps to highlight the novelty of the author’s ethnicity. The work is a fictionalized account of the experiences of a legendary Mexican bandit who, though fundamentally a noble person, is driven to a life of crime by the persecution he suffers at the hands of Anglos. After having his profits stolen, his land seized, his brother unfairly executed, and his mistress raped before his eyes, Joaquin Murieta vows revenge and embarks on a crime spree, targeting the authorities of the Anglo establishment. While Ridge’s story of Murieta is loosely based on a series of actual robberies and raids carried out by Mexican outlaws in California in the early 1850s, the tale is not modeled strictly on fact. Ridge’s hero is a composite of several shadowy bandit figures about whom little historical information is known–though at least three of them do seem to have shared the first name “Joaquin.” Despite its fictional status, Ridge’s account of the adventures of Joaquin Murieta quickly came to be accepted as fact (by the 1880s, respected historians were citing details from his novel in the footnotes of their books on California history). As it gained currency, Ridge’s story was also widely pirated and embellished by other novelists, playwrights, and screenwriters. Although Ridge’s literary endeavors did not make very much money–he had received no profit from his novel by the time he died in California in 1867–he did create an enduring California legend and folk hero.
[1184] Anonymous, John Rollin Ridge and Daughter Alice (c. 1860),
courtesy of Western History Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries.
John Rollin Ridge was born into an important Cherokee family in Georgia. His father was assassinated for signing the treaty that led to the Trail of Tears. Ridge later married a white woman and rejoined the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma. Issues of assimilation and resistance resonate in his literary works as in his life.
[1190] Anonymous, Joaquin, the Mountain Robber (c. 1848),
courtesy of the California State Library.
The fact that no verifiable portrait of Murietta exists only enhances the legend of the California outlaw. Murietta’s exploits were often exaggerated, and many acts committed by other bandits were erroneously attributed to him.
[4246] John Rollin Ridge, First page of Joaquin Murieta (c. 1854),
courtesy of University of Oklahoma Press.
This sensational novel tells the story of a Mexican American outlaw who seeks revenge on marauding Anglo American miners during the California Gold Rush. The work was originally attributed to “Yellow Bird,” Ridge’s Cherokee name.
[4249] John Rollin Ridge, Title page of The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta, The Celebrated California Bandit (1955),
courtesy of University of Oklahoma Press.
This is considered both the first novel written in California and the first novel written by a Native American. Its publishers identified author John Rollin Ridge by his Cherokee name, “Yellow Bird.”
[5832] Charles Christian Nahl, Joaquin Murieta (1859),
courtesy of Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley.
Charles Christian Nahl and John Rollin Ridge are two of the many artists inspired by the legend of Joaquin Murieta. Here Murieta is depicted as a Spanish American-style hero.
[6403] McKenney & Hall, John Ridge, a Cherokee (c. 1838),
courtesy of the Library of Congress [LC-USZC4-3157].
Author John Rollin Ridge was born into a prominent Cherokee family. His father, John Ridge, was educated in New England and married a white woman. The family favored assimilation and accommodation.
[8277] John Rollin Ridge, Excerpt from The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta, the Celebrated California Bandit.