"John Rollin Ridge," photographer, date unknown. Larger.
Whatever you think of California there's one thing that's indisputedly true: Californians have always been busy builders.
John Rollin Ridge—son and grandson of Cherokee leaders—is famous for writing The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta, one of California's first social protest novels. In a poem called "California," however, he turns away from lamenting our shortcomings and dwells instead on one of our virtues.
Yet not alone to Nature's bounteous hand
Are due the glories of this magic land;
For man hath taught its fertile soil to yield
The yellow largess of the waving field,
And give to generous toil as rich guerdon
Of thousand fruits as toil hath ever won.
In deed and truth not idle hath he been—
His busy work is all around us seen.
From north to south, and from the east to west,
His forming, changing hand hath not seen rest.
The Arts and Labor spake, and lo! there rose
(As dream-like as the cloud-born city shows,
At morning in the east) this grandest Queen
Of all the cities of the West. With mien
Majestic as of right her look should be,
She sits like Tyre of old beside sea;
And, while the messengers of commerce wait,
She opens wide and free her Golden Gate.
From far to her the nations laden come
With silks and wares and precious stones and gum,
And of the spoils she every land bequiles
And ocean yields them from his thousand isles.
"Lassen Volcanic National Park," National Park Service poster, 1938. Larger.
It may be true that Californians like to forget the past and embrace the future. The thing is, that even here, the past never quite goes away.
Though John Rollin Ridge—son and grandson of Cherokee leaders—lamented injustices inflicted on California's native people, he still expressed strong confidence in civilizing progress. In his poem "California," he suggests how History remembers our pioneers, including Danish-born emigrant Peter Lassen.
Shall these old heroes be forgot? Not so,
For, while they yet survive Time's downward flow,
I see a rescuing hand stretched forth to save
The good, the true, from dark Oblivion's grave.
'T is woman's hand that thus would snatch from night
Those honored names far worthier of the light,
And them transmit to shine on History's scroll
When that gray sage his records shall unroll.
And yet some whom the weeping muse laments,
Have their unwrit but lasting monuments.
Such is that Peak which bears brave Lassen's name–
A fit memorial of the grandest fame;
For it shall stand while crowns and laurels fail,
And Time strews men like leaves upon the gale.
John Rollin Ridge—also known as Yellow Bird—was author of the first novel written in California and the first to be pulished by an American Indian, The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta. His collection Poems appeared in 1868.
Oppression
From The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta, 1854.
The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta, bookjacket, University of Oklahoma Press, 1955. Larger.
In 1854, John Rollin Ridge—also known by the English version of his tribal name, Yellow Bird—published what has been called the first novel by a Native American, The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta.
In Ridge's melodramatic tale, Joaquin Murieta, a young man from Mexico, is working as an honest miner on the Stanislaus when he is driven from his claim by unprincipled, greedy Americans. After a half-brother is hanged without a trial and Joaquin is unjustly accused of theft. . . .
It was then that the character of Joaquin changed, suddenly and irrevocably. Wanton cruelty and the tyranny of prejudice had reached their climax. His soul swelled beyond its former boundaries, and the barriers of honor, rocked into atoms by the strong passion which shook his heart like an earthquake, crumbled around him. Then it was that he declared to a friend that he would live henceforth for revenge and that his path should be marked with blood. Fearfully did he keep his promise. . .
Other California authors would also write notable works about the unjust behavior of Anglo-Americans in early California. But John Rollin Ridge preceded most, creating a Californian folk hero out of local outlaw tales and in so doing helping to create the legend of a Californian Robin Hood.
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