Minority Interaction in John Rollin Ridge's The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta

Abstract

The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta, the Celebrated California Bandit (1854) by John Rollin Ridge (1827-1867) begins two traditions in American literature. Not only is it the first novel written in English by a person of Native American ancestry, it is also the first novel by an American in English treating the Mexican community of post-Mexican War California.1 Surprisingly, critics of the novel have as yet failed to look closely at this cultural intersection and analyze Ridge's depiction of different ethnic groups in the novel. Increased attention is bound to come Ridge's way soon. The new Heath Antholology of American Literature edited by Paul Lauter includes three selections by Ridge, two poems and an essay on Indian affairs, even though there are no excerpts from Joaquin Murieta. In their twopage discussion of Ridge (1:1772-73), James W. Parins and Andrew G. Wiget note four attitudes characteristic of Ridge's thought: he urges all Indians to become civilized and assimilate; 2) he celebrates[s] the expansion of United States power and human technological mastery over nature; 3) he has an ambivalent stance toward the traditional concerns of his people; and 4) he believes that less acculturated Indians need to be protected during the transitional period. The ambivalence of his concerns for Native Americans can be extended to other minority groups in the United States, such as Mexicans and Chinese laborers, as we find in Joaquin Murieta. This dimension of the novel is not made clear in the preface to the currently available paperback edition (written for the 1955 edition) by Joseph Henry Jackson. Unfortunately, the University of Oklahoma Press has not had this essay updated and revised, and it still serves as the principal introduction to the novel, especially for students. Jackson misread the novel as a Robin Hood story, supplying an emphasis on the redistribution of wealth that is not there. In addition, he did not have available to him either the later researches of Remi Nadeau (1974) and Frank F. Latta (1980) which establish the historical basis for the Murieta gang or the collection of Ridge's essays on Native Ameri-