John Rollin Ridge

John Rollin Ridge, a member of the Cherokee Nation, is considered the first Native American novelist. He began to write after moving to California in 1850. He is known for his novel The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta, the story of a California outlaw, and his Cherokee name was Cheesquatalawny, or Yellow Bird. He lived from 1827 to 1867. His book, published in 1854, was based on a notorious outlaw of the period. His father John Ridge had been assassinated in 1839 in Indian Territory by Cherokee who condemned his signing of a treaty ceding communal land to the United States, and the boy was taken by his mother to Fayetteville, Arkansas, for safety.