John Rollin Ridge (1827-1867) was born into one of the ruling families of the Cherokee Tribe during a period of great division. Under pressure to cede their lands in the southeastern United States and relocate to the Indian Territory in the West, the Ridge family signed the Treaty of New Echota in 1835, which completed a removal agreement with the United States government over the objections of many Cherokees. In 1839 John Rollin Ridge's father and grandfather were murdered in revenge for their support of removal; not long afterwards, Ridge himself was forced to flee to California to escape his family's enemies. Working primarily as a newspaper editor, Ridge also published perhaps the first novel set in California, The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta, the Celebrated California Bandit, in 1854. A longtime slave holder, Ridge was the political leader of California's anti-abolitionist movement before the Civil War and a leader...