Classic romantic story about Spanish and Indian life in California.  Said to be "one of the most artistic and charming creations of American Literature"  Helen Hunt Jackson wrote this novel in 1884 to draw attention to the plight of dispossessed Native American tribes in the American West."Ramona blushed as the handsome young Indian Alessandro looked upon her with favor. A great, star-crossed love was born. But the adopted daughter of Senora Moreno was defying the custom of her people. Her forbidden love would drive her from place to place with Alessandro until   tragedy would strike and Ramona would at last come to an understanding of herself." "As soon as I began, it seemed impossible to write fast enough…I wrote faster than I would write a letter…two thousand to three thousand words in a morning, and I cannot help it."
-- Helen Hunt Jackson describing her writing of "Ramona"

Other:
California and the Missions: 1916 Little Brown Frontispiece of San Garlos Mission, and 37 other text line drawings by Henry Sandham. 292 pages. A specially illustrated collection of Ms. Jackson's mission papers, first published in 1883

Her interest in the subject began in Boston in 1879 at a lecture by Chief Standing Bear who described the forcible removal of the Ponca Indians from their Nebraska reservation. Jackson was incensed by what she heard and began to circulate petitions, raised money, and wrote letters to the New York Times on the Poncas’ behalf.  As one observer noted, she became a "holy terror." (Friends and critics have variously described her as "passionate," "volatile," "defiant" and "uncompromising." Historian Antoinette May said she "lived a life that few women of her day had the courage to live.") Jackson also began work on a book condemning the government’s Indian policy and its record of broken treaties. When A Century of Dishonor was published in 1881, Jackson sent a copy to every member of Congress with the following admonition printed in red on the cover: "Look upon your hands: they are stained with the blood of your relations." To her disappointment, the book had little impact.
In need of a rest, Jackson traveled to Southern California to study the area’s missions, a subject that had piqued her interest during an earlier visit. While in Los Angeles, she met Don Antonio Coronel, former mayor of Los Angeles (1853-4), city councilman (1854-66) and State Treasurer (1866-70).  Coronel was a well-known authority on early Californio life in Southern California, and also a former inspector of missions for the Mexican government.  He described to Jackson the plight of Mission Indians after 1833, when secularization policies led to the sale of mission lands and the dispersal of their residents. "…Many of the original Mexican grants included clauses protecting the Indians on the lands they occupied," writes Valerie Mathes, author of Helen Hunt Jackson: Official Agent to the California Mission Indians. "When Americans assumed control," Mathes continues, "they ignored Indian claims to lands, which led to their mass dispossessions. In 1852, there were an estimated 15,000 Mission Indians in Southern California, but because of the adverse impact of dispossessions by Americans, they numbered less than 4,000 by the time of Helen’s visit."

Don Coronel’s stories galvanized Jackson into action. Soon her efforts on behalf of dispossessed Indians in Southern California came to the attention of the U.S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Hiram Price, who recommended her appointment as an Interior Department agent. Her assignment was "to visit the Mission Indians in California, and ascertain the location and condition of various bands…and what, if any land, should be purchased for their use." With the assistance of Indian agent and entrepreneur Abbot Kinney, Jackson criss-crossed Southern California, documenting the appalling conditions they saw. At one point, she hired a law firm to protect the rights of a family of Saboba Indians facing dispossession of their land at the foot of the San Jacinto Mountains. Her 56-page report, completed in 1883, called for a massive government relief effort, ranging from the purchase of new lands for reservations to the establishment of more Indian schools. A bill largely embodying Jackson’s recommendations passed the U.S. Senate but died in the House.

Undaunted by Congress’ rejection, Jackson decided to write a novel that would depict the Indian experience "in a way to move people’s hearts." She was particularly drawn to the fate of her Indian friends in the Temecula area of Riverside County. The inspiration for her book, Jackson admitted, was Uncle Tom’s Cabin written years earlier by her friend, Harriet Beecher Stowe. "If I can do one hundredth part for the Indian that Mrs. Stowe did for the Negro, I will be thankful," she told a friend. The result was Ramona, which Jackson began writing in a New York City hotel room in December 1883. Originally titled, "In The Name of the Law," the book was completed in slightly over three months and published in November 1884. "Every incident in Ramona…is true," Jackson said later. "A Cahuilla Indian was shot two years ago exactly as Alessandro is – and his wife’s name was Ramona and I never knew this last fact until Ramona was half written!"  Later, a local writer, George Wharton James, would lecture and write books linking Ramona to an actual murder.  He even recorded the murderer's voice on an early Edison cylinder phonograph!

Encouraged by the book’s popularity, Jackson planned to write a children’s story on the Indian issue, but died of cancer on August 12, 1885, less than a year after Ramona was published. Her last letter was written to President Grover Cleveland, urging him to read her early work, "A Century of Dishonor." Jackson told a friend: "My Century of Dishonor and Ramona are the only things I have done of which I am glad…They will live, and…bear fruit." Ramona has indeed borne fruit over the years, but in ways unimagined by the author. Writing in "Los Angeles: A to Z," Leonard and Dale Pitt note: "Although Jackson’s novel, about a part-Indian orphan raised in Spanish society and her Indian husband, achieved almost instant success, it failed to arouse public concern for the treatment of local Native Americans. Instead, readers accepted the sentimentalized Spanish aristocracy that was portrayed, and the Ramona myth was born. Jackson died a year after her novel was published, never knowing the impact her book made on the Southern California heritage. The novel Ramona has inspired films [the first directed by D.W. Griffith], songs [the 1920s hit "Ramona"], and a long-running pageant in Hemet, California.  And the name Ramona can be see on street signs and commercial establishments throughout Southern California." --- contributed by Albert Greenstein, 1999
Bibliography http://guweb2.gonzaga.edu/faculty/campbell/enl311/jackson.html
Glass Ceiling Biography of Jackson

Indian Blankets ~ 1914
THE AUTHOR OF "INDIAN BASKETRY" CONTINUES HIS DISCUSSION OF NAVAHO WEAVING TRADITIONS WITH AN EXAMINATION OF THEIR BLANKET MANUFACTURE.  HIS BOOK, WITH A WEALTH OF FIRST-HAND MATERIAL ON NATIVE TRADITIONS AND MORE COMMERCIAL VENTURES, IS STILL ONE OF THE BEST FOR LEARNING THE RANGE OF PATTERNS AND TECHNIQUES THAT WENT INTO CREATING "THE FINEST PIECES OF THE KIND MADE ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD."

WITH A CONCENTRATION ON THE NAVAHOS, AND OCCASIONAL DISCUSSION OF THE BLANKETS OF OTHER SOUTHWESTERN TRIBES, JAMES EXAMINES IN DETAIL THE HISTORY AND PRODUCTION OF INDIAN BLANKETS; THE INTRODUCTION OF THE LOOM AND WOOL, THE EARLY HISTORY, THE BAYETA BLANKET MADE FROM YARN UNRAVELLED FROM BLANKETS MADE IN ENGLAND, OLD STYLE NATIVE WOOL BLANKETS, THE SONG OF BLESSING THE BLANKET, DETERIORATIONS AND IMPROVEMENTS BROUGHT ABOUT BY TRADERS, DYEING WITH NATIVE AND ANILINE DYES, THE SIGNIFICANCE AND SYMBOLISM OF COLOR, THE ORIGIN AND SYMBOLISM OF DESIGN, A NAVAHO WEAVER AT WORK, THE DESIGNS OF MODERN NAVAHO BLANKETS, PUEBLO AND NAVAHO SQUAW DRESSES, BELTS, GARTERS AND HAIR BANDS, THE OUTLINE BLANKET, THE KACHINA OR YEI BLANKETS, THE CLASSIFICATION OF MODERN BLANKETS, PUEBLO INDIAN WEAVERS, THE MEXICAN CHIMAYO BLANKET, AND MUCH MORE!  AN APPENDIX DISCUSSES THE NAVAHO INDIAN, HIS RELIGIOUS LIFE AND HIS LAND.  254 ILLUSTRATIONS, INCLUDING 32 IN COLOR, SHOW THE FINEST BLANKETS OF ALL TYPES AS WELL AS THE PROCESS OF BLANKET WEAVING.

AS A NATIVE ART CARRIED TO GREAT HEIGHTS AND ACHIEVING BOTH SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE, NAVAHO BLANKETS HAVE LONG BEEN AN AREA OF IMPORTANT AND INTERESTING STUDY IN THE ARTS AND INDIAN LIFE.  FOR GATHERING TOGETHER SUCH A WIDE BODY OF SOLID AND USEFUL INFORMATION, THIS BOOK WILL LONG BE REQUIRED READING FOR THE COLLECTOR, THE ETHNOLOGIST, THE CRAFTSMAN, AND OTHERS INTERESTED IN THE NAVAHOS AND THE BLANKETS THEY CREATED.

OTHERS BY JAMES
What the White Race May Learn from the Indian ~ 1908. Chicago Forbes and Company ~ The author "calls upon the white race to incorporate into its civilization the good things of the Indian civilization., and to return to the healthful and nat ural life which the Indians lived before they came under the dominion of the Spanish padres."
Living the Radiant Life: A Personal Narrative  1916 ~ Pasadena, CA:  Radiant Life Press  291 pages ~ From the Foreword:  "From the standpoint of religion the lives of 'good' men and women may be divided into two great classes, viz., those who do no active wrong, whose conduct is based upon the "thou shalt nots" of the Bible, the law, and society, and those whose every thought is to do some active good. ... I earnestly hope that every one of the following pages will contain some helpful thought for all who are seeking the more perfect life; and also for those who are sitting in the darkness of discouragement, under the depressing temptation to regard life as a 'failure.'"
In And Out of the Old Missions: 1927 G&D ~ Covers the historical and pictorial account of the Franciscan Missions mostly in California.
In and out of the Old Missions of California 1912 ~  Little, Brown 392 pages. Over 100 photos.  Founding of missions, Father Serra, Indians under padres, mission architecture, interior decorations of missions, Pious Fund of California among many topics.
What the White Race May Learn from the Indian   ~ Chicago Forbes and Company 1908. Hardcover. Author "calls upon the white race to incorporate into its civilization the good things of the Indian civilization., and to return to the healthful and nat ural life which the Indians lived before they came under the dominion of the Spanish padres.
Heroes of California: 1910 ~ The story of the founders of the Golden State as narrated by themselves or gleaned important by other sources. See the accompanying illustrations
The Grand Canyon of Arizona: How to See It
Indian Blankets and Their Makers

Photo by James: "Hopi Snake Dance, Walpi".

Other:
Online eText: In the Sargasso Sea 1898
Articles in the Cornell Library
In Old New York 1922 Harpers
Editorial Reviews: From Publishers Weekly: Today's New Yorkers are famous for both their fierce loyalty to their hometown and their intense desire to tell you how they can make it better. Things were no different in 1894, when historian and social commentator Janvier first published this meticulously detailed, floridly anecdotal and occasionally cranky love letter to his adopted home, reprinted here with a helpful new introduction by Brooklyn College history professor Edwin G. Burrows. After painstakingly outlining the city's early growth and development, Janvier, a self-trained historian, rants that an 1807 city commission charged with laying out the city's streets threw away "the magnificent opportunity... to create a beautiful city." By creating Manhattan's now famous grid of streets and avenues, they thwarted continued development of the complex, interlocking networks of ponds, woods and small neighborhoods that had made up the city until then. It's a classic clash between romantic idealism and "progress," present in the writings of Jane Jacobs and other modern urbanologists. Janvier is best when describing the quirky, intricate history of Greenwich Village and the development of Chelsea around the Episcopal Theological Seminary, citing both as examples of his small-is-beautiful philosophy. A man of his time, Janvier's nativism and racism are omnipresent: he is as likely to state that "even the bad smells have foreign names" as he is to rhapsodize about sylvan glades. Still, this long-out-of-print classic adds welcome historical perspective to contemporary urban studies. (Mar.): Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal: Histories of Manhattan abound, but most cover the late 19th century through World War I and Prohibition, etc. When Janvier says old, however, he means it: this 1984 volume stretches back to pre-Colonial times when the wicked city was no more than woods with a handful of settlers and Indians waiting around for Bloomies to open. An excellent match for some of the later histories that only cover this period in brief. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
 

Expanded Bio:
Article by: J J O'Connor and E F Robertson