American Character: The Curious Life of Charles Fletcher Lummis and the Rediscovery of the Southwest10/4/2018 Charles Fletcher Lummis (b. 1859 – d. 1928) was a man of many things. Born in Massachusetts, he dropped out of Harvard University and moved to California by foot in 1884-85, crossing the American Southwest, which he made his adoptive home. For over forty years, Lummis was a journalist, photographer, poet, Native American rights advocate, archaeologist, librarian, and preservationist working to save California's Spanish missions who personified and promoted the American Southwest at the turn of the twentieth century. Lummis, a man of many eccentricities, comes to life in Mark Thompson’s volume.
The most interesting portion of Thompson’s book is the chapter on Lummis’ 1884 “tramp,” or walk across the United States from Ohio to California to take a job as a writer for the Los Angeles Times newspaper. This journey would no doubt seem very eccentric to many Americans at the time, but it revealed an insight into his curious character. During his 3,507-mile trek, Lummis was exposed to the Spanish heritage and Native American culture of the Southwest, particularly the pueblos of the Zuni Indians in New Mexico. The reader can feel the sense of wonder Lummis, a New Englander, felt as he arrived in the Southwest. He also saw ugly elements, particularly Anglo racism towards the Mexican population, who whites characterized as “Greasers.” Indian rights and archaeology would be two of Lummis’ interests in the Southwest. Lummis has some criticism, including his often-inflated ego and obsession with sex. In terms of race, he used his magazine Land of Sunshine/Out West to promote and open Southern California to future white American settlement, citing its benevolent climate (see Making the White Man’s West review). Scholars like Phoebe Kropp (California Vieja: Culture and Memory in a Modern American Place, 2006) have examined a Spanish “fantasy past” promoted by Lummis and others to attract newcomers to Southern California. True, if Lummis and his Landmarks Club had not worked to save the Spanish missions, there would be no past to preserve for future generations. Despite this detraction, Thompson portrays Lummis as a strong advocate for Native American rights, who started the Sequoya League, named after the early 19th century Cherokee leader Sequoyah. He conferred on Indian affairs with his old Harvard classmate, President Theodore Roosevelt, at the White House and fought against Indian Agent Charles E. Burton, accusing him of imposing a "reign of terror" on the Hopi pueblo of Oraibi in Arizona by requiring Hopi men to cut their long hair. Thompson’s book is a very interesting biography of Charles Fletcher Lummis. It would have been interesting to learn more about his relationship with Sharlot Hall (who Thompson briefly mentions), given that she wrote extensively for Land of Sunshine and became an associate editor, but she was not a focus of the book. His bibliography is impressive, including Lummis’ journals and diaries held at the Braun Research Library at the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles. Truly Lummis “rediscovered” the Southwest for generations of Americans, no doubt many of them Easterners like him, who were exposed to a different history in North America that did not start with Plymouth and Jamestown along the Atlantic seaboard. Thompson, Mark. American Character: The Curious Life of Charles Fletcher Lummis and the Rediscovery of the Southwest. New York: Arcade Publishing, 2001.
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CategoriesAuthorTom Schmidt lives in Prescott Valley, AZ. Archives
October 2018
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October 2018
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