The Oakland Poet Who Wrote the Famous “Columbus” Poem Would Rejoice Over “Indigenous People Day"

Joaquin Miller, who is fondly remembered for the national poem he wrote about persistence, had a Native American daughter.

Joaquin Miller’s poem, “Columbus”* was required reading in American schools for around 75 years, but his first novel, Life Among the Modocs, is about the people lost in the American genocide. This first-person story was inspired by his own life as a young lawyer and businessman, which took a historic turn.

He was recruited to fight the Indian Wars but, frustrated by the injustice, tried to convince the Pit River Indians, the Klamaths, Shastas, and Modocs to form an Indian republic. He lived with a Wintu tribe (but concealed their identity) for four years and recorded his experiences. Even today the book is considered to be the most authoritative account of the lives and customs of the first people whose lands were invaded by American settlers at the height of the Gold Rush. Miller was the first to have recorded the unwritten Wintu language, which, in 2003 was considered to be extinct but is actually being revived by its young people. He was outspoken about the rights of Indians, outraged at the environmental destruction of their lands, and his nuanced writings humanized people thought of as “savages.”