Lummis was born in 1859, in
Lynn, Massachusetts. He lost his mother at age two and was
homeschooled by his father, who was a schoolmaster and a
Methodist minister. Lummis enrolled in
Harvard for college and was a classmate of
Theodore Roosevelt, but dropped out during his senior year. While at Harvard he worked during the summer as a printer and published his first work,
Birch Bark Poems. This small volume was printed on paper-thin sheets of birch bark; he won recognition from some of the day's leading poets. He sold the books by subscription and used the money to pay for college. A poem from this work, "My Cigarette", highlighted
tobacco as one of his life's obsessions. In 1880, at the age of 21, Lummis married
Dorothea Rhodes of
Cincinnati, Ohio.
Transcontinental walk In 1884, Lummis was working for a newspaper in Cincinnati and was offered a job with the
Los Angeles Times. At that time,
Los Angeles had a population of only 12,000. Lummis decided to make the 3,507-mile journey from Cincinnati to Los Angeles by foot and send weekly dispatches to the paper chronicling his trip. The trip began in September and lasted through the winter, lasting 143 days. One of his dispatches describing meeting and interviewing famed outlaw
Frank James. Lummis suffered a broken arm and struggled in the heavy winter snows of New Mexico. He became enamored with the
American Southwest, and its Spanish and
Native American inhabitants. Several years later, he published his account of this journey in
A Tramp Across the Continent (1892).
Editor at the Los Angeles Times Upon his arrival, Lummis was offered the job of the first City Editor of the
Los Angeles Times. He covered a multitude of interesting stories from the new and growing community. Work was hard and demanding under the pace set by publisher
Harrison Gray Otis. Lummis was happy until he suffered from a mild
stroke that left his left side paralyzed.
New Mexico In 1888, Lummis moved to
San Mateo, New Mexico to recuperate from his
paralysis. He rode on the Plains while holding a rifle in one good hand and shooting
jack rabbits. Here, he began a new career as a prolific freelance writer, writing on everything that was particularly special about the Southwest and Native American cultures. His articles about corrupt bosses committing murders in San Mateo drew threats on his life, so he moved to a new location in the
Pueblo Indian village of
Isleta, New Mexico, on the
Rio Grande.
Pueblo People of Isleta Somewhat recovered from his paralysis, Lummis was able to win over the confidence of the
Isleta Pueblo, a
Southern Tiwa people, by his outgoing and generous nature. But a hit man from San Mateo was sent up to
Isleta, where he shot Lummis but failed to kill him. In Isleta, Lummis divorced his first wife and married Eva Douglas, who lived in the village and was the sister-in-law of an English trader. Somehow he convinced Eva to stay with Dorothea in Los Angeles until the divorce went through. In the meantime, Lummis became entangled in fights with the U.S. government agents over Native American education. In this period, the government was pushing assimilation and had established Native American boarding schools. It charged its agents with recruiting Native American children for the schools, where they were usually forced to give up traditional clothing and hair styles, and prevented from speaking their own languages or using their own customs. They were often prohibited from returning home during holidays or vacation periods, or their families were too poor to afford such travel. Lummis persuaded the government to allow 36 children from the Albuquerque Indian School to return to their homes. While in Isleta, he made friends with Father
Anton Docher from France; he was the missionary Padre of Isleta. They both also befriended
Adolph Bandelier. While living in Isleta, Lummis boarded in the home of
Juan Rey Abeita. In 1890, he traveled with Bandelier to study the indigenous people of the area.
Preservationist As president of the Landmarks Club of Southern California (an all-volunteer, privately funded group dedicated to the preservation of
California's Spanish missions), Lummis noted that the historic structures "...were falling to ruin with frightful rapidity, their roofs being breached or gone, the adobe walls melting under the winter rains." Lummis wrote in 1895, "In ten years from now—unless our intelligence shall awaken at once—"there will remain of these noble piles nothing but a few indeterminable heaps of adobe. We shall deserve and shall have the contempt of all thoughtful people if we suffer our noble missions to fall."
Magazine editor In 1892, Lummis published
Some Strange Corners of Our Country, recounting some of the areas and sights he had discovered. Between 1893 and 1894, he spent 10 months traveling in
Peru with Bandelier. After the men's return, Lummis and Eva returned to Los Angeles with their year-old daughter, Turbese. Unemployed, Lummis landed the position of editor of a regional magazine,
Land of Sunshine. The magazine was renamed
Out West in 1901. He published works by famous authors such as
Jack London and
John Muir. Over his 11 years as editor, Lummis also wrote more than 500 pieces for the magazine, as well as a popular monthly commentary called "In the Lion's Den".
Native American rights activist Lummis also established a new Native American rights group called the "Sequoya League", after the noted early 19th-century
Cherokee leader
Sequoyah who developed a writing system for the
Cherokee language. Lummis fought against the U.S.
Bureau of Indian Affairs and called on his classmate President Theodore Roosevelt to help change their manner of operating. He found a home for a small group of Native Americans who had been evicted from their property in the
Palm Springs, California area. The Sequoya League began a battle against Indian Agent Charles Burton, accusing him of imposing a "reign of terror" on the
Hopi pueblo in Oraibi by requiring Hopi men to cut their long hair. It was their custom to wear it long, a practice with spiritual meaning. Lummis was accused of overstating the case against Burton and lost his welcome at the
White House. (However, subsequent social pressure on Burton led him to reverse the haircutting policy.) ==Later life==