Blood Path: An Original Screenplay Based On The Life And Works Of John Rollin Ridge

Abstract

Blood Path is an original, feature-length screenplay based on the life of John Rollin Ridge (1827-1867), a mixed-blood Cherokee whose work of sensational fiction, The Life and Adventures of Joaquín Murieta, is considered the first novel written in English by an American Indian author. A synopsis of the plot is as follows: After seeing his father murdered before his eyes at the age of 12, Ridge vows revenge on the rival faction responsible. As a young man, Ridge kills one of his rivals during an argument and is forced to flee to Gold Rush California, where he becomes obsessed with Joaquín Murieta, a legendary Mexican bandit who takes revenge on his oppressors with uncanny skill. Ridge sets out to tell Joaquín's story and in the process gains insight into his own family history, one that began on the Trail of Tears and ends on a path of blood. In dramatizing Ridge's life through the popular medium of film, my goal is to illuminate the story of a fascinating, and often contradictory, figure in American literature for an audience beyond the confines of academia, while at the same time highlighting the complex cultural conflicts that inform Ridge's life and work. These include notions of racial injustice and oppression and the individual response to those conditions; and the complexities of mixed-blood identity, including the implications of "passing" for white as a means of gaining status within the dominant culture.