Margot Mifflin

In the early 1850s, Olive Oatman was a typical girl heading west on a wagon train full of Mormons in search of gold and God. By the end of the decade, she was a white Indian with a chin tattoo, torn between two cultures. Orphaned at fourteen after her family was massacred by Yavapai Indians in northern Mexico (now southern Arizona), Oatman spent a year as a slave to her attackers before she was traded to the Mohaves, who tattooed her and raised her as their own. Four years later, under threat of war, the Mohaves delivered her back to the whites in exchange for horses, blankets, and beads. This much is true. But the fine points of Oatman's transformation from forty-nine to white savage have been replayed in countless books and articles - modern and Victorian - that read like Rashomans of revisionist history and romantic conjecture.… (altro)

Olive Oatman and her sister were taken by a Native American tribe while her family was heading west in the early 1850s. Olive lived among them for 5 years before being returned to white society. The story is interesting, and I learned a good deal about some of the Native American tribes in the southwest at that time. The information on Olive, however, is sketchy at times only because there isn't a lot of documentation. There are unanswered questions that I had that will remain unanswered because of the passage of time. The other historical information that was shared was dry at times and struck me as being an attempt to lengthen the book. I did get lost in some of the names. It was an interesting enough read about something I knew nothing about.… (altro)