One Thousand White Women
I just finished reading this sad, beautiful book by Jim Fergus. The title refers to a proposal that was actually made by a Cheyenne chief in 1854 -- he suggested that the United States give the Cheyenne one thousand white women as brides for Cheyenne warriors. His theory was that as in Cheyenne culture, a child belongs to his mother's tribe, this would lead to Cheyenne children being successfully assimilated into the dominant culture of the U.S. This novel imagines that on a small scale, this plan was actually carried out. The narrator, May Dodd, is one of the white women who volunteers to marry a Cheyenne man.
The novel takes place in the 1870s, and it is every bit as grim as you can imagine. As I said to
thedeepquiet, it's a pretty realistic portrayal of what happened to the Plains Indians, so I knew it couldn't possibly have a happy ending. And it doesn't -- it's violent, and sad, and full of the tragic stupidity of the U.S. Army. It reminds me of why I have never been able to finish Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.
But if you are up for a depressing read, it's very well done, and often funny. The author really does an amazing job of imagining the kind of woman who would volunteer for this gig, and the narrator, May (whose journals make up the bulk of the book) is very real. May herself joins the project because it's the only way she can get released from the insane asylum to which her family has confined her. She's eccentric and unconventional -- she would have to be -- but quite sane, and chooses life among the Cheyenne as superior to the alternative. The other women are a nice cross section of the insane, the impoverished, the criminal, the extremely eccentric, and one former runaway slave (the Cheyenne give her the name "Black White Woman").
One thing I liked about this book is that it's not Dances With Wolves -- every white person is a bigot. Some are more benignly bigoted than others, but no one is a true anachronism. It seemed very real. And because it was real, it had to be bloody, and sad.
The novel takes place in the 1870s, and it is every bit as grim as you can imagine. As I said to
thedeepquiet, it's a pretty realistic portrayal of what happened to the Plains Indians, so I knew it couldn't possibly have a happy ending. And it doesn't -- it's violent, and sad, and full of the tragic stupidity of the U.S. Army. It reminds me of why I have never been able to finish Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.
But if you are up for a depressing read, it's very well done, and often funny. The author really does an amazing job of imagining the kind of woman who would volunteer for this gig, and the narrator, May (whose journals make up the bulk of the book) is very real. May herself joins the project because it's the only way she can get released from the insane asylum to which her family has confined her. She's eccentric and unconventional -- she would have to be -- but quite sane, and chooses life among the Cheyenne as superior to the alternative. The other women are a nice cross section of the insane, the impoverished, the criminal, the extremely eccentric, and one former runaway slave (the Cheyenne give her the name "Black White Woman").
One thing I liked about this book is that it's not Dances With Wolves -- every white person is a bigot. Some are more benignly bigoted than others, but no one is a true anachronism. It seemed very real. And because it was real, it had to be bloody, and sad.