Nouhad’s Pick
June 2015
One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd (historical fiction)
Jim Fergus, Publisher: St Martin’s Press, 1998
March 23, 1875, begins May Dodd’s journey west to the unknown. Her only hope of freedom from an insane asylum was to participate in a secret federal government program and be a bride to a Cheyenne Indian warrior. This was a proposed by “Sweet Medicine Chief” Little Wolf to help save his people. In his address to President Grant, he stated: “It is the Cheyenne way that all children who enter this world belong to their mother’s tribe . . . [in this way they will learn the white man’s way, so] from this day forward the blood of our people shell be joined.” This was the request for One Thousand White Women to be gifted to the Cheyenne as brides for their warriors. The U.S. government received one thousand horses in return.
May Dodd chronicles how the group of women coped to learn Cheyenne ways, learned the daily routines and experienced the adventures and hardships, fell in love, gained respect, experienced joy, and found loyalties. May’s journal is the breathtaking adventure of romance, triumph, and sorrow.
The author’s description of life out west is so vivid that one’s imagination brings it alive. This story is a capsule in time for America, full of adventure, emotions, and suspense, and makes one anxious to turn the page.