One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd [Paperback]

Jim Fergus (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 15, 1999

One Thousand White Women is the story of May Dodd and a colorful assembly of pioneer women who, under the auspices of the U.S. government, travel to the western prairies in 1875 to intermarry among the Cheyenne Indians. The covert and controversial "Brides for Indians" program, launched by the administration of Ulysses S. Grant, is intended to help assimilate the Indians into the white man's world. Toward that end May and her friends embark upon the adventure of their lifetime. Jim Fergus has so vividly depicted the American West that it is as if these diaries are a capsule in time.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

An American western with a most unusual twist, this is an imaginative fictional account of the participation of May Dodd and others in the controversial "Brides for Indians" program, a clandestine U.S. government^-sponsored program intended to instruct "savages" in the ways of civilization and to assimilate the Indians into white culture through the offspring of these unions. May's personal journals, loaded with humor and intelligent reflection, describe the adventures of some very colorful white brides (including one black one), their marriages to Cheyenne warriors, and the natural abundance of life on the prairie before the final press of the white man's civilization. Fergus is gifted in his ability to portray the perceptions and emotions of women. He writes with tremendous insight and sensitivity about the individual community and the political and religious issues of the time, many of which are still relevant today. This book is artistically rendered with meticulous attention to small details that bring to life the daily concerns of a group of hardy souls at a pivotal time in U.S. history. Grace Fill --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

Long, brisk, charming first novel about an 1875 treaty between Ulysses S. Grant and Little Wolf, chief of the Cheyenne nation, by the sports reporter and author of the memoir A Hunter's Road (1992). Little Wolf comes to Washington and suggests to President Grant that peace between the Whites and Cheyenne could be established if the Cheyenne were given white women as wives, and that the tribe would agree to raise the children from such unions. The thought of miscegenation naturally enough astounds Grant, but he sees a certain wisdom in trading 1,000 white women for 1,000 horses, and he secretly approves the Brides For Indians treaty. He recruits women from jails, penitentiaries, debtors' prisons, and mental institutionsoffering full pardons or unconditional release. May Dodd, born to wealth in Chicago in 1850, had left home in her teens and become the mistress of her father's grain-elevator foreman. Her outraged father had her kidnaped, imprisoning her in a monstrous lunatic asylum. When Grant's offer arrives, she leaps at it and soon finds herself traveling west with hundreds of white and black would-be brides. All are indentured to the Cheyenne for two years, must produce children, and then will have the option of leaving. May, who keeps the journal we read, marries Little Wolf and lives in a crowded tipi with his two other wives, their children, and an old crone who enforces the rules. Reading about life among the Cheyenne is spellbinding, especially when the women show up the braves at arm-wrestling, foot-racing, bow-shooting, and gambling. Liquor raises its evil head, as it will, and reduces the braves to savagery. But the women recover, go out on the winter kill with their husbands, and accompany them to a trading post where they drive hard bargains and stop the usual cheating of the braves. Eventually, when the cavalry attacks the Cheyenne, mistakenly thinking they're Crazy Horse's Sioux, May is killed. An impressive historical, terse, convincing, and affecting. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 1st edition (February 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312199430
• ISBN-13: 978-0312199432
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (724 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,888 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #59 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Westerns

More About the Author

Jim Fergus is a former freelance writer who has published hundreds of articles in dozens of regional and national magazines and newspapers. He is the author of three novels, and two books of nonfiction. His bestselling novel, One Thousand White Women, has been a favorite selection of book clubs and reading groups across the country for over a decade. The novel won the Mountain and Plains Booksellers association Fiction Award. The French translation - Mille Femmes Blanches - won the "Best First Foreign Novel" award in France, and has sold over 400,000 copies in that country. Fergus' most recent novel, Marie-Blanche, a sweeping family historical fiction that spans the entire 20th century, was published in France in the spring of 2011. An English edition of Marie-Blanche is soon to be published in America in Kindle format. Jim Fergus divides his time between southern Arizona, northern Colorado, and France.

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#99 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Historical

#99 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Historical

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

399 of 441 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Brilliant Heart Wrenching Story! April 18, 2001

By Denise Bentley

Format:Paperback

This book is so well written you will believe it is true. I have never read anything quite like it. The premise is based on an honest request made at a peace conference by a Cheyenne Indian Chief in the year 1854 to trade white women for horses. The women would become brides and the children of these unions would make assimilation into the white mans society easier for the Indians who astutely saw the future at hand, and were looking for a peaceful solution. The author assures us that in real life this never took place, but in this book it does, and the story that follows is nothing but magnificent.

May Dodd has been locked away in an insane asylum for her so called indecent behavior, a bright and cultured woman who has taken up with a common factory worker her parents will not accept, followed by two children born out of wed lock. It is May, who through an act of desperation, manipulates her way into the "Brides for Horses" campaign. The journals that she keeps throughout her adventure are the making of this story. Articulate and interesting in her views of life on the plains among the so-called savages, she starts to realize just how warm and accepting a people they are. There is so much more to this book but I will let the author tell the story. I am re-reading it for a second time and I know it won't be the last. This is an incredible work of fiction, to be enjoyed for many years to come. Kelsana 4/18/01

211 of 244 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars A Mixed Medicine Bag (Beware of Spoiler) October 8, 2006

By Amber Waves

Format:Paperback

I came close to tossing this book fairly early on. By page 64, May Dodd,

the main character, had begun to annoy me. She is just the perfect human

being: intelligent, practical, fearless, a born leader, irresistible to

men, ingenious, passionate, blah, blah, blah. In contrast, her companions

are for the most part a flawed, inferior group: a racist, drunken

southern belle, a nervous, sheltered old maid, the thieving, amoral,

joined-at-the hip Irish twins, a pinch faced, mean-spirited religious

fanatic, and the pathetically ugly amazon with the heart of gold. The

only two that can even vaguely approach our heroine in nobility are the

regal, courageous Black woman and the mannish, freespirited English

artist. Why it's no wonder that the handsome, sensitive Captain and the

brave Cheyenne leader both sucumb to her charms, and lo and behold they both

become her love interests! Her inferior companions of course merit inferior or

inconsequential partners. So much for character development.

There are a variety of personalities that could have provided much in the way of

emotional interaction and growth, but this is not examined. Characters go through intense

experiences, but there is little hint given

as to their mental state, perhaps because the story is written in the form

of one woman's journal. There is, however, no self reflection on May's

part either. She mostly reports what she sees and what is around her.

Another main peeve is the far-fetched attitude of the Cheyenne braves to

their outspoken, free-thinking, culture-bending "wives".... I find it hard

to believe that a rambunctious pair of white women could push

their way irreverently into a native sweat lodge and proceed to intimidate the men

and make themselves at home without any consequences. Would they also be the ones to

suddenly take over the bargaining and

bartering negotiations on a trading expedition as the Cheyenne men

passively sit and watch? Would the irrepresible Irish twins become the

sudden masters of a gambling empire? Would our hulking Swiss amazon

be permitted to humiliate her Indian husband to the extent of actually

kicking him across the Cheyenne settlement in public? Maybe in the 21st

century, but I think not even then.

Okay, you might ask, so why'd I give it three stars? Although it did

annoy the hell out of me at times, the story itself (when I could get

past the contrived love affair between May and Capt. Bourke) did engage

me. I found that I generally enjoyed the writing style. Granted the

repetition of "Perhaps I am truly insane" etc. did wear a little thin,

along with the conveniently produced towels, May never running out of pencils

and notebooks (how many can you always carry on your back??),

and the character of Daisy having actually brought with her a 19th

century wedding gown although the women are told at the beginning of their journey (a three hour tour????)

that they cannot bring very much with them. These little nagging details I was willing to overlook, though.

I also enjoyed

the recounting of the travel and the details of native life. The

story moved along at a satisfactory pace and was readable and entertaining.

It didn't require much effort to just let the story carry

me along. There were enough characters to provide a variety of mini, if

scany storylines. Again, there was potential for further development here that unfortunately wasn't explored.

I'll admit that part of the reason that I continued to read was out of

sheer curiosity. Would the author predictably reunite May and the Captain, the long-suffering,

star-crossed lovers?

Would May remain with her Indian husband, Little Wolf? When May becomes pregnant, it didn't

take much imagination to figure out that the baby would belong to Bourke

(Oh,spare me...) Bourke one, Little Wolf zero. By now I felt sure that

May and the Captain would live happily ever after, but I doggedly read on.

One of the stars I therefore award because the author had the

courage not to tie all the stories into a neat package at the end. Life

is not a neat package, and that may have been the most realistic part of

the book.

In conclusion, One Thousand White Women was predictable at times, and tends to put a 21st century spin

on 19th century people, but on the whole it was an entertaining, and readable yarn, and even though I thought

I'd toss it a couple of times, it did keep me reading. Take it to the beach, turn off your critical brain, and enjoy. Read more ›

139 of 168 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars How did this book manage to get in print! December 16, 2002

By Pamela Richardson

Format:Paperback

If I could rate this below one star I would. This book covered every stereotype possible: the boozy, trashy, red-headed Irish twins; the big, homely, muscular, Swede; the racist, phony, southern belle; the filthy, rotted-tooth little Frenchman, etc. Of course, the heroine is "chosen" by the most well-respected and good looking brave. The author made sure there was a mate for every one of his characters, there even "happened" to be one Black brave to be paired with the regal, non-conformist, former slave woman.

The premise to this novel is original but everything else was so cliche' it was embarrassing.

The only part of the book the author seemed to put any effort into were the elaborate, porn-like, sex encounters. I'm no prude but these scenes were thrown in helter-skelter and added nothing to the story line what-so-ever.

Don't waste your money or your time on this book.

90 of 108 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars The premise on which this book is based offers promise. October 29, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

The idea of basing a novel around an interesting but little-known fact - that Cheyenne Chief Little Wolf traveled East to Washington, D.C. to ask President Grant for "one thousand white women" to intermarry with members of his tribe - was a stroke of genius on the part of author, Jim Fergus. It is historical fact that the offer was made and whether the women's trip West actually happened does not detract from the novel. Jim Fergus is quite clear, from the outset, that the story is fictionalized. What does detract, however, is the fact that Mr. Fergus has not done his homework on Women's Issues. May Dodd is a contemporary, 1990's, woman plunked down in the 1880's. Even the language of her journal entries does not ring true as the language of the times. Scholars and historians have been looking to journals and letters of women in order to understand their place in a particular time period, rather than viewing their thoughts and feelings through the lens of an author or historian who may have been biased. Therefore,it seems ironic that Mr. Fergus would chose this format for his novel - the format of what is true - and then bend it to his will. If I were to use thisbook for a class reading, I would dub it "fantasy", and not historical fiction, the genre Mr. Fergus probably intended. There is a Paul Bunyan-esque quality to May. She is not only larger than life but so one-dimensional there is no space for the reader to develop his/her impressions about the character. We are constantly being pushed to embrace the author's point of view, that point of view being: "Isn't she wonderful?!". Coincidences occur which defy belief, frequently coincidences meant to bolster May's credibility and strength in the readers' eyes.... Before the story even begins, we learn the extremely wealthy and well-positioned Chicago family, which dared to disown May, goes bankrupt. However,the young male family member, clearly smitten with her(what man isn't?)and wanting to learn about her life, is a highly successful magazine editor...and May Dodd's journals are considered "sacred tribal treasures" among the Cheyenne. These events continue(such as twins marrying twins, and both giving birth to twins)throughout the novel, and rather than giving credibility to the character or events, wear the reader down to the point of numbness. Most of the characters are, in fact, stereotyped and "cartoonish", which seems a shame when the relationships unfolding on the early train journey could have broadened as the novel unfolds. Mr. Fergus' depiction of the Cheyenne way of life seems accurate, and indeed, the passages relating the way they lived are among the most pleasing and vivid. Mr. Fergus' characterization of Little Wolf was one of his best. Unfortunately, he loses some of our respect as he develops too much patience for May - her lectures on war, how his tribe should not go to war. War was the way of life for the Plains Indians. Among the reviews listed on the book jacket and inside, none appears to be written by a Cheyenne. Their input is important.It is certainly possible to take some historic events, built a framework, and make up (or fictionalize) a story within those limits. Mr. Fergus, though, has really tried our patience. Read more ›