One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd (Sound Library) [Unabridged, Audiobook] [Audio Cassette]

Jim Fergus (Author), Laura Hicks (Narrator)

Book Description

Series: Sound Library | Publication Date: April 2006

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.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Sound Library; Unabridged edition (April 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0792737245
• ISBN-13: 978-0792737247
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.2 x 2.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (409 customer reviews)

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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

284 of 319 people found the following review helpful:

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

By 

Denise Bentley "Kelsana" (The California Redwoods) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd (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

120 of 139 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 "doris0514" - See all my reviews

This review is from: One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd (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.

188 of 225 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Shallow and noncredible, April 6, 2007

By 

AEM (Minneapolis, Minnesota) - See all my reviews

This review is from: One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd (Paperback)

As many of the reviews will attest, this book is a popular choice for women's book clubs, including mine. I'm unimpressed. The characters are strictly cardboard, the pages are loaded with anachronisms, and the behavior and attitudes of the protagonist, May Dodd, ring false to the era and her social background. The ethnic stereotypes made me cringe. As I read, I had the nagging feeling that the writing style was a pale imitation of a much-better original and I finally hit on it---Elizabeth Peters' delightful books featuring the intrepid 19th century archaeologist Amelia Peabody, also told mostly in the first person from the heroine's point of view. To quote the late Senator Lloyd Bentsen: "I've read Amelia Peabody. May Dodd, you're no Amelia Peabody."

I feel compelled to sound off on one of my pet peeves: the entire genre of books written solely to be read by women's book clubs. I have read that this book landed with a well-deserved thud when first published, but has since sold a bazillion copies because book clubs latched onto it. A message to my fellow females: so many wonderful, rich books have been written over the last several hundred years, including many challenging and rewarding modern novels. Why are we content with vapid drivel like One Thousand White Women? It's disheartening to read so many breathlessly enthusiastic reviews of this book written by women. Let's ask a little more of ourselves and dare to stretch our intellects.