One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd (Paperback)

by Jim Fergus (Author) "Today is my birthday, and I have received the greatest gift of all-freedom!..." (more)
Key Phrases: bad horse, thie train, camp crier, Little Wolf, Jim Fergus, Captain Bourke (more...)

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.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 1st edition (February 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312199430
• ISBN-13: 978-0312199432
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (286 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,197 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #1 in	Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Westerns
  #45 in	Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Historical

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

147 of 181 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 (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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

53 of 65 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

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.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting what if..., June 11, 2007

By	Gretchen Schwenee - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

After reading Lonesome Dove and Across the High Lonesome I was hungry for another well written western, and this interesting historical what if fit the bill! The what if is a once proposed plan for the US government to send white wives to Cheyenne Indians in an attempt to civilize the savages. The book explores what might have happened had this taken place. The woman are from the lower classes, pulled form jails and insane asylums. The author recreates a journal of one of these women and so the story is told through her eyes in journal form. I was pulled in immediately and the book to be a page turner. I highly recommend this for some one looking for western history with a twist!