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

~ (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.

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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: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (296 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,195 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

160 of 197 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

67 of 86 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.

20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 1000 White Women, July 29, 2004

By	MoxieMomma "MoxieMomma" - See all my reviews

I read this book while camping in Montana/Wyoming and found it to be extremely well-suited to my surroundings. I really could envision the American West of 150+ years ago and felt a connectedness to the characters.

Many of the other reviewers have commented on the credibility of the novel. I agree that there were questions regarding the credibility of our NARRARATOR (May Dodd) but I do not think this is a fault of the novel. In reading any novel the first question one should ask is whether you trust your narrator -- after all, the story will be told through their perceptions. A narrator's credibility is even at issue in such classics as Wuthering Heights. Oftentimes, the more carefully written narrators will cause the readers the most doubt and distress. Have you ever given up on a novel simply because you could not tolerate the narrator?

In this instance, we are told from the start that May Dodd is NOT credible. . . she was committed to a lunatic asylum, her many generations of her family considered her to be insane, and she clearly perceives her world differently than those surrounding her. In fact, she prides herself for being unconventional and having a perspective that is far from the norm of her society. Especially in her letters to her sister, it is clear that she is trying to shock her audiance. But in her letters to her children or to Henry Ames, she is painting herself as a martyr. It is not difficult to accept that May considers herself to be superior to the other brides, describes herself as a hero and leader, or that she believes that all the men she meets lust after her (and that they are the most desirable of men).

Futher, there has been a lot of criticism regarding May Dodd's descriptions of sexual encounters. Many reviewers have considered these discriptions to be gratuitious or something from romance novels. However, considering that our narrator has been charged with permiscuity, it is not surprising that she would gloat about her exploits including the seduction of John Bourke among others. May is unguarded about being very sexually aggressive and sometimes her narrative regarding these matters is giddy to the brink of hysteria. These were the moments when I thought. . .maybe she is insane. . . perhaps she is a scarlett woman. . .was her family was right about her?

While many of the characters are painted with broad brush strokes, I think this too can be defended. First, again, our narrator has her own limitations. Secondly, given the reach of this book, the author had to rely on some social cues and a - for lack of a better phrase - common language of the readers that would quickly bring the readers into the novel. Also, the author should at least be recognized for his command of dialect. Creating a multi-ethnic group gave him an opportunity to display his abilities. We can't fault him for showing off just a bit.

Finally, I was very impressed by the author's attentive research into the Chyenne and other Native American cultures. It appears that he did his homework and this novel encouraged me to learn more about our earliest Americans. That, in of itself, is quite an accomplishment.