One Thousand White Women : the Journals of May Dodd by Jim Fergus

This story is fiction based on something that actually happened, but with a twist. In the second half of the 1800’s a Cheyenne Indian Chief recognized that the eventual fate of his people was doomed. Because the Cheyenne society was matrilineal (all children born belong to their mother’s tribe) he made a request of the American government. He requested that the U.S. government make them a gift of one thousand white women as brides for the warriors of his tribe. By this request he thought that children of these women and his warriors would be assimilated into the white man’s world, and the legacy of his people would live on. In reality the U.S. government said no. In this story the U.S. government said yes.

The story is told through the journals of May Dodd, one of the white women who became an Indian bride. It is a fascinating story of the time that May and a group of white women spent with the Indians - the final days of the American Indians living on the land as free people, as they had done for thousands of years, before their demise at the hands of the U.S. government.

I enjoyed every page of this book and didn’t want it to end. It is full of remarkable characters whom we come to know well and love. It gives a different perspective on this period in American history - one which is most times completely overlooked.
Reviewed by Mrs. Dunaski