I can’t believe that only just now I read this book. Because wow. Wow! All the genres/ themes I love—historical fiction, first person perspective, strong and most importantly, believable female protagonist—are all present in this novel. Published in 1998, I’ve more than once spotted this novel on bookshelves, yet didn’t pick up a copy till recently.
The novel stems from a highly interesting, yet never came to pass, proposal: in the 1850s, a Northern Cheyenne chief asked US Army authorities the gift of one thousand white women as brides for their warriors. Being a matrilineal based society, in which children belong to their mother’s tribe, the Cheyenne viewed this as the perfect way to assimilate into white society. Unsurprisingly, US authorities abhorred this idea, and no white brides came over. But in this novel, they do.
Told through the fictional diary entries of May Dodd, readers are introduced to a woman considered highly unconventional for 1875. A free spirit, May is banished to an asylum by her own family, for having loved a man beneath her station. When the chance for freedom is offered by participating in the top secret government “Brides for Indians” program, May seizes it. With the goal of “civilizing” the so-called savages, May and many other women in compromised situations find themselves heading west. May chronicles the women she meets, of all backgrounds and color, and of their fears and hopes of marrying and living among the “savages.” For May however, she soon finds herself torn between her love for a dashing US Army captain, and her eventual husband, Chief Little Wolf, leader of the Cheyenne nation. Caught between two worlds, May struggles to navigate two alternate lives, both of which are fraught with devastating consequences.
Highly detailed and emotive, May feels very much like a real character. In fact, I’m still in awe that this novel is written by a man. Fergus captures May’s hopes and fears regarding her children, her disgust with society’s hypocrisy regarding her sexuality, and her love and respect for both US Captain Bourke and Chief Little Wolf, both of whom are actual historical characters. Other characters, such as the street wise Irish Kelly twins, and the steadfast, former slave Phemie, feel real as well. May’s initial bewilderment to eventual acceptance and admiration of Cheyenne culture is well structured, as are all characters’ interactions with one another. Readers stringent in historical/ realistic portrayals may find the fact that May writes such long, detailed entries unrealistic, especially during the novel’s climax, yet one must remember that this is a novel. Like very many other readers, so immersed into the plot and characters was I that I wanted, needed, May to be a real character. Alas, as Fergus clarifies in the “Author’s Note:” “In spite of efforts to convince the reader to the contrary, this book is entirely a work of fiction” (Fergus xiii). Such is the magic of well researched and well executed fiction that readers whole heartedly ingest this novel. If you are looking for “a fresh twist on the traditional Western” (book review via San Antonio Express), I highly recommend this novel.
~LMC
One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd by Jim Fergus, St. Martin’s Griffin New York, 434 pages
*Postscript: The Vengeance of Mothers, the sequel to One Thousand White Women, has just been published this year. I cannot wait to pick up this book and will write a review once finished reading it.