Intended Audience
Trade
LCCN
2010-044619
Dewey Edition
22
TitleLeading
The
Reviews
" The Blue Tattoo goes far beyond a simple reconstruction of the facts, as it investigates the long life of a woman first captured by Indians but later captured by the men in her life."--Ann Ronald, Bookin' with Sunny, "Mifflin's treatment of Olive's sojourns [provides] an excellent teaching opportunity about America's ongoing captivation with ethnic/gender crossings."-- Western American Literature, "The Blue Tattoo goes far beyond a simple reconstruction of the facts, as it investigates the long life of a woman first captured by Indians but later captured by the men in her life." Bookin' With Sunny, "Mifflin engagingly describes Oatman's ordeal and theorizes about its impact on Oatman herself as well as on popular imagination.... Her book adds nuance to Oatman's story and also humanizes the Mohave who adopted her. Recommended for general readers as well as students and scholars."Library Journal, "An important and engrossing book, which reveals as much about the appetites and formulas of emerging mass culture as it does about tribal cultures in nineteenth-century America."-- Times Literary Supplement, "Mifflin engagingly describes Oatman's ordeal and theorizes about its impact on Oatman herself as well as on popular imagination.... Her book adds nuance to Oatman's story and also humanizes the Mohave who adopted her. Recommended for general readers as well as students and scholars." Library Journal, "Margot Mifflin is a great storyteller. . . . The Blue Tattoo is well written and well researched; it re-opens the story of white women and men going West and Native people trying to survive these travels."June Namias, Pacific Historical Review, "Margot Mifflin has written a winner. . . . The Blue Tattoo offers quite intense drama along with thorough scholarship."--Elmore Leonard, best-selling author of Three-Ten to Yuma and Other Stories, "Lucid and engaging, The Blue Tattoo contextualizes Olive Oatman''s life by delving into Mohave culture and history (including interviews with contemporary Mohaves) and by explaining why her story captured the American popular imagination and continued to be retold and revisited so many times, in so many different media."-Kathryn Zabelle Derounian-Stodola, editor of Women's Indian Captivity Narratives, "Ms. Mifflin did a amazing job in capturing the life of Olive Oatman; before, during and after her capture by the Indians. This is definitely a winner."--GrumpyDan.blogspot.com, "Margot Mifflin has written a winner. . . .The Blue Tattoooffers quite intense drama along with thorough scholarship."Elmore Leonard, "Mifflin does a careful job of reconstructing the fascinating story behind how this woman came to wear that tattoo, ascertaining the most accurate possible accounting of the 1851 murder of Oatman's family near Yuma, Arizona, her captivity by a band of Yavapai Indians, her sale to the Mohaves, and Oatman's eventual return to white society."--Jenny Shank, NewWest.com, " The Blue Tattoo tells the harrowing story of this forgotten heroine of frontier America. . . . This is a revealing read as it delves into the social morays and prejudice of the time."--Sandy Amazeen, MonstersAndCritics.com, "Margot Mifflin sketches out a life in fine detail in her book The Blue Tattoo: The Life of Olive Oatman . . . . It rouses strong metaphors with timeless applications: the idea of what marks us, that which comprises our stories and how they are interpreted, appropriated or manipulated."--Melissa Corliss Delorenzo, Her Circle, "An important and engrossing book, which reveals as much about the appetites and formulas of emerging mass culture as it does about tribal cultures in nineteenth-century America."Christine Bold,Times Literary Supplement, "Mifflin's treatment of Olive's sojourns [provides] an excellent teaching opportunity about America's ongoing captivation with ethnic/gender crossings." Western American Literature, "The Blue Tattoo is well-researched history that reads like unbelievable fiction, telling the story of Olive Oatman, the first tattooed American white woman. . . . Mifflin weaves together Olive''s story with the history of American westward expansion, the Mohave, tattooing in America, and captivity literature in the 1800s."-Elizabeth Quinn, Bust, " The Blue Tattoo is a wonderful peek at an era and a literary genre by a first-class researcher. And if Olive Oatman could time-travel back to read the book, I think she'd be delighted to discover that finally there was a sympathetic author more interested in explaining than exploiting her captivity story."--Jack Shakely, Internet Review of Books, "Mifflin, whose admirable and enjoyable book offers analysis of both the reality and the mythology of Oatman's life, shows that there is much beyond the blue tattoo."--Spencer Dew, Rain Taxi, "Although Oatman's story on its own is full of intrigue, Mifflin adeptly uses her tale as a springboard for larger issues of the time."-- Feminist Review, "Mifflin's treatment of Olive's sojourns [provides] an excellent teaching opportunity about America's ongoing captivation with ethnic/gender crossings."Western American Literature
Dewey Decimal
979.1/04092 B
Table Of Content
List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Prologue: Emigrant Song 1. Quicksand 2. Indian Country 3. "How Little We Thought What Was Before Us" 4. A Year with the Yavapais 5. Lorenzo's Tale 6. Becoming Mohave 7. Deeper 8. "There Is a Happy Land, Far, Far Away" 9. Journey to Yuma 10. Hell's Outpost 11. Rewriting History in Gassburg, Oregon 12. Captive Audiences 13. "We Met as Friends, Giving the Left Hand in Friendship" 14. Olive Fairchild, Texan Epilogue: Oatman's Literary Half-Life Notes Bibliography Index
Synopsis
In 1851 Olive Oatman was a thirteen-year old pioneer traveling west toward Zion, with her Mormon family. Within a decade, she was a white Indian with a chin tattoo, caught between cultures. The Blue Tattoo tells the harrowing story of this forgotten heroine of frontier America., 2019 Tucson Weekly "40 Essential Arizona Books" pick 2014 One Book Yuma selection 2010 Best of the Best from the University Presses (ALA) selection 2010 Caroline Bancroft History Prize Finalist 2009 Southwest Book of the Year In 1851 Olive Oatman was a thirteen-year old pioneer traveling west toward Zion, with her Mormon family. Within a decade, she was a white Indian with a chin tattoo, caught between cultures. The Blue Tattoo tells the harrowing story of this forgotten heroine of frontier America. Orphaned when her family was brutally killed by Yavapai Indians, Oatman lived as a slave to her captors for a year before being traded to the Mohave, who tattooed her face and raised her as their own. She was fully assimilated and perfectly happy when, at nineteen, she was ransomed back to white society. She became an instant celebrity, but the price of fame was high and the pain of her ruptured childhood lasted a lifetime. Based on historical records, including letters and diaries of Oatman's friends and relatives, The Blue Tattoo is the first book to examine her life from her childhood in Illinois--including the massacre, her captivity, and her return to white society--to her later years as a wealthy banker's wife in Texas. Oatman's story has since become legend, inspiring artworks, fiction, film, radio plays, and even an episode of Death Valley Days starring Ronald Reagan. Its themes, from the perils of religious utopianism to the permeable border between civilization and savagery, are deeply rooted in the American psyche. Oatman's blue tattoo was a cultural symbol that evoked both the imprint of her Mohave past and the lingering scars of westward expansion. It also served as a reminder of her deepest secret, fully explored here for the first time: she never wanted to go home., In 1851 Olive Oatman was a thirteen-year old pioneer traveling west toward Zion, with her Mormon family. Within a decade, she was a white Indian with a chin tattoo, caught between cultures. The Blue Tattoo tells the harrowing story of this forgotten heroine of frontier America. Orphaned when her family was brutally killed by Yavapai Indians, Oatman lived as a slave to her captors for a year before being traded to the Mohave, who tattooed her face and raised her as their own. She was fully assimilated and perfectly happy when, at nineteen, she was ransomed back to white society. She became an instant celebrity, but the price of fame was high and the pain of her ruptured childhood lasted a lifetime. Based on historical records, including letters and diaries of Oatman's friends and relatives, The Blue Tattoo is the first book to examine her life from her childhood in Illinois--including the massacre, her captivity, and her return to white society--to her later years as a wealthy banker's wife in Texas. Oatman's story has since become legend, inspiring artworks, fiction, film, radio plays, and even an episode of Death Valley Days starring Ronald Reagan. Its themes, from the perils of religious utopianism to the permeable border between civilization and savagery, are deeply rooted in the American psyche. Oatman's blue tattoo was a cultural symbol that evoked both the imprint of her Mohave past and the lingering scars of westward expansion. It also served as a reminder of her deepest secret, fully explored here for the first time: she never wanted to go home.
LC Classification Number
E99.A6O185 2011
