One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd

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

Right off I want to say that although this is set up as historical fiction, it is NOT. Do not start reading this book thinking that these are events that actually occured.
This book takes readers back to the late 1800's when a Cheyenne Chief actually asked for 1,000 white brides for his warriors. The women were supposed to help cross the cultural bridge between the whites and the natives. (This part really did happen. A Northern Cheyenne Chief did ask the U.S. Army at Fort Laramie for 1,000 white brides. But of course, the U.S. government never allowed that.) Because in Indian culture the family follows martiarchal lines, the natives hoped that any children bred by this union would help assimilate their culture to the white man's.
I have to say I was truly intrigued by the premise. May Dodd of whose journals we read, was resued from an insane asylum to enter the BFI (Brides For Indians) program. She was originally incarserated for promiscuity by her family. Meaning she had two children out of wedlock with the man she lived with but did not wed.
May and a group of other women (not all 1,000 were ever delivered) were the first convoy to head out to Indian territory. The group was very ecclectic and likeable although they did strike me as 'characters'. There were two Irish twins that were released from jail for this program. A mannish woman named Helen that wanted to study bird habitat and was a great artist of nature. The secretary from the asylum where May was kept. She left with May. A huge Swiss girl that wasn't very pretty but longed for her own family. (By the way........all of these women volunteered for this program.) A Christian evangelist that was uppity, snooty, judgemental and gives you the full understanding of why people hate organized religion. A jilted Southern belle that had been left by her lover after her father lost all of his money. Phemie an escaped slave. These are just a few of the characters. All very likeable and believable enough.......sort of.
It seemed to me like there was a lot of stereotyping going on. This could be because there was or because I don't know enough about Indian history to know if this was true. Another thing that didn't really ring true for me was that May was such an outspoken woman. Truly ahead of her time. I guess that I always imagine women of this era to be a little more demure. This must not always be the case or we would not have had the women's sufferage movement or anything else like unto it. Still even though I mostly like May, it still seemed a little too contrived for me.
There were some horrifying moments in this book. Some rapes, not really graphically depicted, yet you full understand what is happening. Of course murder and mutilation since we are reading about 'savages'. And frankly, May is promiscuous even though she feels like she has good reason. So there are some sexual scenes. They aren't Harlequin graphic but descriptive enough to know what is going on.
I rate this book a 4 for likeability. I was slightly turned off by some of the violence.
I rate this book maybe a PG 16 for some swearing, sexual violence, violence against children, violence against mankind, and sexual content. I would have given it an R except that I felt like the sex and violence had their place. It's not like they were maming bodies in some nasty movie just so they could kill people. Also the sexual parts were there to describe acts of marraige and not overly descriptive.