One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd by Jim Fergus (1998)
In 1854, a Cheyenne chief proposed an admirably forward-thinking plan to the US government that would foster cultural understanding and assimilation between Native Americans and whites: one thousand willing white women to be exchanged as brides for Cheyenne warriors. This is the story of one white woman's experience had the US government taken the proposal even halfway seriously. Our heroine, May Dodd, can't imagine anything worse than the insane asylum she's currently living in, and with some excitement enlists herself in the "Brides for Indians" program. She faithfully journals her extraordinary experiences living with the Cheyenne and of her new husband Little Wolf, unaware of the legacy she will leave behind.
An exciting, engaging and ultimately tragic story -- one can't help but wonder, "What if?"
 | Rating: 4/5 Further reading: Fergus' homepage |