One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd

Wuthering Bites Book Club Review at a Glance

What We Said

This was another selection where I enjoyed talking about the book than reading it. It did read as a bit of a Harlequin romance for me at times, but other members of my group did not share that opinion. I think the author did a remarkable job of making this story extremely believable. The premise of One Thousand White Women combined with the intrigue of the Native American culture and history makes for stimulating discussion. -Sue

Christine, 10/16/2006    five stars
This book is beautiful and haunting...May we all have May Dodd's courage and zest for life!
Inspired food accompaniment:   
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Jim Fergus is a longtime correspondent for Outside Magazine and a contributing editor for Sports Afield. His work has appeared in dozens of national magazines and newspapers, and he is the author of the nonfiction book, A Hunter's Road. He lives in northern Colorado.

• One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd

Glowing Reviews and Other Opinions

Long, brisk, charming first novel about an 1875 treaty between Ulysses S. Grant and Little Wolf, chief of the Cheyenne nation, by the sports reporter and author of the memoir A Hunter's Road (1992). Little Wolf comes to Washington and suggests to President Grant that peace between the Whites and Cheyenne could be established if the Cheyenne were given white women as wives, and that the tribe would agree to raise the children from such unions. The thought of miscegenation naturally enough astounds Grant, but he sees a certain wisdom in trading 1,000 white women for 1,000 horses, and he secretly approves the Brides For Indians treaty. He recruits women from jails, penitentiaries, debtors' prisons, and mental institutions—offering full pardons or unconditional release. May Dodd, born to wealth in Chicago in 1850, had left home in her teens and become the mistress of her father's grain-elevator foreman. Her outraged father had her kidnaped, imprisoning her in a monstrous lunatic asylum. When Grant's offer arrives, she leaps at it and soon finds herself traveling west with hundreds of white and black would-be brides. All are indentured to the Cheyenne for two years, must produce children, and then will have the option of leaving. May, who keeps the journal we read, marries Little Wolf and lives in a crowded tipi with his two other wives, their children, and an old crone who enforces the rules. Reading about life among the Cheyenne is spellbinding, especially when the women show up the braves at arm-wrestling, foot-racing, bow-shooting, and gambling. Liquor raises its evil head, as it will, and reduces the braves to savagery. But the women recover, go out on the winter kill with their husbands, and accompany them to a trading post where they drive hard bargains and stop the usual cheating of the braves. Eventually, when the cavalry attacks the Cheyenne, mistakenly thinking they're Crazy Horse's Sioux, May is killed. An impressive historical, terse, convincing, and affecting. - Kirkus Reviews

Reading Group Guide

These questions and discussion topics from the Publisher are offered to enhance your discussion of this book.

• One Thousand White Women was written by a man, but in a woman's point of view. Did you find this convincing?
• In 1875, rebellious or unorthodox women were sometimes considered "hysterical" or insane. Is this still true in some circumstances today?
• Does May Dodd remind you of a modern-day woman?
• What would be today's equivalent of traveling west to an unknown part of the country with a group of strangers?
• Did you feel the Native Americans were accurately portrayed in the novel?
• If the "Brides for Indians" program were actually put into effect in 1875, do you feel it would have been effective?
• What circumstances would prompt you to undergo a journey like the one May Dodd took?
• Do you consider One Thousand White Women a tragic story? If so, why? If not, why not?
• Of the supporting female characters, who did you find the most likeable?
• Were any of May Dodd's actions unsympathetic? Would you find it difficult to leave your children behind in order to escape a horrendous situation?