“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
This engaging biography examines the life of Olive Oatman, who was 13 years old when Indians attacked her Illinois Mormon family on its journey west; she was subsequently adopted and raised by the Mohave tribe. Mifflin (English, Lehman Coll., CUNY) tells Oatman's story, from the unorthodox religious convictions that led her family west, through her captivity and assimilation into Mohave culture, to her rescue and reassimilation. Mifflin engagingly describes Oatman's ordeal and theorizes about its impact on Oatman herself as well as on popular imagination. The author seeks to correct much of the myth that has sprung up around Oatman, owing partly to a biography written with Oatman's participation during her life. Mifflin takes the position that Oatman was almost fully assimilated into Mohave culture and resisted "rescue," and that her return to mainstream society was a cause of ambivalence, if not anxiety. Though Mifflin sometimes seems a bit eager to make this argument, 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.
—Julie Biando Edwards
— Elizabeth Quinn
"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
— Sandy Amazeen
"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
— Spencer Dew
— Jack Shakely, Internet Review of Books
“Margot Mifflin has written a winner. A young Mormon girl is forced to live with ‘savages.’ And loves it. Returns to civilization to become a serious young woman who falls into pious, manipulative hands. The Blue Tattoo offers quite intense drama along with thorough scholarship.”
—Elmore Leonard, best-selling author of Killshot, Three-Ten to Yuma and Other Stories, and The Tonto Woman and Other Western Stories
"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
— Jenny Shank
"Extremely well written, The Blue Tattoo is unquestionably a significant contribution to Oatman studies."—Deborah and Jon Lawrence, Overland Journal
— Deborah and Jon Lawrence
— June Namias
“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
“One can read this work of non-fiction as if it were a sensational novel—with progressive feminist implications.”—Irish Times.com
“The book’s already received rave reviews, and for good reason. . . . A fascinating dose of both tattoo and American history.”—Tattoo History
“Mifflin catches the poignancy of this story that manages to combine the conquest of the West, life among its victims and the national myths that justified it.”—Doubleday Book Club
List of Illustrations viii
Acknowledgments ix
Prologue: Emigrant Song 1
1 Quicksand 9
2 Indian Country 17
3 "How Little We Thought What Was Before Us" 22
4 A Year with the Yavapais 44
5 Lorenzo's Tale 53
6 Becoming Mohave 64
7 Deeper 82
8 "There Is a Happy Land, Far, Far Away" 92
9 Journey to Yuma 100
10 Hell's Outpost 109
11 Rewriting History in Gassburg, Oregon 126
12 Captive Audiences 146
13 "We Met as Friends, Giving the Left Hand in Friendship" 173
14 Olive Fairchild, Texan 182
Epilogue: Oatman's Literary Half-Life 198
Postscript: Letter from Farmington 210
Notes 219
Bibliography 239
Index 255
I learned about the Oatman Family Massacre while doing some research on Arizona (was thinking about moving there) and became intrigued by the story. I knew nothing about the event beforehand. When "The Blue Tattoo" by Margot Mifflin was published, I had to read it. 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.
3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.seasaw
Posted May 17, 2012
A history lover would love this book. It takes you back into the world of a young girl's life that was suddenly changed forever. Seeing her parents and sibbings killed and thinking that she and her younger sister were the only ones spared and taken capative by one Indian tribe than sold to another to find acceptance within the second tribe and raised as one of their own even while losing her sister shaped her for the rest of her life after being returned to the none Indian world. The authur based all her information on docomented information and then drew conclusions from that information. The illustrations and photographs help the reader to see the changes as time went on.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Heartbroken1
Posted October 18, 2010
Truth be told, the excerpt on the cover told the story better than the 209 pages of text.
What's touted as the biography of "a thirteen-year old pioneer traveling west toward Zion, with her Mormon family"(teaser on cover) is written with an obvious anti-Mormon sentiment. The Oatman family are actually "Brewsterites", a group headed by James Colin Brewster, a self-proclaimed prophet, determined to start his own church after disagreeing with the doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (Ironically, Mifflin addresses this, but fails to make the distinction between the two religious groups.)
The Brewsterites were not headed for Zion--which was the community in the Great Basin (now known as the Salt Lake Valley and is still the headquarters for the worldwide Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints--also known as the "Mormons")--but were actually following the Santa Fe Trail "arguing with Brewster about whether to continue to California or settle in Socorro, New Mexico"(pg 23). (Still no distinction is made.)
The "story" jumped all over the place. Instead of just focusing on Olive and what was known about her. Ms. Mifflin spends pages upon pages telling us about a variety of characters like Olive's brother, Lorenzo; or Sarah Bowman and her "brothel across the river"(pg 113); or James O'Connell, the first tattooed man in America. Understanding that these people were influences in Olive's life is important, I'll concede that fact. But sometimes it felt like we were exploring their histories just for the sake of shock factor.
Despite all the notes in the back depicting the accuracies in The Blue Tattoo, when it comes to the Mormon portion of it, The Blue Tattoo has many inaccuracies. The most glaring of which is on page 138; "...in the wake of Joseph Smith's lynching...". In reality, the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum were shot--martyred--in Carthage Jail on June 27, 1844. This obvious and easily researchable blunder makes me wonder how many other parts of this "biography" are figments of the author's imagination.
With all of this said, learning about Olive Oatman and her past was intriguing. Yet there is a huge asterisk on that statement because of all the mistakes. Intentional or not, they exist and ruin what could have been a great portrayal of a mysterious historical figure.
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Posted December 17, 2009
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