Olive Oatman: Explore The Mysterious Story of Captivity and Tragedy from Beginning to End

Almost all of Olive Oatman's family was massacred by Indians while traveling to their Mormon promised land in California in the 1850's. Of their family, only 2 daughters and a son were left alive; The girls taken captive and the boy beaten and tossed off a cliff and left for dead. After 5 years of living with different Native American tribes, the family members were reunited. While Olive does return to and lives the rest of her life among white settlers, history has wondered whether she returned willingly or was forced to return to "civilization." There are opposing stories throughout history that cast doubt and mystery as to the real reason and feelings behind Olive's return to white society.

Hourly History's synopsis of Olive's life show more and mystery surrounding these trying events is a great introduction into her story and leaves me wanting to know more! I think I will try to find another book about Olive and her family to see if I can learn more. Thank you LibraryThing Member's Giveaway for sending me an e-copy of this book and introducing me to the Oatman's story. show less

I received an ARC for an honest review of this title.

This story has always fascinated me and I truly enjoyed hearing both sides of the "story" and in the process learned how memory, history, viewpoints, public perception can be contradictory and unreliable.

Olive was a very strong woman, her story is vivid, fascinating and inspiring. I want to do more research about her as a result of this title.

I wish we could go back in time and talk to her. Fascinating stuff!

Brent Schulte did a great research on the subject of Olive Oatman, a young woman kidnapped along with her sister during a massacre of her family on their way to Fort Yuma. They became Mormans but broke off from Brigham Young's group and then broke off again from a group that they had later joined. Now the famiy was alone and were sighted by a Yavpai group. It started peaceful. But ended up horrible.

The Yavpai used Olive and her younger sister as slaves. Olive and her ertsister had to endure a long walk to the desert and she must have thought thought that their life would never get better. Fortunately, they were traded to the Mohave people and were treated by them with respect and kindness. But a time of starvation hit the Mohave and her show more sister did not survive. Olive learned their language, adopted the women' s hair style and clothing and there is a question of whether or not she really wanted to give her up her life with them. We will never know. This is full of question and the author asked many of them. Olive Oatman remains a mystery. Never to really fit into the white women's society, she may have been happier to remain living with the Mohave.

I bought this book for myself and my thoughts and feelings in this review are entirely my own, show less

This was a quick read on the history of an individual affected by the battles between different races trying to assimilate as white settlers took over Native American land. The story itself reads like Cliff Notes for one person's life with tribes that are not her own. The chapters frequently end with ominous tones of "something bad is about to happen" so often it almost seems like it would be better as an after-school special with scary music notes before each commercial break.

I received an ARC [Advanced Reader’s Copy] Mobi.file copy of this book from the publisher through a giveaway they had on LibraryThing and the following is my honest opinion.

Back in my high schools [50 years ago] I had a 93 average for each of the years I went there in History, which is an indication that I must have loved the subject, and American History had been my favorite.

One area of American History which is lacking completeness is that of the Native Americans [American Indians]. Of course, the events which usually get covered are those which involve any conflict between the “white man” and the “redskins”; such as the infamous one involving Colonel Custard; while events involving the capture, torture, and killing of the show more pioneer settlers heading west. However, one single, 19-year-old girl, Olive Oatman, made to Fort Yuma, after 5 years of captivity with a mysterious blue tattoo on her face, where everyone there cheered her miraculous return to the civilized world.

As in any such miraculous event there’s always a lot of legend regarding the entire history of it, requiring historians to separate the facts from the fiction. American Indians, as we’ve been taught, usually are superstitious when things occur that they’ve never experienced before. What it be that Olive did something or had there been something about her physical appearance which prevented from experiencing the same fate as her parents and siblings.

What the author, Brent Schulte, has attempted to do with apparent success has been to methodically go through all the historical documents he could find to give his readers the amazing true story of Olive Oatman, a story which adds to the basic understanding of the differences between the two cultures the book covers, especially how here where there’s has been a cohabitation between a single, white American woman and the Mojave Indians.

For wanting to enlighten the knowledge of the readers of this book, as a student of American History, I’ve given Mr. Schulte and his publisher 5 STARS in making this book an educational reality. show less