Frequent University of Nebraska Press blog contributor Kate Flaherty recently read The Blue Tattoo by Margot Mifflin and Searching for Tamsen Donner by Gabrielle Burton. The two books — both invovling journeys west gone awry — are among her favorite UNP titles this season. Read on:
How to Have a Roadtrip Without Leaving the Couch, by Kate Flaherty
My favorite offerings from Nebraska this spring are The Blue Tattoo by Margot Mifflin and Searching for Tamsen Donner by Gabrielle Burton. While both books are different in scope—the first is a biography, the other more of a biography intertwined with memoir—the similarities between them are striking, and not just because they both look at the role of pioneer women in mid-1800s America. I was particularly captivated by how each author dispels myths and misconceptions in order to better understand the complex realities of these women’s lives in the west.
In The Blue Tattoo, Margot Mifflin deftly traces the amazing history of Olive Oatman, who at thirteen was part of an ill-fated Mormon pilgrimage to California when most of her family, including her parents, were massacred by Yavapai Indians in what is now the American southwest. Taken captive by the Yavapai, Olive was then traded to the Mohave who took her in as one of their own. She lived as a Mohave and spoke their language, ultimately assimilating into the tribe so deeply she was given a chin tattoo just like other young Mohave women and, Mifflin believes, freely underwent a sexual initiation as well. When Oatman is finally “rescued” Mifflin shows how after grieving the loss of her first family following the massacre, Oatman must deal with the loss of her second family, as she is taken from the Mohave and thrust overnight back into the white pioneer world.
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