One Thousand White Women: the Journals of May Dodd, by Jim Fergus

(NY: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1998)

A birthday gift from my sister-in-law and her husband, this book somehow got buried in my TBR pile.  I recently uncovered it and read it.  Wow!  This novel takes you on a wild ride into the North American West of 1875.

The Cheyenne are trying to find a way to assimilate into the white man’s culture.  The chief Little Wolf travels to Washington, DC to make an unusual request.  He asks the government to provide the Cheyenne with 1,000 white women who are willing to marry Cheyenne men, have their babies, and thus produce a generation who can bridge the culture gap.  Cheyenne culture is a matrilineal society.  All children belong to their mother’s tribe.  Thus, the “mixed” children resulting from these unions would be members of the dominant white society and could help their elders live together in peace.

The book’s premise is based on a real request, made in 1854 at a Fort Laramie peace conference, by a Cheyenne chief who thought it would be a perfect way to merge the cultures.  In real life the request for white women wasn’t positively received, but in this novel author Jim Fergus examines the question, what if this exchange had occurred? 

Fergus convincingly describes May Dodd and the other women who volunteer for this government assignment using Dodd’s letters and journals as his literary vehicle.  Life on the plains, living as one of the spouses of Chief Little Wolf, unfolds vividly through the eyes and experiences of May Dodd.

A beautifully written book, One Thousand White Women was a regional book award winner of the Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association.  It is historical fiction at its best.  The Western expansion left a trail of death, destruction, and broken treaties.  This novel captures this unfortunate reality all too well.

Several days after reading this book, Ricky and I attended a house concert in Shreveport to hear the band 2-Bit Palomino, featuring husband-wife team, Ren and Andi Renfree and their fellow performer, Bill Ward.  This concert series in our neighborhood features singer/songwriters in an intimate listening setting. 

Photo from Shreveport House Concert series Facebook page

Female vocalist Andi Renfree who sings lead, back-up and plays percussion and harmonica in the band co-wrote a song, The Buffalo Grass, which perfectly fit with the feelings I was experiencing after reading One Thousand White Women.  The lyrics of the song are provided if you want to listen to 2-Bit Palomino’s Bill Ward sing it, or rodeo cowboy/singer Chris LeDoux also recorded it shortly before his death.

"The Buffalo Grass"

It’s been forty-five days since the snows have begun
I stare at the fire and long for the sun
As the bitter winds blow through the mouth of the pass
I sit here and dream of the Buffalo grass

The ponies are shaggy; their coats have grown long
With heads down, they huddle together as one
At the window my breath forms a mist on the glass
As I patiently wait for the Buffalo grass

The Seasons still turn
And the prairies still yearn
For those who were here long ago
The Sioux have all gone and the Bison moved on
Soon, I will follow them home

Mollie passed in September and left me alone
Now my heart is as heavy and round as a stone
Too many years have gone by too fast
And I long for the feel of the Buffalo grass

The animals sleep while the world holds its breath
The woods are as still and as silent as death
When the mountain streams flow, spring will follow at last
And the wind will blow free through the Buffalo grass

The Seasons still turn
And the prairies still yearn
For those who were here long ago
The Sioux have all gone and the Bison moved on
Soon, I will follow them home

The geese will return as a symbol of change
The elk will be foraging out on the range
Once again nature’s palette will color the pass
And I will find peace in the Buffalo grass
Yes, I will find peace in the Buffalo grass