One Thousand White Women

I think I love historical fiction. Reading One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd by Jim Fergus reminded me of how I felt when I read The Red Tent. Instead of taking place during Biblical times, however, the setting is the American West during the late 1800s. When the characters are interesting and believable, I become totally caught up in their story and end up learning a great deal about how the time period shaped their feelings and actions.

May Dodd is a fictitious character who participates in a scandalous "Brides for Indians" program secretly concocted between President Ulysses S. Grant and Little Wolf, chief of the Cheyenne nation. The intent is to encourage peaceful relations between the native Americans and the early settlers during westward expansion. The book offers insight into a conflict as old as humankind — how diversity between people can be an enriching experience if we don't allow it to destroy us.