One Thousand White Women

One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus was July’s book club pick. I’d never heard of it until Jackie mentioned it back when we were choosing book a couple months ago.

The novel {a first work of fiction by the author} is set in the late 1800s/early 1900s first in the north east then out west in mostly Nebraska territory.

Based on the actual event of the Cheyenne Native American chef asking to trade 1000 white women for 1000 horses {in hopes of their children bridging the cultures}, the story takes off as fiction from there. It reads as the diary of May Dodd, a fallen-from-grace lady from a wealthy, proper family chosen to be part of the first group of white women delivered to the Native American tribe.

As you can guess, the story is pretty wild. One Thousand White Women tells the story of these ‘Brides for Indians’ {the author does a good job creating & painting for us readers vivid characters} traveling cross country, seeing Native Americans for the first time & attempting to assimilate into their lifestyles & families.

My book club’s {& my} complaint is that the book reads like an event list. This happens, then this & this & this… We’d have loved more depth on certain subjects. And we wondered if a man writing from a women’s perspective caused that issue.

Without giving a spoiler but knowing {a bit of Native American} history, you can guess that the story doesn’t end especially well for these characters. But overall I still enjoyed the book. It’s one that will remain memorable & I think would work well for a variety of book clubs to read & review.