Olive Oatman
The account of Olive Oatman is a story of a child who gets kidnapped by Indians and learns to adapt to her “new normal,” a
tale we might be able to associate with our own “new normal.”
Olive Oatman was born on
September 7th, 1837 in Illinois into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day
Saints. But, in 1850, when Olive was 13, her family broke with the Church and
traveled, with a group of other members of the Brewsterites (people who
followed the Mormon rebel James C. Brewster), to southeast California through
western Arizona. In the summer of 1850, 90 people left Independence, Missouri,
heading into the wild in search of a place where they could safely raise their
children and practice their religion.
At some point, there was a discussion on exactly how to proceed, what direction to go in. The Oatman’s
decided to take the Sante Fe route with some other members of the group. They
were warned, though, that there were Indian tribes that were hostile to the
white man, so they were warned to be careful. But Royal Oatman, his wife Mary
and their seven children (ages 1-17) were true pioneers and were not going to
let something like an Indian raid stop them. In fact, they believed they could
bring their religion to the natives.
Ninety miles east of Yuma,
the party was attacked by the Yavapais tribe. They demanded food and tobacco.
When the party refused, the tribe attacked, leaving Royal, Mary, and four of
their children dead, with Lorenzo, the 15-year-old unconscious and left for
dead.
When he comes to, he
struggles but eventually connects with a Mormon settlement. They tended to his
wounds, and when he was well enough, they took him back to the scene of the
massacre. He expected to see eight bodies, but there were only six. Where were
his sisters Olive and Mary Anne? Olive, who was 13 and Mary Anne, who was
seven, was kidnapped by the tribe that had slaughtered his family.
The girls were taken to
the tribe’s settlement 60 miles away. They were tied with ropes and forced to
walk the whole way with no food or rest. If they asked for food or to stop and
rest for a while, they were poked with sharp lances. The girls learned exceedingly
early on in their capture to not ask.
When they arrived at the
village, the girls realized they were going to be slaves. You must remember
that many tribes would capture whites to use them as slaves or to replace
family members who had died.
The girl’s main tasks were
to forage the forest for food and firewood. The children of the tribe would
burn them with fire sticks. They were regularly beaten and thought they would
eventually be killed. They had resigned to die.
When Olive and Mary Anne had been with the Yavapais tribe for a year,
they were suddenly traded to the Mojave’s for horses, blankets, vegetables, and
trinkets. They again had a long walk to their new home, expecting their
situation to be the same with the Mojave’s as it had been with the Yavapais’.
But they were pleasantly
surprised when they came to the settlement and found they were to be cared for and eventually adopted by the tribe’s leader’s wife, Espanesay. The two were no
longer asked to work and could do pretty much what they wanted. They were given
land and seeds to grow their own crops. They became so assimilated in the tribe
that they were each given the traditional tattoos on their chins and arms that
the other women of the tribe were given. The Indians felt that with the tattoos,
the women were easily identified in the afterlife as belonging to that tribe.
In fact, the girls became
so assimulated that in February 1854, when 200 white railroad surveyors spent a
week camping right next to the tribe, the girls never attempted to reveal
themselves or to ask for any help.
When Mary Anne is 10, a
drought devastated the crops, resulting in a food shortage. Most children in
the tribe died of starvation, including Mary Anne, but not Olive. The tribe leader’s
wife, Aespaneo and her daughter Topeka would sneak food to Olive, so she would
not suffer the same fate as her sister. It seems there was a preference for the
two women for Olive over Mary Anne. After this, Olive was given a clan name,
Oach.
All this time, Lorenzo had
been searching for his two sisters. A man named Francisco followed the rumors
the government had heard that there was a white girl living with the Mojave.
The tribe was told to return the girls or have the girls come to them to state
they want to stay with the Indians. At first, they did not even bother to
reply, but Lorenzo was persistent, so they next said that they didn’t have any
white girl.
Finally, they figured out
they couldn’t win. Olive tried to help her captors and sent a letter:
“I found that they had told Francisco that I was not an American,
that I was from a race of people much like the Indians, living away from
the setting sun. They had painted my face, and feet, and hands of a dun,
dingy color, unlike that of any race I ever saw. This they told me they did to
deceive Francisco; and that I must not talk to him in American [sic]. They told
me to talk to him in another language and to tell him that I was not an
American. They then waited to hear the result, expecting to hear my gibberish
nonsense and to witness the convincing effect upon Francisco. But I spoke
to him in broken English, and told him the truth, and what they had enjoined me
to do. He started from his seat in a perfect rage, vowing that he would be
imposed upon no longer.”
The Mohave’s were angry; they had believed that Olive
wanted to stay with them. At that time, there was even talk of killing Olive.
Olive was eventually ransomed back to the U.S. Government
for a horse, some blankets and some beads. The payment the Mojave’s gave to the
tribe that originally kidnapped Olive was more than that. Had she depreciated
that much?
Olive’s adopted sister joined her to make sure that the
government did not renege on the deal. It took 20 days to reach Fort Yuma…Olive
was on the road again! They finally reached it on February 22, 1856.
They arrived at Fort Yuma in the traditional garb of the
tribe, Mohave skirts with bare chests. Olive washed her face and hair and was
loaned western clothes. She was welcomed with a cheering crowd. At this time,
Olive became aware that her brother Lorenzo had also survived the massacre.
Olive said her tattoos were done so she could be
identified as their property if she ever escaped, but all Mojave women were
tattooed the same way Olive was.
After the book came out, Olive was a celebrity and lived
her life under a microscope. Her friend said that Olive was very unhappy and
wanted to return to the tribe.
Olive traveled to New York to see Irataba, a Mohave
tribal dignitary. She said, “They met as friends.” In November 1865, Olive
married John B. Fairchild, a rancher, and banker in Rochester, New York. She adopted a little girl, Mamie. Throughout the
rest of her life, she suffered from depression and severe headaches. In a letter, she wrote some friends that the
depression was caused by the massacre of her family, and others she told it was
because she was wrenched away from the Mojave. She would try to cover her
facial tattoos with make or a veil, but it was not always easy for her to try
to have a normal life. In 1903, she died of a heart attack.
It seems that Olive was not unhappy in her life with the
Mohaves, but there is another story of a woman who was kidnapped with a vastly
different outcome.
After two weeks, the abducted group were left with a Native
American family, two men, three women, and seven children along with another
captive Samuel Leornardson, who had been with the family for a year and a half.
I take no political stance on the right or wrong of any
of the actions here, just two stories of a time far removed from us to give us
a little perspective.
