“The Blue Tattoo: The Life of Olive Oatman”
by Margot Mifflin (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2009)
Review by Linda Long-Van Brocklyn
Sometime in 1851, the Oatman family, Mormans from Illinois, were following their dreams of finding Zion in an idyllic region called Bashan, a part of the Colorado-Gila Rivers basin. The journey was ill-fated from the start. By the time the group reached Maricopa Wells in today's Arizona, they were exhausted, and all but the Oatman family opted to stay for at least a few weeks to recover. The Oatmans, led by father Royce, pushed on.
Within a week, both parents and three of their six children would be dead after a massacre. The eldest son was seriously injured and left for dead. The Yavapai Indians, who had killed the family, abducted the two middle daughters Olive and Mary Ann. The girls remained with the tribe until the Yavapais sold them to the Mohaves a year later. Mary Ann died of an unknown illness exacerbated by famine while with the Mohaves; Olive lived with this tribe for four years before they returned her to the white world when the US Army ransomed her and threatened war. During her time with the Mohave, Olive was tattooed on her chin. The tattoo was series of short and long bars in blue ink. Precise and neat, the marks remained long after her repatriation as an indelible mark of her life in captivity.
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