The Blue Tattoo
The Life of Olive Oatman
Margot Mifflin
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Imprint: University of Nebraska Press
Published: 04/2009
Pages: 288
Subject: Biography and Autobiography
eBook ISBN: 9780803254350
DESCRIPTION
In 1851 Olive Oatman was a thirteen-year old pioneer traveling west
toward Zion, with her Mormon family. Within a decade, she was a
white Indian with a chin tattoo, caught between cultures. The Blue
Tattoo tells the harrowing story of this forgotten heroine of
frontier America. Orphaned when her family was brutally killed by
Yavapai Indians, Oatman lived as a slave to her captors for a year
before being traded to the Mohave, who tattooed her face and raised
her as their own. She was fully assimilated and perfectly happy
when, at nineteen, she was ransomed back to white society. She
became an instant celebrity, but the price of fame was high and the
pain of her ruptured childhood lasted a lifetime. Based on
historical records, including letters and diaries of Oatman's
friends and relatives, The Blue Tattoo is the first book to examine
her life from her childhood in Illinois—including the massacre, her
captivity, and her return to white society—to her later years as a
wealthy banker's wife in Texas. Oatman's story has since
become legend, inspiring artworks, fiction, film, radio plays, and
even an episode of Death Valley Days starring Ronald Reagan. Its
themes, from the perils of religious utopianism to the permeable
border between civilization and savagery, are deeply rooted in the
American psyche. Oatman's blue tattoo was a cultural symbol that
evoked both the imprint of her Mohave past and the lingering scars
of westward expansion. It also served as a reminder of her deepest
secret, fully explored here for the first time: she never wanted to
go home. Purchase the audio edition.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Margot Mifflin is an author and journalist who writes about women, art, and contemporary culture. The author of Bodies of Subversion: A Secret History of Women and Tattoo, she has written for many publications, including the New York Times, the New Yorker, Entertainment Weekly, the Believer, and Salon.com. Mifflin is a professor in the English Department of Lehman College of the City University of New York (CUNY) and directs the Arts and Culture program at CUNY's Graduate School of Journalism, where she also teaches.
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