One Thousand White Women The Journals of May Dodd [Paperback]

One Thousand White Womenis the story of May Dodd and a colorful assembly of pioneer women who, under the auspices of the U.S. government, travel to the western prairies in 1875 to intermarry among the Cheyenne Indians. The covert and controversial Brides for Indians program, launched by the administration of Ulysses S. Grant, is intended to help assimilate the Indians into the white man's world. Toward that end May and her friends embark upon the adventure of their lifetime. Jim Fergus has so vividly depicted the American West that it is as if these diaries are a capsule in time.

1. The Cheyenne are often referred to as savages, even by the women who voluntarily travel to live among them. During this time period, what is it that makes the Cheyenne savage, and the white civilized ? Are there ways in which you would judge the Cheyenne in the novel more civilized than the whites? Are there ways in which you consider them less civilized?
2. Were you surprised that Little Wolf, the Cheyenne chief, was so aware and seemingly resigned to the fact that his culture was doomed? How does this differ from our attitudes and assumptions as U.S. citizens?
3. Did you admire May Dodd's rebelliousness? Did you find it shocking that she would leave her children behind? Do you consider her a sympathetic character?
4. Did you find it believable that the U.S. government might undertake a covert project such as the Brides for Indians program? Do you think the author had more modern history in mind when he developed this idea?
5. Were you surprised by elements of the Cheyenne culture as depicted here?
6. Do you think that the Cheyenne culture was respectful of women? Consider what might seem contradictory elementsfor example, it is a matrilineal society, and yet warriors could have multiple wives.
7. Compare what the Cheyenne culture valued in women compared with what white culture at the time valued in women. Contrast Captain Bourke's fianc?, Misl3!