The Blue Tattoo: The Life of Olive Oatman (Women in the West)

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I thought this was a fascinating read about Olive Oatman. Her family decided to travel westward after being counseled to do so by a self-proclaimed prophet, James Brewster. The religion was called Brewsterism and was a spin-off of Mormonism. There were a lot of politics surrounding religion during this timeframe, which influenced a lot of people’s decisions.

An important and engrossing book, which reveals as much about the appetites and formulas of emerging mass culture as it does about tribal cultures in nineteenth-century America."— Times Literary Supplement Ransome, F. L. (August 1, 1923). "Geology of the Oatman gold district, Arizona". doi: 10.3133/b743– via pubs.er.usgs.gov. {{ cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= ( help)And so she became the “woman with the blue tattoo.” The Victorian dress they immediately tried to cover her with couldn’t hide the tattoo on her chin. However, what not everyone knew was that her arms and legs also had striking tattoos. But they never saw the light of the Colorado sun again. The Wild West and Tribal Quest". The Ghost Inside My Child. Season 1. Episode 3. 30 August 2014. Lifetime. The trials that Olive and her younger sister, Mary Ann, went through at the hands of the Yavapai were so sad. I cannot imagine the terror they endured, as well as the physical challenges. They were adopted by the Espanesay and the Aespaneo families. Welcomed by a land full of beauty, wheat fields, and poplar forests. A place where they could sleep every night in the company of a friendly people. The character of Eva Oakes, portrayed by Robin McLeavy in the AMC television series Hell on Wheels is very loosely based on Oatman. [29] Outside of being captured by a group of Native Americans, bearing the distinctive blue chin tattoo, and having been raised Mormon, there are very few similarities between the character of Eva and the actual life of Oatman. [34]

This was a very interesting and compelling telling of the life of Olive Oatman. In the early 1850s, Olive was a pioneer girl heading west with her family on a wagon train with a splinter group of Mormons called the “Brewsterites”, a group headed by James Colin Brewster, who broke off from Joseph Smith's church and who thought Eden was waiting for them at the mouth of the Colorado River. (I was brought up in the Mormon Church in Utah and I had never heard of this group). Her father was anxious to get to the "promised land" and did not heed the advice of others to stay together. He pushed on with his family and got stranded resulting in a massacre by the Yavapai Indians in Northern Mexico. Olive's family were all killed with the exception of her and her younger sister, Mary Ann and one brother, Lorenzo, who managed to escape. Olive and Mary Ann were taken into captivity and made slaves by the Yavapais. After one year, they were traded to the Mohave tribe where they were well cared for. But being assimilated into the tribe meant getting tattooed on the chin, a practice all women in the tribe underwent. Mary Ann died of an illness after two years but Olive ended up being ransomed and returned to white civilization after five years with the Mohave. There's no element in this story that is not absolutely fascinating. From the beginnings of Olive's family as Mormons in Illinois, to their break with the church to follow another self proclaimed boy prophet, John Brewster (who was in direct competition with Joseph Smith), and the rift that it caused in Mary Ann Oatman's family (Olive's mother). Mary Ann's parents are going west with Brigham Young and were rightly concerned about Royce Oatman's (Olive's father) allegiance to John Brewster. Royce argues with his in-laws, even "prophesying" that if Mary Ann's parents go West with Brigham Young, that they will meet with disaster and die horrible deaths........Although Oatman’s story on its own is full of intrigue, Mifflin adeptly uses her tale as a springboard for larger issues of the time.”— Feminist Review Varney, Philip (1994). Arizona Ghost Towns and Mining Camps. Arizona Department of Transportation, State of Arizona. p.1905. ISBN 978-0-916179-44-1. But hey, if geometric patterns are more up your alley, blue won’t disappoint you either. With blue as your color of choice, your geometric body part tattoo can be as intricate or minimalistic as you’d like, all the while making a bold statement.