Once upon a time, a leader of the Cheyenne nation met with Ulysses S Grant and proposed what to him seemed like a highly suitable idea for developing lasting peace between Indians and white people: as children belong to the tribe of their mother, let the US government give the Indians 1000 white women to marry into the Cheyenne nation. Their children will then automatically belong to the white tribe as well as being Indians, and peace will begin to be forged. Of course, the US government said no - but what if they didn't? What if a certain handful of white women were sent west to set up a peace-by-interbreeding programme? What if one of them were the highly literate May Dodd, unfairly incarcerated in an asylum by her posh family for running off to live with her working-class lover? What if she kept a journal of her time out west? This (entirely fictional) set of journals explores just that situation and does it wonderfully - the story is immediately engaging and I think the author balances very well the way these women might have felt in this scenario - the alienation and even repugnance at times with which the women would have viewed life among the Cheyenne, against the growing sense of place, sympathy and even love that would have developed. A super book.
No comments:
Post a Comment