The Blue Tattoo: The Life of Olive Oatman

Women in the West, Book 1

By: Margot Mifflin

Narrated by: Kaipo Schwab

In 1851 Olive Oatman was a 13-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 19, 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.

©2009 The Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska; postscript copyright 2011 by The Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska (P)2016 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Recommended for general readers as well as students and scholars." ( Library Journal)

Misunderstood Tatoo Re-Visted by a Great Historian

Margot Mifflin has sorted through the litany of speculative anecdotes about Olive Oatman's life before, during and after her captivity to bring the most accurate biography possible. Not only has she attempted to delineate fact from fiction, but she also addresses the plausible reasons for inaccuracy (some by Olive herself) and many of the perpetuated myths about this tattooed lady.

It's nice to have some legitimate historians reviewing the apocryphal biographies that have been allowed to pervade our knowledge of history. Modern media is a culprit of such violations (e.g., portrayal of a fictional character, but stealing Olive's tattoo and history in television) but isn't alone; Oatman's biographer took many liberties to better sell the story. As previously mentioned, numerous accounts attempted to frame the story to suit the narrative of the time (e.g., the American Indians were all savage brutes waiting to steal everyone's daughters and therefor must be annihilated).

It's actually quite ironic that Ms. Mifflin decries the provocateurs seeking to gain monetary advantage by selling this tale with falsehoods yet herself inaccurately uses the "Mormon" tagline description of Olive and her family. Ms. Mifflin describes in full detail the exact break between the Mormons in Illionois and the separated and Mormon unaffiliated Brewster company her family was traveling with when her family was slaughtered. She then tries to slander the Mormon faith by providing snippets of texts from the Book of Mormon and tacitly surmising that Mormons believed their ancient scriptures prophesied an "assimilation of Indians" that would result in their skin turning "white and exceedingly fair and delightsome." See what I did there Ms. Mifflin... not very fair is it. This is what garnered only a four star rating instead of your deserved five.

Although the narrator wasn't horrible, he did randomly emphasize words in every sentence; sometimes choosing multiple random words within the same sentence.

The Blue Tattoo

Interesting and deeply sad story of a captured child, having seen horrible things in her youth, she overcomes and tries her hand at a white life again. Albeit with a traditional Mojave tattoo on her chin.
The way the story is told is somewhat dry however, this book captures how she was used for her incredible story.

Fascinating

Great story with a mind toward being historically accurate. Can’t imagine what life must’ve been like for Olive, but the book helps us try. When’s the movie coming?!

An honest attempt to be accurate

The author stated many times that not much was known about Olive's time away from the whites, however she did a great job of presenting the likely theories and citing the reason(s) for each one. I find people to be far more credible and interesting when they do not attempt to disguise theories as facts.

Excellent synopsis of many versions

Very interesting story about the Oatman family. I appreciate the points made about some historic accounts being fabricated but I would have wanted less about guy who wrote original memoir and more about Olive herself.

Pronunciation is important!

I hated the way the reader pronounced some of the words! Gee-la for He-la (Gila). You-ka for yuck-ka (yucca). It really distracted from the story.
The story itself was less about Olive than the title suggests.
Overall - not a great book

Biased

I couldn't shake the sense this was just one more account of the great Oatman story infused with the author’s own world views, biases and assumptions.

Enjoyable

Enjoyable listen. Learned a lot. Appreciated identification of white supremacy, and how it impacted her and other’s navigation of the period

Compelling story - blah read

I wish that the author could have read her own work. For such a compelling story did Audible really need to hire this mechanical voice?

Inspiring story

Olive Oatman, despite childhood hardships and trauma, flourished and lived her life on her own terms. Representations and misrepresentations describe not only her life, but the times she lived in. An enthralling read.