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  • The Blue Tattoo: The Life of Olive Oatman

  • Women in the West, Book 1
  • Written by: Margot Mifflin
  • Narrated by: Kaipo Schwab
  • Length: 6 hrs and 47 mins
  • 2.7 out of 5 stars (3 ratings)

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The Blue Tattoo: The Life of Olive Oatman cover art

The Blue Tattoo: The Life of Olive Oatman

Written by: Margot Mifflin
Narrated by: Kaipo Schwab
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Publisher's Summary

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
Historical Women Americas Mormon History
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What the critics say

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

What listeners say about The Blue Tattoo: The Life of Olive Oatman

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Profile Image for Newmarcy

A Canadian link.

Very interesting. Nearly at the end my home town was discussed. That was a surprise and I learned something new about it. A Canadian connection.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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Profile Image for Mary

Disappointing

I was disappointed with this book, perhaps I expected a ‘story’ but it was more like a documentary and the narrator was boring, I had difficult finishing it.

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