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The Blue Tattoo: The Life of Olive Oatman
- Women in the West, Book 1
- Narrated by: Kaipo Schwab
- Length: 6 hrs and 47 mins
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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.
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- jo jo
- 10-09-18
2/3s of this book is about the BOOK, not Oatmen
The title should be "How the Book Came to Be". I am returning it. Writing and reading just average.
15 people found this helpful
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- R. Brown
- 06-07-18
Mispronunciations
So many mispronunciations in a book trying to be historically correct. Super distracting. Gila River, saguaro cactus, Quechan Indians, Cocopah Indians. Any school child in Yuma AZ could help you out. Please re-record.
28 people found this helpful
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- Jo Ellen
- 01-29-20
Need updated narrator
First, it is pronounced “H” ila river not Gila - other pronunciations are incorrect as well.
10 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 07-03-17
book overview
this book was very factually informative. I would have loved to hear more about Oliver's days with the Indian tribes
8 people found this helpful
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- Koni Bock
- 09-21-18
I loved the history
struggled to finish. the guy reading could put a person to sleep with his reading.
6 people found this helpful
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- Jonathan Love
- 05-21-16
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.
27 people found this helpful
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- S. Herr
- 12-27-17
Narrators and producers need to do their homework.
Any additional comments?
When reading a piece of western history, the narrators and producers need to do their homework and learn how to pronounce place names that aren't Anglo, the number of errors, particularly the mispronunciation of one of the key landmarks the Gila River (the "G" is pronounced like at "H") is incredibly distracting. There are also problems with saguaro cactus, mesa, some names of native tribes... It's a disappointing production.
18 people found this helpful
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- Cindy Nipper
- 02-02-17
Incredible story
This story attempts the filter through the facts and fiction of the true story of Olive Oatman! It is just incredible! Whether there is still fiction or if it's 100%, this story is heart wrenching endearing and fantastical! To hear that there were other slightly similar tales is also mind boggling! I especially love the reading of the actual letter at the end! Wonderful book that I highly recommend for readers and writers of the Old West, Native American History, American History and Historical Romance!
5 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 06-23-20
Became a tedious read
I was riveted in the beginning, but after Olive left the tribe that became her family, the author wandered off into writing copious amounts of what other people wrote about Olive and whether or not it was accurate. While I understand that some of this was necessary, the story of Olive's life faded behind all of this chatter. It became a rather tiresome read for me.
4 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 03-24-21
More about history than the girl
Disappointed the book didnt talk more about Olive. Once you get past the first few chapters it became more of a history lesson about those times.
3 people found this helpful
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- Annieism13
- 11-22-21
The narration ruined it.
This is a really interesting story ruined by the narration. It was hard to stay engaged with the voice narrating. I should have listened to the sample first and I wouldn’t have purchased it Disappointing as I think a different narrator would have made a difference.
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- Gillian Hogendyk
- 05-24-21
Fascinating story. Awful narration.
Well researched and interesting. Way too much jargon and commentary. For me very irritating narration. It's probably to do with the accent since I'm Australian.
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- Anonymous User
- 03-20-21
An interesting review and analysis of a complex life
Mifflin does an excellent job of presenting this compelling history with respect and admiration for the Mojave culture Olive was brought into, and sympathy for Olive in the dilemma she faces on her return to white culture.
Schwab’s reading is relaxing to listen to.
Overall very enjoyable and informative.
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- Mahara Steedman
- 11-14-20
💛
Great account and listen! The only issue relating to the performance was that in some of the latter chapters there were brief moments where the audio cut out and parts of and including sentences were missing followed by silence.
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- KarenG
- 05-21-16
More Olive please
I enjoyed this, but felt I still don't know enough about Olive Oatman. there was a lot of info but most was generic about Indian actions or specific about people that knew Olive. I guess I just want more of her.