The Oatman Massacre.

• Author: Kreyche, Gerald F.
• Position: Book Review

THE OATMAN MASSACRE

BY BRIAN McGINTY UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA PRESS 2005, 258 PAGES, $27.95

There have been many massacres in the history of the American West, but few have captured the imagination of the public as that of the one that occurred in Arizona in 1851. There, approximately 120 miles east of the confluence of the Gila and Colorado rivers, the family of Roy Oatman, traveling alone, was attacked by southwestern Indians. The father was a cantankerous man seeking Bashan, a kind of promised land that a Mormonapostate preached. The usual claim was that Apaches were responsible for the killing, but this scholarly book argues against the certainty of that.

The Indians attacked the family, clubbing to death the father, the pregnant mother, and four of the children. They kidnapped two of the girls and left another boy as dead; although badly beaten, he eventually recovered. These were starvation days in the region as a drought had been prevalent and the younger of the two captured girls, only eight years old, eventually succumbed to malnutrition. Olive, her 13-year-old sister, survived and, after a year, was traded from one tribe to another, living approximately four years with the Mohave Indians. As was customary with that tribe, she was tattooed on the chin and arms. Shortly after the massacre, Olive's brother, the badly beaten Lorenzo, returned to a settlement to tell the horrible story. Eventually, the authorities at Fort Yuma secured Olive's release. (She was traded for a white horse.)

Olive learned to speak Mohave and was helpful in negotiations to gain her freedom. Interestingly, the women of the tribe did not want her to leave, while some of the braves wanted her killed. At the fort, she lived for a while with a laundress and then with a soldier's family. Meanwhile, Lorenzo learned of her release, as did a cousin in Oregon, and she was brought to the latter's home in the Rogue River Valley. There was considerable controversy about living with them since they were Methodists and Olive was brought up as a Mormon, although it was a renegade group. Religion was important as the U.S. was undergoing the "Second...