Olive Ann Oatman (1837 – March 20, 1903) was a woman from
Illinois whose family was killed in 1851, when she was fourteen, in present-day
Arizona by a Native American tribe, possibly the Tolkepayas (Western Yavapai);
they captured and enslaved her and her sister and later sold them to the Mohave
people. After several years with the Mohave, during which her sister died of
hunger, she returned to white society, five years after being carried off. In
subsequent years, the tale of Oatman came to be retold with dramatic license in
the press, in her own "memoir" and speeches, novels, plays, movies
and poetry. The story resonated in the media of the time and long afterward,
partly owing to the prominent blue tattooing of Oatman's face by the Mohave.
Much of what actually occurred during her time with the Native Americans
remains unknown.
In 1857, a pastor named Royal B. Stratton wrote a book about
the Oatman girls titled Life Among the Indians. The book sold 30,000 copies, a
best-seller for that era. Royalties from the book paid for Oatman and her
brother Lorenzo's college education at the University of the Pacific. She went
on the lecture circuit to help promote the book. In November 1865, Oatman married cattleman John B.
Fairchild. Though it was rumored that she died in an asylum in New York in
1877, she actually went to live with Fairchild in Sherman, Texas, where they
adopted a baby girl, Mamie.
