Fergus, Jim. One thousand white women: the journals of May Dodd, a novel.

FERGUS, Jim. One thousand white women: the journals of May Dodd, a novel. Read by Laura Hicks. 12 cds. 15 hrs. BBC Audiobooks America. 1998/2006. 0-7927-3694-x. $110.95.Vinyl; plot, author, reader notes. SA

In 1875, May Dodd, a young white woman, travels to the western frontier to marry a Cheyenne warrior and bear his children. According to Ulysses S. Grant's secret Brides for Indians program, 1,000 such women were to be traded to the Cheyenne for 1,000 horses in order to hasten the assimilation of Native American peoples into the white world. Because May had children by a man of whom her parents disapproved, she was disowned and institutionalized as insane. Joining with other "insane" women, female criminals, and misfits of all types (including a betrayed Southern belle, an English ornithologist/ artist, a female adventurer/mule skinner, a sharp-tongued Swiss giantess, and a freed black slave), May travels West to meet her new husband, Chief Little Wolf. There is no evidence that the Brides for Indians program described in the story is based on fact. Fergus addresses some of the injustices, betrayals, and brutality that Native Americans met at the hands of the white world. Hicks, an off-Broadway and television actress, successfully personifies the many characters, giving each a distinctive voice and tone, including regional or ethnic accents (Southern, Swiss, English, backwoods). Native American words are also skillfully incorporated into the dialog as May learns the Cheyenne language. Susan Allison, Libn. (retired), Lewiston, ME

S--Recommended for senior high school students.

A--Recommended for advanced students and adults. This code will help librarians and teachers working in high schools where there are honors and advanced placement students. This also will help extend KLIATT's usefulness in public libraries.