Before & After: Olive Oatman

[Mike Serpa]

An unprincipled person drew on this CDV ruining her chin. I decided to restore it. She looks very beautiful now!

 

[DJenne]

Sorry to say Mike, but that is a real tattoo. Her family wagon train was captured by Indians and she and her sister were kidnapped, later sold and then tattooed. Her story is here.

 

[matthew mckeon]

I've seen that image in a couple of places. I believe there is a character on TV based on her appearance, anyway.

 

[Aussie Billy Sherman]

Lol I thought somehow she got mixed up with some New Zealand natives to get a tattoo like that. Looks like she went to the same parlour as mike Tyson

 

[donna]

I had never heard of her. Why would they put that tattoo on her. She was a lovely lady.

 

[matthew mckeon]

According to Wiki, her family was wiped out, and she and her sister were taken captive. She was then sold to the Mojave tribe. The tattoo is a sign of acceptance, and apparently she was considered a full tribal member. Similar tattoos were wore by married women of the tribe.

There is a lot of controversy about this, and Oatman changed her view of her experiences over time.

 

[donna]

There is book on Olive. It is "The Blue Tattoo: The Life of Olive Oatman" by Margot Mifflen. I think it is one I will buy.

I also found Memorial to Olive on Find A Grave.

Olive Ann Oatman Fairchild (1838-1903)

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=1855

In 1865 she married John Fairchild.

 

[John Hartwell]

The Captivity of the Oatman Girls, by R.B.Stratton, published in 1858, is free online at: https://archive.org/details/captivityofoatma00strarich

 

[RebYell64]

I've seen that image in a couple of places. I believe there is a character on TV based on her appearance, anyway.

My favorite television show, Hell on Wheels.

Eva

 

[Mike Serpa]

Yes, I know it is a real tattoo. This was meant as a joke. That's why I put a winky face at the end of the text.

 

[Reb]

Yes, I know it is a real tattoo. This was meant as a joke. That's why I put a winky face at the end of the text.

I find the joke to be tasteless and base. I fail to see any humor in a tragic story of murder, torture, and kidnapping,

 

[Mike Serpa]

I find the joke to be tasteless and base. I fail to see any humor in a tragic story of murder, torture, and kidnapping,

I fail to see any humor in a tragic story of murder, torture, and kidnapping, also. The joke was about a CDV not her life. At least one person has not heard of her. The original post is responsible for that. I hope many learn about her as I did and decry the inhumanities visited upon her at the hands of others.

 

[matthew mckeon]

Yes, I know it is a real tattoo. This was meant as a joke. That's why I put a winky face at the end of the text.

And we all got to be pedantic: my favorite activity!

 

[Nathanb1]

I was Olive during Homecoming Week. I've forgotten what day it was................but @pamc153PA can vouch for me. And people kept thinking I was the Hell on Wheels character. Whoopee.

If Mike educates us a bit, I'm all for it.

 

[pamc153PA]

I was Olive during Homecoming Week. I've forgotten what day it was................but @pamc153PA can vouch for me. And people kept thinking I was the Hell on Wheels character. Whoopee.

If Mike educates us a bit, I'm all for it.

Yup, she made a heck of an Olive.

 

[FarawayFriend]

Wasn't she the one that was married to a brave and had a child with him and then was recaptured by some Whites but could not adapt to her former lifestyle again? To me that was the real tragedy. I have read her story somewhere but maybe I mix it up with the story of Quanah Parker's mother...

 

[TinCan]

Faraway,
Your thinking of Cynthia Ann Parker I think.

 

[hanna260]

Yes, TinCan. I think that, that was a different woman FF was talking about. I have a book on Native American woman and I remember reading it, and getting to the section about captives- with Oatman describing the hardships she went through. I thought that Oatman was not too positive about her time with the Mohaves, especially in her memoirs. Wikipedia claims that when she spoke positively of her time as a captive, she may have been suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. Of course, I'm sure the real story may have been much more complicated than that.

 

[HardeeBoy]

.....and I got to brush up on Stockholm Syndrome, so I got THAT goin' for me.....which is nice.

 

[Karen Lips]

Wasn't she the one that was married to a brave and had a child with him and then was recaptured by some Whites but could not adapt to her former lifestyle again? To me that was the real tragedy. I have read her story somewhere but maybe I mix it up with the story of Quanah Parker's mother...

I think you are thinking about Cynthia Ann Parker.