One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd

Gather initial thoughts and broad opinions about the book.

1. The novel begins and ends with May Dodd’s descendants discovering her journals. What effect did this framing narrative have on your reading experience? Did knowing the journals were a historical record preserved by the Cheyenne change how you approached May’s personal story?

2. The guide categorizes this book as a revisionist Western, a genre that challenges traditional myths of the American frontier. How did you feel One Thousand White Women worked within this genre? If you’ve read other similar works, like Thomas Berger’s Little Big Man (1964), how did this story compare?

3. What single scene or image from the novel has stayed with you the most, and what do you think makes it so powerful or unforgettable?

Encourage readers to connect the book’s themes and characters with their personal experiences.

1. May, Phemie, Helen, and the other women join the BFI program to escape different forms of confinement. Their decision is a desperate gamble for freedom. Think about a time in your life when you’ve had to make a bold or risky choice to create a better future for yourself. What does this story suggest about the difficult compromises we sometimes make for the sake of autonomy?

2. Phemie’s experience of slavery informs her fierce independence, leading her to declare, “I did not come here to be made a slave again” (93). Has there ever been a moment when a past experience gave you the strength to stand up for yourself in a new situation? What can we learn from Phemie about defining our own roles, regardless of others’ expectations?

3. The women, all outcasts from their own society, form an unlikely but powerful community. Think about a time when you found an unexpected sense of belonging in a diverse group of people. What connected you?

4. Martha Atwood undergoes a profound transformation from a timid, fearful woman into a capable and confident member of the Cheyenne community. Have you ever experienced or witnessed a notable character transformation, and what inspired it?

5. The book vividly portrays the experience of adapting to a culture with completely different customs and values. Thinking about your own experiences, what part of the women’s adjustment to Cheyenne life felt the most challenging or relatable?

Examine the book’s relevance to societal issues, historical events, or cultural themes.

1. The fictional “Brides for Indians” program is an extension of real 19th-century US government assimilation policies. The novel shows this experiment failing catastrophically due to the government’s hypocrisy and cultural ignorance. What lessons does this story offer about the dangers of creating policies for a community without respecting or understanding its values? In what ways might these lessons still be relevant today?

2. May is institutionalized for behavior deemed “promiscuous” and for defying her father’s wishes. How does the novel critique the ways 19th-century society used medical and moral diagnoses to control women’s lives and autonomy? Do you see any modern parallels to these methods of social control?

3. What does the stark contrast between the Cheyenne’s subsistence hunting of buffalo and the wasteful slaughter from the train reveal about the different values of the two societies? How does the novel use each culture’s relationship with the natural world to question the definition of “civilization”?

Dive into the book’s structure, characters, themes, and symbolism.

1. The story is told entirely through May’s journals, giving us an intimate but limited perspective. How did this epistolary format shape your connection to May and your understanding of the events? How does using a personal journal as the narrative frame compare to other novels you may have read that employ a similar device?

2. What is the significance of Captain Bourke’s character in the novel? How does he embody the contradictions of a “civilized” society that is both educated and brutally destructive?

3. Fergus systematically dismantles the binary between “savage” and “civilized” societies. A key example is the juxtaposition of two atrocities: the Cheyenne warriors’ raid for the hands of Shoshone babies and the US Army’s massacre of the peaceful Cheyenne village. How does the novel use these parallel events to challenge the reader’s ideas about barbarism?

4. How does clothing and appearance chart the women’s character transformations throughout the story?

5. Little Wolf’s proposal to trade horses for wives is presented as a logical plan rooted in Cheyenne tradition, yet it horrifies the US delegation. What does this initial moment of cultural incomprehension establish about the central themes of the novel?

6. The birth of May’s daughter, Wren, is a crucial turning point. How do the different interpretations of her birth by the Cheyenne and by May herself expose the unbridgeable gap between the two worldviews and ultimately invert the BFI program’s assimilationist goals?

Encourage imaginative and creative connections to the book.

1. May’s journals are preserved for over a century as a sacred object within the Cheyenne’s Sweet Medicine bundle. If you were asked to create a time capsule or a “sacred bundle” to represent the most important stories of your own family or community, what items would you choose to include and why?

2. Imagine you were tasked with adapting this story for a miniseries. From which character’s perspective, besides May’s, would you want to add scenes to give the audience a richer understanding of the events? For example, what might we see if we followed Phemie, Little Wolf, or Captain Bourke more closely?

3. The Epilogue ends with the journals finally in the hands of May’s great-grandson, J. Will Dodd. What do you imagine he does with them next?