The White, Indian Woman: Olive Oatman and Her Double Identity Through Indian Captivity Narratives, Marked Body, and Public Performance

Abstract

This thesis analyzes the figure of Olive Oatman, a young white girl taken captive in 1851 by the Yavapai tribe and, later, rescued by the Mohave tribe, where she was adopted and tattooed, eventually being released, and brought back to her community of origin in 1856. The work follows the experience of captivity and post-captivity of the protagonist of the story, from the moment of her capture, with a digression about her life before captivity, until her death and the legacy she left in America’s literary and historical tradition, as well as in American society and culture. The work develops into three main chapters, each of them dedicated to a specific period of Olive Oatman’s life and a topic associated with it. The first chapter focuses on Olive Oatman’s captivity among Indians, and the literary product of this experience, the Indian captivity narrative Captivity of the Oatman Girls (1857), by Royal Byron Stratton, which will be compared with two other Indian captivity narratives, Mary Rowlandson’s The Soveraignty and Goodness of God (1682), and Hannah Dustan’s Indian captivity narratives written by Cotton Mather in his Dux Faemina Facti (1702) and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Duston Family (1836). The second chapter follows Olive Oatman’s return to her community of origin and the issues concerning her reintegration into white, colonial America. The chapter highlights the topics of transculturation between two different cultures, the marked chin of the protagonist and the meanings behind them, and, ultimately, the association and disassociation of Olive Oatman regarding her double identity as both an Indian and white, colonial woman. The third chapter is centered on the life of Olive Oatman as a public figure, involved in the promotional campaign of Captivity of the Oatman Girls, and, later, as a public lecturer throughout the nation to recount her story and publicly show her tattooed chin, along with her definitive withdrawal from public life, marriage, and motherhood. The chapter focuses on the topic of Olive Oatman’s involvement in the phenomenon of freak shows as a performer and, at the same time, a performance, and her legacy in American literature and history, and as a social and cultural figure as well, in particular in the realm of feminism and feminist discourse in 19th century America.