Olive Oatman’s Real-Life Horror Story 

THat was very well done and with great sensitivity towards Olive. This is no a sensationalistic video, meant to inflame/excite people. It's a historical accounting. Well done.

Such a very sad story. Of course, most of us have at least seen photos of Olive Oatman, but many like myself, never knew the entire story. It's no wonder, that she had such a horrific time mentally, as she grew older. This was a really amazing piece of history, and so well told. Thank you so very much for filling in the rest of her story.

Reminds me of the book Ride the Wind, by Lucia St. Clair-Robson. She wrote the story about a girl named Cynthia Ann Parker, and her family. Most of her family was massacred, save for a few family members. She grew up with the Comanche, and married the future leader of her tribe. It's based on a true story. It's a really good book.

Olive was very pretty. Such a sad story. Hope she is at peace.

I read the story last year . Very thought provoking. You told it beautifully.

"The first scholarly biography of Olive Oatman, The Blue Tattoo: The Life of Olive Oatman (2009), debunks a number of myths that have circulated about her over the past century and a half."

Intriguing story. A strong and unhappy woman. I wonder what happened to the tribes. Thanks for this video and fantastic narration.

Been to the town of Oatman, bought the book about her story. Amazing.

Had she been allowed to remain with the natice americans im sure she would have lived a happy amd fulfilled life

This is so awesome as I live in Buckeye and this is not to far from where you are describing! Small world.

Fabulous story. However tragic, what really stands out is the kindness of the rescuers from the other tribe and the willingness of these people to part with much valued items. Horses, blankets, etc. They valued her life. I enjoyed this historical account as it had redemptive qualities.

Amazing, this is all based on facts not made up fantasy. True west magazine has articles on her. Thanks for not stretching truth for a story.

I loved this story. I didn’t love what happened to this family, but I like how it was wrote, and how this person narrated it. Keep them coming!!

Thanks so much... over 20 years ago I went to Oatman, AZ it was east of where I lived in a vacation home in AZ. I never new the story of the Oatman family. I wish I had. I clearly remember visiting there, an the sweet little burros that meandered thru the streets. It was a tiny, quaint little tourist attraction.

I am a distant cousin to some of Olive Oatman's relatives. I would need to subscribe to ancestry to figure out exactly how this is so.

8 minutes in you show a photo of Alfred L. Kroeber. In the photo he is standing next to Ishi. The story of Ishi is fascinating for those that are unfamiliar with it. At least two books were written about him.

I had no idea about this story. Thanks for sharing!

Very touching and sad.

Sad but really interesting. Well done! Thanks for sharing.

She was buried in the West Hill Cemetery Sherman, Grayson County, Texas. Sherman is about an hour's drive north of Dallas. The cemetery is near the intersection of hwy 56 and I-75.

What a gift it must have been to be accepted by those Native Americans. Kinda like Dances with Wolves….. Such a Beautiful People ❤

I had heard of her but this filled in details. Truthfully l am disappointed that she turned on the people who saved her. If her book had portrayed that part of her life accurately it would have been just as interesting, but it would also have had heart. It seems even back then people enjoyed the fruits of victimhood. I wonder if she really did have children. Sad if she did, and abandoned them so completely.

An overall good presentation but a few corrections, The Oatman family did not invade Yavapai Territory. This area was within the friendly Pima-Maricopa domain. The Yavapai that attacked them was a raiding party 65 miles from their village. According to Lieutenant Whipple, who in 1849, was sent to study the Mohave tribe, he reported that the tattoos on a triable woman's chin was the sign of a married woman.

Especially at her young age She was a victim of severe abuse and trauma… that overshadowed her entire life… We will never know the absolute truth of what and why things happened the way they did… Maybe if she didn’t go back to the white society the whites would have attacked the tribe… If she had kids she knew if she too k them with they would have been treated exceptionally badly… I am sure her mind was extremely vulnerable as her heart due to so much grief and she was probably seriously influenced to turn against her captors in order to be restored to the white community. As a white woman I have been treated very badly for my companionship with Indians… treated badly by whites and that was still going on till even this current decade. If we don’t walk in someone else’s moccassins we can never really know.

Great story. Please do one on Cynthia Ann Parker and Nocona. Their son Quanah Parker was the last Comanche war chief.

Thank you for this video.

We have a similar story in our family. This video was well done, fair and compassionate.

Heard this story before with not a real ending. She had a daughter and happiness in the end. Thank you. ❤

Thank you 💖🙏

A lot of the pre-1880 pioneers were so full of arrogance that they basically killed themselves. They were going into uncharted lands, full of hostile people, and no amount of ammo would let them hold out.

I have heard this story from, Faces Of The Forgotten! Thank you for the post! ✌🏼😊

Truly fascinating.

Fanny Kelley wrote a book about her captivity. There is a video here where someone reads the entire book.

Great narrator!

So sad. I feel for the tribe-family that did all they could for her,despite the possible consequences. 😢

Thank you so much for her story, never heard of her 👍

I eard this story about six months ago on another channel. I was amazed to find out the meaning of oatman town. Only knew about the Burro's out there that are a tourist attraction. I appreciate getting to know the historic layer of the town.

She should not have in good conscience bite the hand that fed her by denying that the Indian family treated her well & accepted her as their own & saved her by trading 2 of their precious horses for her & her sister freedom, perhaps that is why she found no emotional peace through her betrayal of their kindness. Even her husband’s wealth couldn’t buy her the peace she craved perhaps because she could not retract to the public she was held against her will by the Indian tribe cos of her guilty conscience later

So beautifully and respectfully done. And I love the way you say book. (buk? beuk?)

The tattoo on Ms Olivia's face was to show her elevated status as a doctor for her adopted people.

I have read this before and other books on the Indian tribes like Massacre, and Slave of the Sioux, very harrowing. I would have liked Olive Oatman to eventually go back to the tribe, but now it didn't happen that way. Thanks for the video.

Years ago a read a book called Walks Far Women. It was about a white child captured by Native Americans, excellent book. Plus the book about the life of Cynthia Ann Parker, Quannah Parker’s mother, also very good reading.

How sad.

Character portrayed in the streaming tv series in the beginning of 2010s HELL ON WHEELS

Some of The “movie clips” in this video are actually shots of the Kevin Costner movie, “Dances with Wolves”.

This was fascinating! Thank you for sharing.

Great story....

Heartbreaking

"Hell on wheels" has a similar character

Why were scenes from "Dances With Wolves" shown. The Sioux obviously were.not Mojave. The information was good but the.footage shown tainted it.

Did Olive's brother ever marry and have children? The question of whether Olive had a native american family could possibly be resolved with dna testing if he had.

What a story. This could be put into a serie or a great movie with Martin Scorcese or another good director. People all over the world would gain knowledge of life stages.

What a tragedy. It is interesting though, that when this was done to a white woman there was shock, horror, disbelief, but when the same things were done to millions of enslaved Africans during the Transatlantic Slave Trade (who were never reunited with their families and ended up on a different continent), some people still say slavery 'wasn't that bad'.

She should have stayed with her adoptive family...the people who loved her

Has there been a movie made about her life?

Olive should have been granted and given her own rights to stay with whoever she choose since she was held by the Mojave people and treated kindly, instead of bringing her back to western society. Trauma such as this does have a lasting impact on children many years later. BUT … women in those days were NOT ALLOWED NOR GIVEN the right to choose anything, even who they should marry…this was all done by family members who wanted to their daughters to marry who they thought would take care of them, stay home and raise babies…another form of servitude, and many times woman were terrified, beaten and forced into sexual violence regardless of how old they were…age 14 was the normal age to get your daughter married off so there was less to feed and to clothe them…or even for selfish reasons, money, trade goods, etc. The reason I know this…MY OWN GRANDMOTHER in the early 1900s. This is one reason women wanted the right to vote and formed the Suffrage Movement in the 1920s. They wanted their voices heard and the right to choose. They wanted to choose their own candidates instead of choosing those by their husbands/men (even afterwards, women were told to vote the way men did). My mother was in this group for the right to vote, she fought for it. From what I see of today’s textbooks, they do NOT teach enough of history and only color-coat the surface, but not explain it properly the reasons nor the whys or even how it happened. I’m glad I grew up and was given the education i had, learning more about history and humanity’s past than what I seem to be seeing in today’s educational world of technological progress. Remembering the past is to trying to understand and doing better tomorrow, and towards the future. 👍🤔🦬

what happened to her sons ?? Surely she tried to trace them or they revealed identity of their mother? Any body know ??

There is an interesting episode on the series: The Ghost Inside my Child that shows the reincarnation of Olive Oatman,new name Olivia with memories of her past life as Olive.

Wow! I didn't know she went to UOP!

Horrible what the natives did to them.

🤔 you seem to be using a lot from Dances with Wolves”!

How do we know this is the true story ? Did she retract the things she said about the Mojave’s?

One account I read was when she was rescued the soldiers took her to Fort Yuma in her native dress as they didn't have women's clothing on them reportedly. She was shockingly dressed as a Moabe woman, stripped naked from the waist up, wearing only a skirt. Her breasts bared and her face tattooed with blue ink, wearing wild wind whept hair. She looked every bit as a native Moabe.

I'm surprised he did not mention the fact that there is a town in Arizona called "Oatman Arizona" It is a really cool place

I hope that someday someone does a story on Hannah Dustin who was also kidnapped by the Indians on the east coast. She was with hostile Indians and she escaped. With scalps and a boy.

Hope you got Kevin Costner’s permission to use his daughters video from Dances with Wolves” as the little girl running away from Indians

What people will do for a better life!

Love your home 🏡 absolutely gorgeous. Congratulations to you all. You have spectacular ideas on decorating.

They used Olive's story as an inspiration for a character on the TV show Hell On Wheels. They even reproduced her tattoo perfectly, although the character's story is somewhat different in the show. I remember in the 80's reading my grandmother's romance novels; there was a trend of historical romances with Indian braves marrying white women, and the women integrating into the culture.

Stratten was a liar and a charlatan. He needed to be dealt with by the police.

I’m really surprised that Olive would turn her back on the Mojave ppl who protected & loved Olive &her sister. At first she told the truth of how the Mojave rescued the two from an abusive tribe. - but later, the author of her harrowing ordeal convinced her to retract the truth w/ lies. He used money & sadly she succumbed to to it.

Why couldn't the whites leave Olive be? She had made a life by that time and was happy. It should have been her choice. Lorenzo could have just visited her. What a sad story. RIP people. RIP Olive. RIP all.

After growing up with an intense religious seeking and voyaging and volatile family-depending on divine guidance, patriarchy and strong maybe harsh leadership…an established group with patterns would be a stabilizing force.

The lies she told about her Movavi family, probably played a big part in her depression. She would not have been safe among Anglo-Saxons, had she told the truth, about how civilized and loving, her Native family was, and she knew this.

Help me understand … on her public speaking tour, was she telling the false stories that Stratton made up? Even though she was treated well in captivity?

What is the name of this narrator? Please give him credit in the description.

Olive is the real live Eva from Hell on Wheels

They lied about there book, shame on her, after that mojave people, cared for her.the whole story is sad im glad she worked with the orphans

Oatman!

I always ask myself what language they they speak.

Poor Olive, and her poor adoptive family. If there's an afterlife, I hope they're together again in a land of plenty.

Do they have permission to use Dances With Wolves footage?

Hell on Wheels or Dances with Wolves

The story of Topeka would be interesting.

Get the book "The Blue Tattoo"

Surely fetching water and food was what Indian women did all the time , so maybe it wasn't that different.

He destroyed every copy of the book he could find, however he didnt destroy all the books, but he did a good enough job that its now classed as very, very rare and if you ever find a first edition of this book it will knock you back several thousand pounds to buy a copy. Although thankfully it has been reprinted many times throughout the years so you can get a copy easy enough !! But if you do want to get a true first edition and you happen to have £2000 - £8000 spare you can get one, there are 3 copies for sale that i know of 😃 although if i had that kind of money spare, id be getting a first edition of watership down instead, lol

Too bad her father did not heed the warning

Who's here because of Hell on Wheels?

Bit sad she turned against the people who had welcomed her and kept her alive. There was so much racism about at that time, though so perhaps understandable.

what happened tk them ? the tribe

Great upload. I dislike this character.

Your use of movie clips showing tribes other than Apache and pioneers of another era shows a lack of understanding. Please do more thorough research!

😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊

sure unlike Utah not

Is there Any evidence to show that the Mohavi tribe treated Olive well and NOT like a slave ?? She wouldn’t have turned on the tribe had they treated her well, surely?? Maybe she was afraid to come forward for her own sake and that of her sisters when the white man visited the tribe?

An opportunistic pastor-take as old as America

I wonder if she was tormented by telling lies about the people who were good to her, as well.

She prolly would’ve had a better life if she hadn’t lied 😣😢 the Mojave did NOT deserve that reputation. Stuff like this sucks so bad. Think how differently the world could’ve turned out if ppl hadn’t been so fearful and hostile towards the Indians! 🥺😭 they were such beautiful people….. I wish the truth had come out before her death. What a shame.

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