Oatman, Olive Ann.
Title
Oatman, Olive Ann.
Description
In Stratton, B. B. Captivity of the Oatman girls: being an interesting narrative of life among the Apache and Mohave Indians, (New York, 1858), frontispiece., More illustrations depicting Oatman appear in Stratton, B. B. Captivity of the Oatman girls (New York, 1858), plates opposite p. 85, p. 259, p. 272; p. 119, p. 133, p. 155, p. 195, p. 229., Olive Oatman lived as a captive among the Apache and Mohave Indians for five years, following the murder of her family., "The chief's wife then bade us go out upon the yard, and told us that the physicians were going to put marks on our faces. It was with much difficulty that we could understand, however, at first, what was their design. We soon, however, by the motions accompanying the commands of the wife of the chief, came to understand that they were going to tatoo our faces. We had seen them do this to some of their female children, and we had often conversed with each other about expressing the hope that we should be spared from receiving their marks upon us. I ventured to plead with them for a few moments that they would not put those ugly marks upon our faces. But it was in vain. To all our expostulations they only replied in substance that they knew why we objected to it; that we expected to return to the whites, and we would be ashamed of it then; but that it was their resolution we should never return, and that as we belonged to them we should wear their ‘Ki-e-chook.' They said further, that if we should get away, or if some other tribes should steal us, they would by this means know us. They then pricked the skin in small regular rows on our chins with a very sharp stick, until they bled freely. They then dipped these same sticks in the juice of a certain week that grew on the banks of the river, and then in the powder of a blue stone that was to be found in low water, in some places along the bed of the stream, (the stone they first burned until it would pulverize easy, and in burning it turned nearly black,) and pricked this fine powder into these lacerated parts of the face. The process was somewhat painful, though it pained us more for two or three days after than at the time of its being done. They told us this could never be taken from the face, and that they had given us a different mark from the one worn by their own females, as we saw, but the same with which they marked all their own captives, and that they could claim us in whatever tribe they might find us"--P.182-183., Waist-length portrait of Miss Olive Oatman, wearing necklace, with facial tattoos.
Date
[1858?]