Title: Strongheart by Jim Fergus
The Lost Journals of May Dodd and Molly McGill
One Thousand White Women Trilogy Book Three
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Genre: Historical, Contemporary, Fiction
Length: 400 pages
Book Rating: C
Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley
Summary:
Strongheart is the final installment to the One Thousand White Women trilogy, a novel about fierce women who are full of heart and the power to survive.
In 1873, a Cheyenne chief offers President Grant the opportunity to exchange one thousand horses for one thousand white women, in order to marry them with his warriors and create a lasting peace. These women, “recruited” by force in the penitentiaries and asylums of the country, gradually integrate the way of life of the Cheyenne, at the time when the great massacres of the tribes begin.
After the battle of Little Big Horn, some female survivors decide to take up arms against the United States, which has stolen from the Native Americans their lands, their way of life, their culture and their history. This ghost tribe of rebellious women will soon go underground to wage an implacable battle, which will continue from generation to generation.
In this final volume of the One Thousand White Women trilogy, Jim Fergus mixes with rare mastery the struggle of women and Native Americans in the face of oppression, from the end of the 19th century until today. With a vivid sense of the 19th century American West, Fergus paints portraits of women as strong as they are unforgettable.
Review:
Strongheart: The Lost Journals of May Dodd and Molly McGill by Jim Fergus is a bit of a mystical novel that is the third installment in the One Thousand White Women trilogy. This newest release can be read as a standalone but I recommend the previous novels for important backstory.
In this outing, Chicago magazine publisher JW Dodd returns to visit Molly Standing Bear on the reservation. They easily pick up where they left off and enjoy one another’s company. Molly is quite mysterious and she is very likable. She again gives the JW diaries written May Dodd and Molly McGill. These diary entries pick up where the second book in the trilogy, The Vengeance of Mothers, leaves off.
May Dodd, Molly McGill and the other white women were traded to Cheyenne in an effort to for lasting peace between Native Americans and the rest of the US. The diaries provide an in-depth look into their lives on the plains. These women are not only brave but they are a force to be reckoned with as they prove to be more than up to the task of adapting to their new lives.
This third addition to the series is interesting but a little repetitive. Although they endure many hardships and unimaginable loss, May, Molly and the others have close friendships and they are fiercely loyal. The plains are beautifully described and spring vibrantly to life. The storyline is interesting but some of the diary passages are sometimes a little too long. Molly Standing Bear brings attention to the many Native women who disappear each year and the local authorities’ shameful disinterest in solving their cases.
Strongheart: The Lost Journals of May Dodd and Molly McGill is an intriguing novel that wraps up the One Thousand White Women Trilogy. Old and new fans will enjoy this final look into the fates of these strong women who were traded to the Cheyenne in exchange for horses.
