May Dodd

The incredible destiny of May Dodd, the heroine of the One Thousand White Women trilogy.

1875 : Due to her non-conformist lifestyle, May Dodd, a young woman from the Chicago aristocracy, is separated from her children before being locked up in an asylum by her family. Her only way out: join a convoy of white women enlisted by the U.S. government to marry Cheyenne Indian warriors. Becoming the wife of Chief Little Wolf, May takes up the cause of her tribe in the face of the white man’s treachery.

1877: The end of the plains Indian wars finds May leaving the Cheyenne camp for Chicago, where she hopes to be reunited with her children. Accompanying her on this long, dangerous journey are her lover, the cowboy Chance Hadley; a young Cheyenne, Horse Boy; and May’s lifelong companion, Martha Atwood. After a series of harrowing adventures, this little troop finally arrives in the metropolis, where they are forced to adapt to a radically different way of life.

For May Dodd, and her reunited family, the adventure ends in 1889 in France: first in Paris where they perform in the Universal Exhibition with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, and then in the wild horse country of the French Camargue region—in circumstances that no one could have predicted.

With May, Jim Fergus retraces the captivating journey of an extraordinary heroine. We find here all the empathy and sense of romance that made the grand success of the One Thousand White Women trilogy.
​