Help me. I just finished assisting my oldest child with her math homework. Math is not my strong suit. I knew that there would be a time in my children's lives when they would realize that their mother is not all knowing. That there are some things that mom doesn't have an immediate answer for....I should have anticipated it being their math homework. She's 8 by the way. Judge all you want. But in my defense she's in a gifted/talented academy and their math is more advanced! So that that we're both in tears I think I'll take a break and escape to this lovely book I've been reading.
A few days ago I started reading One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus. It's historical fiction written in journal format, kind of like These Is My Words by Nancy E Turner. I was initially intrigued because the whole premise of the book is based on a political conference that was held in 1874 between a Cheyenne Indian chief and President Ulysses S Grant in which the Indian chief asked the president for 1,000 white women to be given to the tribe. In Native American culture the child belongs to its mothers tribe and so in an effort to assimilate themselves into the expanding American culture the Cheyenne decided to get an "in" for the upcoming generation. Now that's the kind of history I'm talking about! Now historically they were denied and sent home but Jim Fergus writes the book like it really happened and May Dodd goes to live with the Indians.
I'm only about halfway through but I'm really enjoying the angle of the bride being taken to an unknown place. The Native American's are shown in a very complimentary light but the author also explores how foreign it all seems to her. Its about 400 pages so it feels like a hefty book but I'm actually breezing through it pretty quickly. However I did just realize that I haven't yet read my book club book for the month and my book club meets this Monday.....hmmm....decisions decisions. Well I'll keep you posted (ha!) on 1000 White Women and will also inform you on my book club book!
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