Olive Ann Oatman Fairchild

Olive Ann Oatman Fairchild. Olive Ann Fairchild, Indian captive and lecturer, daughter of Royse (Royce) and Mary Ann (Sperry) Oatman, was born in Illinois in September 1837 or 1839. In 1850 the family joined a wagon train bound for the part of the Colorado River now in southern California, but the train split several times until the Oatman's and their seven children were left to travel alone. On February 18, 1851, Apaches (some authorities say Yavapais) attacked them on the Gila River in Arizona. Olive and her sister Mary were captured, their brother Lorenzo left for dead, and the rest of the family massacred. The girls were held as slaves for a year at a village near the site of modern Congress, Arizona, then sold to a Mojave chief near Needles, California, after a march of several hundred miles. Olive and Mary's chins were marked with indelible blue cactus tattoos to proclaim their status as slaves, and they were forced to forage for their own food. In a subsequent year of drought, Mary died of starvation and abuse. Olive often feared death, for the Mojave's threatened her whenever whites were nearby or when the tribe went to war; they also made her watch other captives being tortured. In the winter of 1855-56, the army located her and began negotiations to free her. On February 28, 1856, wearing a bark skirt and able to speak only a little English, Olive was ransomed at Fort Yuma, Arizona, for a horse, blankets, and beads. There she was reunited with Lorenzo.