page_title: Olive Oatman
section_title: Oatman massacre
hierarchical_section_title: Olive Oatman / Oatman massacre
caption_attribution_description: English: The 1851 Oatman Family Massacre site on Oatman Flats in Dateland, Az.
context_page_description: Olive Ann Oatman was a woman born in Illinois. In 1851, while traveling from Illinois to California with a company of Mormon Brewsterites, the family was attacked by a small group from a Native American tribe. Though she identified them as Apache, they were most likely Tolkepayas. They clubbed many to death, left brother Lorenzo for dead, and enslaved Olive and her younger sister, Mary Ann. The two were captive for one year and then traded to the Mohave people. While Lorenzo exhaustively attempted to recruit governmental help in searching for them, Mary Ann died from starvation and Olive spent four years with the Mohave.
  Five years after the attack, she was repatriated into American society. The story of the Oatman Massacre began to be retold with dramatic license in the press, as well as in her own memoir and speeches. Novels, plays, movies, and poetry were inspired, which resonated in the media of the time and long afterward. She had become an oddity in 1860s America, partly owing to the prominent blue tattooing of her face by the Mohave, making her the first known white woman with Native tattoo on record.
context_section_description: Royce and Mary Ann Oatman had seven children.  Mary Ann was also pregnant with their eighth child during their journey from Illinois to the Gila River.  The Oatman children ranged in age from 17-years-old to 1-year-old, with Lucy Oatman being the oldest. On the Oatmans' fourth day out from Maricopa Wells, they were approached by a group of Native Americans who were asking for tobacco and food. Due to the lack of supplies, Royce Oatman was hesitant to share too much with the small party of Yavapais.  They became irate at his stinginess. During the encounter, the Yavapais attacked the Oatman family.  The Yavapais clubbed the family to death.  All were killed except for three of the children: Lorenzo, age 15 (who was left for dead), Olive, age 14, and Mary Ann, age 7, who were taken to be slaves for the Yavapais.
  After the attack, Lorenzo awoke to find his parents and siblings dead, but he saw no sign of little Mary Ann and Olive. Lorenzo attempted the hazardous trek to find help.  He eventually reached a settlement, where his wounds were treated. Lorenzo rejoined the emigrant train, and three days later returned to the bodies of his slain family. In a detailed retelling which was reprinted in newspapers over the decades, he said, "We buried the bodies of father, mother and babe in one common grave." The men had no way of digging proper graves in the volcanic rocky soil, so they gathered the bodies together and formed a cairn over them. It has been said the remains were reburied several times and finally moved to the river for re-interment by early Arizona colonizer Charles Poston.  Lorenzo Oatman became determined to never give up the search for his only surviving siblings.
caption: The Oatman Family Massacre site.
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