Unfortunately, this was not what I was expecting. I did not realize when I requested this title that it was part of a series, and as such a direct continuation of previous books which I had not read. It seems that the narrative starts where the previous book must have left off, meaning I felt like I opened a book to the middle and started reading.

I was also confused by the introduction, in which Molly Standing Bear goes to JW Dodd’s offices to give him journals for his magazine, and they have an entire conversation. Reading this and without prior knowledge of the former books, I thought I might be reading nonfiction. It was only when I checked Goodreads and saw this was book three, and read reviews for it and One Thousand White Women that I realized my mistake. I will not be finishing this story, as I have no interest in reading an alternative history of what might have happened if 1,000 white women were given to Native American tribes to help “assimilate” them. I’d much rather read nonfiction or actual historical fiction of this time period, and this qualifies as neither.

However, if you have read the first two books and enjoyed them, or been intrigued, I’m sure this would be a book you’d want to pick up.

Having read all three books in the “One Thousand White Women” series, I found this last one to be the weakest. I’m sure it would have been better reading for me if I had just recently read the first two in the series. As it was, I spent the first part of the novel trying to recall who was who and remember the sequence of events.

As in the previous novels, Molly and May are the central characters and the story centers around the journals they kept during their time living as Indians. In this book, there was more of a supernatural element running through their lives.

There were many goodbyes and reunions throughout the book and at times I felt it was a bit redundant. Also the characters each told stories of some of the same events, but really with nothing new added.

I did like the details about the cultures of the different tribes and the games they played amongst each other—somewhat like the Native American Olympics.

Near the end of the book, the topic of missing Native American women and children is discussed. The lack of attention given this is appalling, as were the numbers of those unaccounted for. I would love to see Jim Fergus write a story about Molly Standing Bear and her efforts to find these women and children and bring their abusers to justice.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for allowing me to read an advance copy. I’m happy to give my honest review.

3.5 stars. Strongheart is the third book in a trilogy by Jim Fergus about the fictional story of a group of women who were “given” to Native American tribes as brides in an attempt to help “civilize” them. I read the first book in the series, but not the second. I’m not sure if I really missed much because I feel that book two was recounted here over and over. At least the big overarching themes, and it seems that book two focuses on different women who are only briefly mentioned in this book.

The premise itself is interesting. For the most part, by book three, the women in the story have assimilated themselves into tribal life and are doing the opposite of what the program’s outcome was designed to do. Anyway, this book is written as both a dual timeline between two of these women who are journaling their experiences, and the present with their descendants both on and off the reservations, one of whom is a magazine editor who is publishing these journals. Got that? Four points of view: two in the present, two in the past. Two named Molly: one in the past, one in the present.

The journals themselves are written by two different women, one named Molly, and one named May. I had a hard time keeping track of which one was which, especially when they would both write about the same event. Plus, in the present day, their descendants are named after them. The author must like names that start with the letter M.

Overall, the story was good, less raping and abuse than the first novel. I did have to push the “I believe” button on these women having journals and pencils and then hauling them around, and then “gifting” them to each other to hold on to. I think at the end of this book, one woman had 4 women’s journals. If you read the first book and enjoyed it, read this one. Oh, but it did end rather abruptly. Still unfinished stories from the past, and unanswered question from the present so don’t be surprised if there are more books.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publishers, and the author for an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I was very much looking forward to this read as I enjoy learning about Native American life in the 1800's. While I appreciated the acknowledgement of the strong women during that challenging era, I was disappointed overall. The multiple time frames were handled in a confusing manner, and the characters were difficult to keep track of. The book just rambled and never really drew me in.

Others have given this book 5 star ratings, which proves how subjective reading is.

My thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Griffin for the opportunity to read an ARC of this novel which will be published on 4/6/21. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I had read One Thousand White Women 20 years ago and loved it. I loved the alternative history angle it took. The idea that a proposal was actually floated to trade white women for horses so the natives could better assimilate was fascinating to me. Of course, such an outlandish proposal was never acted upon by the government of the United States. However, in Jim Fergus’s book, the government took the Cheyenne up on their proposal sending them women from prisons and insane asylums to fulfil their part of the bargain. When I discovered earlier this year that it was to become a trilogy, I was intrigued. I immediately order the second book, written 20 years after the first volume, and I requested the third from Netgalley*, as it had yet to be published.

I decided to re-read One Thousand White Women since it had been so long since I had read it. What I found upon the re-reading was not the sympathetic book that recalled the terrible deeds done to the Native Americans although that was surely the intent of the book. I found instead a book littered with blatantly racist descriptions of the Cheyenne and other native tribes, their culture and practices. Repeated descriptions that included words like savage, pagan, demonic and more left me astounded that I could have ever recommended this book to others being an enrolled member of a Native American tribe myself. I decided to read the other two since One Thousand White Women was written in the 1990’s, Vengeance of Mothers was written in 2017 and Strongheart in 2019. I was anxious to see if Fergus’s writing had evolved with society’s awareness of the use of these racist terms.

This brings us to my review of Strongheart: The Last Journals of May Dodd and Molly McGill. This is the third book in the trilogy and splits its time between more journals of May Dodd and Molly McGill and the current day story of two of their descendants. It will be difficult to give a synopsis of this story without spoilers. What I will say Is that it was often repetitive due to the overlapping events in May and Molly’s journals although not as much as The Vengeance of Mothers. I also felt there were several timeline errors that I hope they will catch before it is published since I was reading an ARC provided by Netgalley.

There has been “talk” in literary circles about whether white authors should delve into and write about the experiences of people of color. How can they write about a culture of which they are not a part of? Can they write about the situations and plights of people of color empathetically? I have no answers to these questions but I do have some observations about this author and this trilogy. First of all, I could not find any reference or acknowledgement by Fergus’s that he talked to any enrolled member of the Cheyenne Nation for his references. There were no acknowledgments in my copy of One Thousand White Women. There was a bibliography or a “for further reading” section in The Vengeance of Mother’sbut that is not the same as a face to face conversation with someone from the tribe. Since my copy of Strongheart was an ARC, acknowledgments were not included. I have no idea if the ceremonies and traditions he writes about in all three are authentic or not. I do believe it is important that if you, as a white author, choose to write about people of color, you should take grave care to be exact in depicting traditions, teachings and the history of the peoples you write about, especially in matters of the mystical or religious beliefs. I have no way of knowing if the things Fergus writes about are authentic or even well-researched which I found very problematic.
Secondly, while racist descriptions and stereotypes were less in this book than the first, they were still apparent. Descriptors of savage and pagan were still used as well as using words like “Mongolian features”, high cheekbones, red skin and prominent noses to describe the physical features of the natives. The offensive term “squaw” was used so frequently it was impossible for me to keep track.

One positive that Mr. Fergus did include was mention of the disproportionate numbers murdered and missing indigenous women when compared to white women and other women of color. This is an important and overlooked issue and I applaud its inclusion in this book.
In conclusion, I believe that Mr. Fergus did not use the utmost care in writing, as a white man, about the Native Americans. Racist language and lack of sources given greatly hindered my ability to enjoy this book. This ARC was provided by Netgalley in return for an honest review.

Strongheart, by Jim Ferguson, is the last book in the trilogy One Thousand White Women: The Lost Journals Of May Dodd and Molly McGill. This book has left me devastated. I am in a funk because I will not be reading about these amazing white women and the Indians they formed bonds with anymore. They all touched my heart forever.

The first book in the trilogy, One Thousand White Women, came out in 1999 and the second book,The Vengeance of Mothers, came out in 2017 and I as I was reading Strongheart I remembered every single character as if I read about them yesterday. This is very surprising for me because I have a hard time recalling a book after I have read it. This just shows how powerful this series is and the impression it left on me.

The story is based on fact, it is about Little Wolf, a Cheyenne Indian Chief offering President Grant 1,000 horses in exchange for 1,000 white women. At the end of the trilogy you find out why the Indian Chief and the president made this trade. I learned so much about the Indians and their feelings as to why they feel the white man stole their land. We should all teach our daughters to be as strong, courageous, fierce and powerful as these women. They are truly unforgettable. Each book in the series is as good as the first. I recommend reading all three in the order they were written.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. The book will be out April 6, 2021, make sure to read it. You won’t be disappointed.

While I enjoyed this book for the most part I was lost in a lot of it also. I believe if I would have known and had time to read the first three I would have enjoyed it way more. It was hard to keep all the characters separated and not confusing them. I hate when this happens with a book that I could have truly enjoyed so much.

I love historical books and as a rule will not request them if there are previous books that said book makes references too. What these women went through was a hard life and what happened to the Indians in our world was unexceptionable. I wanted so bad to enjoy this book. I'm hoping to find time to read the first two books and then reread this one. That may make it easier to follow and know what is going on.

Thank you to #NetGalley, #JimFergus, #StMartinsPress for this ARC. This is my own thoughts about this book.

I can't in good consciousness give it a bad star rating but can't give it five stars either. Yet. So 3/5 and I recommend you read the first two books before this one.

As I was reading this Jim Fergus western trilogy,I felt like I was a young girl back at the movies on a Sunday afternoon watching a really good western movie. The trilogy started out with the first book titled One Thousand White Women which told the story of one thousand white women who signed up to go out west to meet Native American men for purpose of marrying them. In return, the the government would be give one thousand horses in exchange for the women. Book two was The Vengeance of Mothers and was also very good and carried on from book one. I enjoyed book three as it explained in more detail what had really happened and tied up the loose ends of the story lines. I think a reader will get a lot more of of this book if they have read the first two book in this trilogy.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of this very interesting book in exchange for an honest review.

I first read One Thousand White Women and if I had a suggestion, I would suggest you do too. This one refers a lot to the characters from the previous book and I felt it helped to understand the story. I absolutely loved the One Thousand book but whenever you read the next in a series you never know if the sequels can measure up. Unfortunately, I didn’t think this one kept up my expectations.
Do not get me wrong, to me, it is a solid 5-star review. I enjoyed both of these tremendously. I felt I learned a lot about the life and times of living as an Indian and I felt the historical research was excellent. I did get a bit confused about the characters, they weaved in and out of the story and sometimes I couldn’t figure out if they were alive or if they were ghosts and the name changes also caused a bit of angst but all and all, I will be picking up the second one to finish out the saga.
I recommend if you enjoy historical fiction in the late 1800’s.
I want to thank St Martin’s Press along with NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read an ARC. Coming in with 5*****

Adapt or Perish

This is a story from journal's written by two white women sent to be brides to the Cheyenne Indians. Mary Dodd and Molly McGill. They write during their travels with the Indians and when they are separated and must survive on their own . The trials they face and how they survived on the land with skills learned. How they finally make their way back to their tribe after the soldiers burn their village.

It is written as if they were actually there. If you didn't know it was fiction you would swear it was a non-fiction book. The story is written from both the view of the white and the Indian side of these two women. How they assimilated to life with the Cheyenne and grew to love their lives and their husbands and children, but also how they often hungered for the white way of life. They were women with one foot in each world.

It did have a lot of historical content as it was a fiction based on actual events in the west during this time. The way the Indians lived, the different languages they spoke and how they set up and tore down camp. The games and the dances they played. How they killed game and used every bit of the animal for some use with no waste. The different roles between the men and women and how the white Indian women changed those roles. The tales they told and how they believed.

I did enjoy reading it as it was quite interesting. I would recommend it.

Thanks to Jim Fergus, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review an advanced copy. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

3.0 stars

I received a copy of Strongheart: The Lost Journals of May Dodd and Molly McGill
(One Thousand White Women #3) from NetGalley for an honest review. I wish to thank NetGalley, St. Martin's Griffin, and Jim Fergus for the opportunity to read this book.

This book is the final book in a trilogy, but I would recommend reading the two prior books in the series before reading this one. The publishing timeframe of the trilogy was very stretched out and it was hard to remember characters and plotlines. I read the first book about six years ago and then the second book about three years ago, so it wasn't easy to pick it all up again.

I loved the premise of the trilogy, but I had a total ambivalence about it by the end. At times, I completely lost interest in the book and just wanted to finish it for the series. There were still many unanswered questions and if there is a fourth book, I am not sure that I will read it.

It is a lukewarm recommendation. Be advised that there are triggering aspects to this book.

This final installment of the One Thousand White Women series is enjoyable for the nostalgia it brings to the reader. The majority of the book seems to be dedicated to rehashing all of the events and characters that were in the first two books in the series. Fergus also decided to take the reader on two new fantastical journeys, one with May Dodd and the other with Molly McGill and her Stronghearts. Through each journey the reader explores the strength of women amidst the prejudices against them. Gender and racial discrimination are major themes in this novel. As with the other books in the series, Fergus offers a glimpse into the decline of the prowess of the Native American inhabitants of the plains and how they continue to be abused and largely unseen in the eyes of the American government. This book enticed the reader to put more faith in the mysticism surrounding Native Americans. It lacked the intensity of the other books in the series but it was still very enjoyable.

This one was a VERY slow start, but I persevered. However, I just couldn’t get into the book, despite the amazing premise and my deep love of the subject matter and history in general. It may have been the juxtaposition of the narrators, perhaps, but this one was(forgive me!) somewhat boring. Still, the attention to detail was impressive, and I could definitely see the potential for greatness given a bit of judicious editing.

Didn't realize this was part of a series until I started reading. Somethings seemed familiar...like names and places and etc. I feel like I read book 1 a million years ago? The summary seemed familiar. I know I didn't read book 2 at all. Mmmm. BUT - this did okay as a standalone.

In 1873, a Cheyenne chief offers President Grant a chance to exchange one thousand horses for one thousand white women in order to marry them with warriors and try and create peace. These women are recruited by force and sent to the Cheyenne tribe. They gradually integrate and become beloved members of the tribe. However, after the battle of Little Big Horn, the peace is destroyed. Some female survivors, including some of the white women, decide to take up arms and fight back. In this final volume, we will follow our girls as they face the struggles of being women, Native American oppression, and the struggle to keep a culture alive.

This was all done in diary/journal formatting. Which I did like for the most part. We got to see three different viewpoints. Mary and Molly McGill who are two women who were given to the Cheyenne in the 1800s. We also follow an ancestor also named Molly in modern day who is fighting a battle to save all the Native women who vanish in droves each year. It was a lot to keep track of so it is a slow read (at least for me).

There is a lot going on and this is a book I do not recommend speed-reading through. The timeline is not straight all the time. We do some jumping around so you really have to pay attention. I'll admit that I had to backtrack a couple of times.

Besides for the jumping timeline, I really enjoyed this novel. It made me want to read the past books (like I said...I swore I read book 1 years and years ago). This did get dark but the West at this time was a dark place especially for women and Natives. Soooo dang sad. But yes - just a warning because we do have some graphic scenes.

The ending had me in tears. Not in a bad way necessarily, but I was said to say goodbye. These women are so strong!!! I really admired them and their strength. Maybe we'll get more diaries in the future ;)

I adored the 2 Mollys and May. I also adored Chance and Hawk. Hawk and Chance both have my hearts!

Overall, I really did like this book. It did well as a standalone, but I think I would recommend going back to book 1 first. I want more from these women! I'll give this 4 stars.

I was very excited to see the next installment in the One Thousand White Women series, having very much enjoyed the previous two titles in the series. However, Strongheart just wasn't for me. I don't know if it was the change in the fictitious editor affecting the overall tone, or just my personal mood at the time. I made it through just over half of the novel before giving up. There simply wasn't enough "story" for me, just a continuous rehashing of events in the most verbose manner possible. I am, nonetheless, grateful to NetGalley and St. Martin's Griffin for the opportunity to read the ARC.

I didn't realize this was the third book in a series. That's completely my mistake, however, the author does a great job of going us information and backstory at the beginning of this book, which I really appreciated. I'm definitely going to go back and read the first two in this series because I'd like to experience the entire story!

I liked this book, I enjoyed the characters and where the story took me. I felt at times, that the story was a bit disjointed as we moved through the journal entries, but it didn't deter me from continuing to read the story.

overall, I thought this was an enjoyable book that historical fiction fans will enjoy.

I was provided a gifted copy of this book for free. I am leaving my review voluntarily.

I absolutely loved this book and am so grateful to NetGalley for providing me an uncorrected digital galley .This is the third in a trilogy that started with One Thousand White Women. Each book can technically be read as a stand alone, though the story will make a lot more sense if you've read the first two. Strong heart is a story about women who were married to Indians during the annihilation of the Indians by the U.S. government during the 19th century. It showcases their struggles, relationships, and hardships. Loved it!

I must confess that this is the third book in a series of which I have not read the first two, which may or may not impact my opinion. I found the book a bit confusing and difficult to get into as it seemed that there were similar names for different people throughout. I felt like the writing was more like that of a newspaper than a novel and at times there was a lot of he said this, then she said this, that ran on and on as though someone was just reporting the facts. All that being said, the story was good and the facts about life in that time were very interesting. If the writing had flowed more and had been easier to follow I would have rated the book much higher. Thank you to NetGalley for this advance read copy.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this advance copy. My opinions are given freely and entirely my own.

Being a fan of Jim Fergus’ writing I was excited to receive this advance copy of Strongheart. As I started to read it, something wasn’t connecting for me— it had been too long ago that I read the second book in the One Thousand White Women series, The Vengeance of Mothers. To get the most out of this series, you will want to read them in order. I listened to the audio of the second book (which was excellent) which made all the difference. The story thread between the three books is essential to getting the most out of the trilogy, so I don’t recommend Strongheart as a stand-alone read.

The thee-part fictional series, told in diary-entry form, brings a secret “Brides for Indians” program into being as a way for the that population to assimilate into the changing American landscape. As a saga goes, there are times that it moved slower than I liked and found myself skimming which didn’t diminish the story, but I think more editing would have been of benefit.

As a trilogy, the series is excellent in its entirety. Fergus develops these characters so well from the start that you feel invested in them. I did find that the audio reading of the second book helped immensely to give each character a voice, and separating the many characters in my head. A character map would certainly be a helpful aid with how this stretches over the three books.

Although the brides program is fiction, using that literary vehicle to tell this story presents a nice way to give perspective from that side of the story. Thankfully not a lot of time is wasted with the US Government side that much of history already recounts.

If you like a historical fiction saga, this is a great trilogy.

Strongheart is the final chapter of the western trilogy that Jim Fergus began in 1998 with One Thousand White Women. In that first novel, President Grant and Cheyenne Nation chief Little Wolf agreed on an exchange of one thousand white women for one thousand of the tribe’s best horses. But don’t be mislead by that one-horse-for-one-woman trade because the entire trilogy is a strong pro-feminism statement about the power of women to adapt to new challenges while at the same time influencing the dominant culture in positive ways.

All three books are based upon diaries and journals kept by some of the most influential women who joined the tribe: May Dodd, who was released from a Chicago mental institution so that she could be part of the initial trade; Irish twins Meggie and Susie Kelly; and Mollie McGill, whose words are so large a part of Strongheart. As a result, the reader experiences life with the Cherokee through the eyes of some of the strongest women imaginable exactly as they experienced it on a daily basis.

Contemporary characters in Strongheart include Molly Standing Bear, descendent of one of the diarists, and JW Dodd, son of the man who first published a portion of the diaries in a Chicago magazine called Chitown when JW was just a boy. Molly and JW shared a mutual crush as pre-teens, and because of that, Molly has decided now to share more of the historical diaries that have come into her possession so that JW, as the magazine’s current editor, can publish them as his father did before him.

Strongheart picks up the story shortly after the Battle of the Little Bighorn, a battle that would prove to be the short-lived immediate victory that would ultimately doom forever the way of life the tribes so precariously held on to. By this point in the story, the women have successfully married into the tribe and have children of their own. Sadly, however, many of the mothers and their children have been killed even before the Little Bighorn fight by surprise attacks on their villages by American soldiers. Now, the tribes have broken into smaller groups all in search of a place to safely make it through the coming winter.

Despite the odds against them, a group of white warrior women and the Cherokee women who trained them, is determined to take up the fight for survival alongside their men. Others in the tribe make a different decision for themselves and their children. This is their story.

Bottom Line: The One Thousand White Women trilogy is about a group of courageous women who learn that they are more equal in the world created by “savages” than they ever will be in the “civilized” world from which they came - and some of them are not ready to give up that life even if they have to die to keep it. The story is rightly sympathetic to the plight of the women and their new families, but it shares that sympathy, too, with the often-bewildered boy soldiers who oppose them. Note, also, that there is much here that those interested in the sociology of America’s indigenous people during this tragic era are certain to appreciate.