Olive Ann Oatman (September 7, 1837March 21, 1903) was an American woman celebrated in her time for her captivity and later release by Native Americans in the Mojave Desert region when she was a teenager. She later lectured about her experiences. In 1850, while traveling from Illinois to California with a company of Brewsterites, her family was attacked by a small group from a Native American tribe. Though she identified them as Apache, they were most likely Tolkepayas (Western Yavapai). They clubbed many to death, left her brother Lorenzo for dead, and enslaved Olive and her younger sister Mary Ann, holding them captive as slaves for one year before they traded them 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 because of the prominent blue tattooing of her face by the Mohave, making her the first known white woman with Native tattoo on record. Much of what actually occurred during her time with the Native Americans remains unknown. Early life Oatman was born in La Harpe in Hancock County, Illinois. She was the daughter of Mary Ann (née Sperry) and Roys (aka Royce) Oatman. She had six siblings. In 1839, her parents left the Methodist church for the Mormon religion under Joseph Smith. When Smith was killed in 1844, Mary Ann and Roys Oatman did not follow Brigham Young, but instead chose to become Brewsterites, a dissident group of Mormons under the leadership of James C. Brewster. August 5, 1850, the Oatman family joined a wagon train led by Brewster from Independence, Missouri, to the border of Arizona and California. There, Brewster claimed was the "intended place of gathering" for the Mormons. The wagon train numbered between 85 and 93 people. Dissension caused the group to split near Santa Fe in New Mexico Territory with Brewster following the northern route. Royce Oatman and several other families chose the southern route via Socorro and Tucson. Near Socorro,