You're listening to an I-Heart podcast.

And we continue with our American stories.

In 1851, Olive Oatman, who 13-year-old pioneer traveling West with her

Mormon family. Within a decade, she was a white Indian with a chin tattoo caught between cultures.

Here to tell the story is the executive editor of True West magazine, Bob Bowes Bell.

Let's take a listen.

I need to start this with a confession and a disclaimer.

Some of the things I'm about to tell you are going to be very hard to believe, okay?

And I must say that I had a hard time believing much of this research myself,

but here we go.

This is a tragic tale that all started with a bold and crazy philosophy.

In 1848, a young Latter-day Saints excommunicated prophet made a bold prediction that would impact a

beautiful young girl named Ollie Boltman.

James Collins Brewster was 24 years old, and he came up with this prophecy, and that was

that there was this place in the west called what you called land of

bishan and it was going to be the edenesque place that they would live happily ever after here's a

quote from him fear not for i am with you i will bring your people from the east and gather you in the west

the wilderness and the you in the west.

The wilderness and the wasteland will fall away and the desert will rejoice and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly and the glory of Bashan shall be given to it.

Now, the place he was predicting for the land of Bashan was actually at the confluence

of the Colorado River and the Healer River. Today that area is known as Yuma, Arizona.

And in the 1850s, this was probably one of the most godforsaken spots on earth.

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