She is notable for surviving a gruesome attack on her family, “the Oatman Massacre” by south-western Native Americans who, according to historian Brian McGinty, were likely Tolkepaya, of the Yavapai, in what is now Arizona.

Further, Brewster also claimed his visions allowed him to know “directions to the Mormons’ true ‘gathering place.’” The Saints “would build their ‘Zion’ at the confluence of the Gila and Colorado rivers, at a place Esdras referred to variously as the ‘Land of Bashan …’”[1] Believing that they were immigrating to a divine country, the Oatmans set off from Illinois to Arizona on August 9th, 1850.

As the family continued to make their way towards Bashan they faced multiple run-ins with local Native nations, dwindling supplies, and were now alone because they had decided to separate from the group who had joined them in leaving Brewster.

According to English professor Margot Mifflin, “The Oatman massacre was evidently inspired by the Yavapai's’ typical late winter hardship, exacerbated by the previous year's bone-cracking drought.”[3] Another possible reason for the attack was that because of the harsh climate Southwestern natives faced many tribes practiced kidnapping as a form of family replacement.

Olive claims that she and Mary Ann refused to state which tribe they preferred to reside with, and that the children in the village wept when the girls departed to live with the Mojave.

[3] In Olive Oatman's narrative of her and Mary Ann's experiences, co-written with Methodist minister Royal Stratton, she highlights her unhappiness as well as a deep desire to escape.

Historian Brian McGinty suggests that Olive's complaints and negative reflections need to be read within the context of the tales of horror inflicted on other settlers common to similar literature of the time.

According to military commander Amiel Weeks Whipple, he and a group of his men had been in the area in February and March 1854 to survey a railroad route, and the sisters had not communicated with them.

[1] It is unknown exactly how long Mary Ann resided with the Mojave before her tragic death, but historian Brian McGinty argues that she died after three to four years from starvation during a famine.

Historian Stephanie Wampler writes, “When Mary Ann was sick, the chief's wife made sure that Olive was allowed to sit with her sister.