May Dodd

May is a young woman whose insatiable sexual appetite and unwillingness to follow the rules of social propriety have resulted in her father committing her to a mental institution with the diagnosis of "promiscuity." May is highly intelligent and witty, and is clear about her own beliefs, however unconventional. She has been well educated, but not felt loved enough by her ultra-wealthy family, and so decides on her own course in life, having two babies by a man who is not worthy of her, socially or morally. May is the writer of the personal journals that make up this story. As the story progresses, May changes in several ways, as she experiences life in the raw, living as a wild savage with her adopted Cheyenne family. Married to the tribal chief, Little Wolf, May's Cheyenne name is "Mesoke," meaning swallow.

Captain John Bourke

John Bourke is an...