Do-Hum-Me

Do-Hum-Me (c. 1825–1843) was the daughter of the chief of the Sauk Native American tribe.[1][2] According to her gravestone, her father's name was Nan-Nouce-Push-Ee-Toe.[3] Some sources state that her mother died when Do-Hum-Me was seven years old, and Nan-Nouce-Push-Ee-Toe raised her with great love and affection.[4]

In 1843, she accompanied her father in a trip to Princeton, New Jersey for treaty negotiations. While there, she met and fell in love with a young member of the Iowa tribe named Cow-Hick-Kee.[2] They married in Philadelphia, and soon thereafter were employed by P. T. Barnum's American Museum in Manhattan, performing ceremonial Native American dances.[5][6]

A contemporary writer, Lydia Maria Child, wrote about Do-Hum-Me at length, and described Do-Hum-Me as "a very handsome woman, with a great deal of heart and happiness in her countenance".[2] Many authors wrote about her, and many referred to what may have been part of her stage name - "The Productive Pumpkin".[7][2]

Do-Hum-Me was instantly very popular, not merely for her performances, but also because onlookers were delighted by the devotion and open, loving tenderness between her and her young husband.[4][7] Unfortunately, within a mere four to six weeks of their marriage, Do-Hum-Me died, aged only 18, likely due to a communicable illness, such as influenza.[8][4] Lydia Maria Child blamed the death upon such factors as "sleeping by hot anthracite fires", followed by exposure to cold, wintry air, and then having to perform in poorly-ventilated, crowded indoor venues such as saloons and theatres.[2][9] Child noted that such conditions - and illnesses - tended to impact Indigenous people more severely than white people. Indeed, many of Do-Hum-Me's compatriots became ill at the same time she died, and a number of them also passed away.[9][4]

Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn donated a burial plot, and she was interred by her father and husband, with many observers remarking upon their obvious grief.[7][10][4] The poet Walt Whitman wrote about her grave.[1] Her grave monument featured a bas relief of the figure of a weeping Indigenous warrior, carved by the sculptor Robert E. Launitz, and was "one of the earliest carved statues for an American cemetery".[11] Her grave became the most well-known and most frequently-visited in the cemetery.[3] Another poet, Carlos D. Stuart, wrote a poem about her, entitled Dohummee.[10]

In 2005 her monument was restored with the effort of Isaac Feliciano, whose wife Rosa perished in the 9/11 attacks at the World Trade Center.

References

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  1. ^ a b The Oxford Handbook of Walt Whitman. Oxford University Press. 2024-01-17. ISBN 978-0-19-264778-8.
  2. ^ a b c d e Spires, Derrick R.; Roberts, Christina; Rezek, Joseph; Murison, Justine S.; Mielke, Laura L.; Looby, Christopher; Lazo, Rodrigo; Knight, Alisha; Hsu, Hsuan L. (2022-04-13). The Broadview Anthology of American Literature Volume B: 1820 to Reconstruction. Broadview Press. ISBN 978-1-77048-826-7.
  3. ^ a b The Pictorial National Library. William Simonds and Company. 1848.
  4. ^ a b c d e Cleaveland, Nehemiah (1847). Green-wood Illustrated. R. Martin.
  5. ^ Bold, Christine (2022). "Vaudeville Indians" on Global Circuits, 1880s-1930s. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-25705-2.
  6. ^ Benton, Joel (1891). Life of Hon. Phineas T. Barnum ... Edgewood Publishing Company.
  7. ^ a b c Willis, Nathaniel Parker (1845). Dashes at life with a free pencil. Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans.
  8. ^ Greiman, Jennifer (2011-01-03). Democracy's Spectacle: Sovereignty and Public Life in Antebellum American Writing. Fordham Univ Press. ISBN 978-0-8232-3101-0.
  9. ^ a b Child, Lydia Maria (2024-04-17). Letters From New-York: Second Series. BoD – Books on Demand. ISBN 978-3-385-12142-3.
  10. ^ a b Stuart, Carlos D. (1843). Ianthe: And Other Poems. C.L. Stickney.
  11. ^ N.Y.), Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York (2000). Art and the Empire City: New York, 1825-1861. Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 978-0-87099-957-4.
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