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 died.^[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]