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Gowongo Mohawk (Go-Won-Go/Go-Wan-Go; August 11, 1860 - February 7, 1924)
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Gowongo Mohawk (Go-Won-Go/Go-Wan-Go; August 11, 1860 - February 7, 1924) was a Seneca playwright and actor. She was born in Gowanda, New York,[1] to father Ga-Na-Gua,[1] also known as Dr. Alan Mohawk,[2] a chief medicine man of the Seneca Nation, and mother Lydia, who was known as "The Angle" on the Cattaraugus Reservation.[1] Gowongo's stage name (Gowongo) translates to "I fear no one."[2] Her English name was Carrie A. Mohawk.[1] In an interview with the Liverpool Weekly Courier, she gave an English translation of her name as 'Majestic Palm', along with a signed photograph of herself.[3]
As a child she attended boarding school in Ohio, which she did not enjoy, and later attended university at the University of Ohio.[4][5] Before writing her first play, she acted with Louise Pomeroy and at the Windsor Theatre.[5]
Beginning her performing career in America, Gowongo's prestige as an actor and playwright translated across the Atlantic to the United Kingdom where she toured her work. She died in 1924 at the age of 63 and is buried in Edgewater Cemetery, New Jersey, with her husband Charles W. Charles, an army captain who served with General Custer.[2]
Wep-ton-no-mah, The Indian Mail Carrier
[edit]Gowongo's most famed work as a playwright, Wep-ton-no-Mah, The Indian Mail Carrier, sparked the interest of audiences and the general public across America and Britain.[6] Playing the role of Wep-ton-no-Mah, a Native American man, Gowongo troubled stereotypes of Indigeneity, race, gender, and sexuality while engaging in the contemporary urge to reimagine the frontier, as seen in the popular Buffalo Bill Wild West Shows, which she also performed in.[6] Wep-ton-no-mah, The Indian Mail Carrier was first performed in the UK in Liverpool in April 1893, and quickly became incredibly popular.[7] A copy of the script survives at the Library of Congress and has been digitized.[8]
Characters
[edit]Wep-ton-no-mah
[edit]The protagonist and eponymous 'mail carrier'. He is the son of Chief Ga-ne-gua, and described as the "noblest, bravest, most gentlemanly" of men.[9] Played by Gowongo Mohawk herself.
Chief Ga-ne-gua
[edit]Wep-ton-no-mah's father and chief of his tribe. Portrayed as a very wise and kindly man. Played by the real life Chief Ga-ne-gua.
Colonel Stockton
[edit]A rich man and local landowner who earnt his wealth through a career in the army. He has a good relationship with the local Native American tribe, and with his servants. Played by Gowongo Mohawks husband, Charles W. Charles.
Nellie Stockton
[edit]Colonel Stockton's daughter, and implied romantic interest to Wep-ton-no-mah.
Captain Franklin
[edit]The nephew of Colonel Stockton. A Captain in the army, he is continuously in need of money to fund his youthful exploits, and also because he's being blackmailed.
Spanish Joe
[edit]The villain of the story. A murderer, extortionist, and thief. He is introduced as a friend of Captain Franklin, regardless of what disguise he is wearing, but isn't a very good one. Played by George De Laclaire in the British tour
Sam, Matilda, and Garry
[edit]Servants of Colonel Stockton and Nellie. Sam and Matilda are played always by black actors, and speak in a form of AAVE. All three play comedic roles.
Wongy and Buckskin
[edit]Wep-ton-no-mah's beloved horses. The true heroes of the story. The two horses used in performances were trained by Gowongo Mohawk herself.[10]
Plot
[edit]The play begins with Captain Franklin and Spanish Joe arriving at Colonel Stockton's estate. Captain Franklin needs to ask his uncle for more money as he has run out and is being blackmailed because he did something bad that his superior cannot find out about. He also intends to introduce Joe, his friend, to his uncle and his family. Colonel Stockton refuses to give his nephew any more money at the suggestion of his servants, but quickly resolves to give him some the next time he asks
During a stampede. Wep-ton-no-mah saves Nellie Stockton's life, and is thus offered the job of mail carrier by Colonel Stockton.
Spanish Joe plots with Captain Franklin to kidnap Nellie, and marry her, but he is thwarted by Wep-ton-no-mah. Nellie has already professed that she is in love with him at this point, and jealousy makes Joe mad enough to plan to kill Wep-ton-no-mah. He shoots his gun, thinking it is aimed at Wep-ton-no-mah, but actually hits his father, Chief Ga-ne-gua, who dies in his stead. Wep-ton-no-mah swears vengeance on the man who killed his father, and Spanish Joe flees.
Several years later, Wep-ton-no-mah returns from chasing down bandits, and agrees - reluctantly - to finally take the job he was offered by Colonel Stockton. Around the same time, Spanish Joe returns, still planning to kill Wep-ton-no-mah. Before this however, he enters Colonel Stockton's house, disguised as another friend of Captain Franklin's, and attempts to steal some money from his desk. Wep-ton-no-mah stops him, but Spanish Joe is able to escape.
Wep-ton-no-mah has been given an important mail carrying assignment, and Spanish Joe's newest plan is to waylay him - taking advantage of Wep-ton-no-mah's trusting nature by poisoning his drink - steal the mail, and kill Wep-ton-no-mah. To begin with, this plan goes well. Wep-ton-no-mah is poisoned, and he gives the mail to his horse, Wongy, for safekeeping. Spanish Joe's accomplice has, however, switched sides, and so Garry and Sam (two of Colonel Stockton's servants) discover that Wep-ton-no-mah is in trouble and go to find him. Wongy fights off Spanish Joe who briefly runs away before he can be discovered, and Sam and Garry help Wep-ton-no-mah home. Later that evening, there is a final stand-off between Wep-ton-no-mah and Spanish Joe, featuring a fire on stage, multiple explosions and a knife fight at the end of which Spanish Joe is defeated.[11]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d Otis, Melissa (2017). "From Iroquoia to Broadway: The Careers of Carrie A. Mohawk and Esther Deer". Iroquoia. 3: 43.
- ^ a b c Hall, Douglas E. (2005). Edgewater. Edgewater Cultural & Historical Committee. Charleston SC: Arcadia Publishing. p. 119. ISBN 073853725X. OCLC 62781919. Retrieved March 10, 2020 – via Google Books.
- ^ "Miss Go-Won-Go Mohawk - Interviewed by a 'Courier' Commissioner". Liverpool Weekly Courier. April 15, 1893. p. 5.
- ^ "The Stage". Manchester Times. May 12, 1893. p. 5.
- ^ a b "Miss Majestic Palm; Her Play, Her Ponies, and Her Apache Bulldogs". Evening News. March 10, 1894. p. 1.
- ^ a b Rebhorn, Matthew (January 25, 2012). Pioneer performances: staging the frontier. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 6. ISBN 9780199751303. OCLC 722451355. Retrieved March 10, 2020 – via Google Books.
- ^ "The Theatres". The Liverpool Echo. April 11, 1893. p. 3.
- ^ "Wep-ton-no-mah : the Indian mail carrier: 1892". Retrieved December 10, 2023.
- ^ Mohawk, Gowongo (1893). Wep-ton-no-mah, The Indian Mail Carrier. p. 7.
- ^ "The Queen's Theatre". Birmingham Daily Post. January 29, 1895. p. 8.
- ^ Mohawk, Gowongo (1893). Wep-ton-no-mah, The Indian Mail Carrier. pp. 90–91.
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Overlooked No More: Go-won-go Mohawk, Trailblazing Indigenous Actress
In the 1880s, the only roles for Indigenous performers were laden with negative stereotypes. So Mohawk decided to write her own narratives.
This article is part of Overlooked, a series of obituaries about remarkable people whose deaths, beginning in 1851, went unreported in The Times.
For a long time, theatrical roles for Indigenous characters were laden with stereotypes: the savage, the tragic martyr, the helpless drunk. And it was rare in stories of any kind, on the page or on the stage, for an Indigenous character to have a starring role.
By the late 1880s, the actress Go-won-go Mohawk had had enough. “I grew tired of being cast in uncongenial roles,” like meek princesses or submissive women who were restrained in corsets, she told The Des Moines Register and Leader in 1910. So she decided to write her own roles, ultimately carving out a groundbreaking career in which she told stories onstage about Indigenous people as the heroes of their own lives. She also did it while performing as a man.
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Mohawk’s primary work was “Wep-ton-no-mah, the Indian Mail Carrier” (1892), which follows the title character, a young Indigenous man, as he saves a young white woman from a stampede, winning her heart and earning the respect of her family.
The woman’s father, a colonel, offers Wep-ton-no-mah a position as a mail carrier, which he initially turns down. “I could not start being under the control of anyone but the great Manitou,” Wep-ton-no-mah says, referring to the spiritual power of the Algonquians. “I want to be free–free–free like the birds, the eagles and deers — owning no master but one.”
Another man, Spanish Joe, plots to kidnap the woman, but when Wep-ton-no-mah thwarts his plan, Joe vows to kill him. But Joe accidentally kills Wep-ton-no-mah’s father, Ga-ne-gua, instead. Wep-ton-no-mah then takes the mail carrier position and later kills Spanish Joe in a knife fight.
The play presented themes of interracial coupling and Indigenous power and autonomy that were rare at the time.
Mohawk herself played Wep-ton-no-mah, riding horses, fighting and performing stage combat with knives. She was the powerful Indigenous woman in the role of the powerful man, the hero and not the villain or the victim.
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“I said to myself that I must have something free and wild that would fit with my own nature,” she said in 1910. “I wanted to ride and wrestle, and I thought, ‘Well, I can’t do that as a woman, I must act a man, or better, a boy.’”
Mohawk started touring the show in 1889, in vaudeville shows across the U.S. and Canada and in England. The accolades soon rolled in. “She acts with intelligence and has the repose of an expert,” The Brooklyn Daily Eagle wrote that year of her performance, although the reviewer found the play ordinary and questioned whether she was actually Indigenous.
“Miss Mohawk is a clever actress,” The New Haven Morning Journal and Courier wrote a few weeks later. “She came entirely unheralded, and has already proven that she possesses unusual dramatic talent.”
Records vary, but Mohawk is believed to have been born on Aug. 11, 1859. She was known by the English names Carolina, Carrie and Carolina A. at various times in her youth, and later permanently adopted her Indigenous name, Go-won-go, to remain connected to her heritage. She was born in upstate New York, either in the village of Gowanda or on the Cattaraugus Reservation of the Seneca Nation, according to the scholar Christine Bold’s 2022 book, “‘Vaudeville Indians’ on Global Circuits, 1880s-1930s.” There is also a historical marker on a former residence of hers in Greene, N.Y., that was placed in 1935.
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Carolina’s father, Allen Mohawk, who was known as Ga-ne-gua, practiced herbal medicine. He died in 1869. (She would name a character in “The Indian Mail Carrier” after him.) Her mother, Lydia Hale Mohawk, remarried, and Carolina entered a religious boarding school.
Her mother died when she was about 15, and a few years later she married James Rider, a Civil War veteran 13 years her senior. Marrying a white man enabled her to change her status in the eyes of the law from a ward of the state into someone who would be able to navigate the complex American political landscape more independently, said Christiana Molldrem Harkulich, a professor of theater, film and gender studies at Eastern Illinois University. Mohawk began looking into a career in acting. (Her husband was abusive, and she soon left him.)
The roles available to Indigenous people were limited and often depicted them in a negative light. Buffalo Bill’s Wild West traveling shows, for instance, showed Indigenous people attacking white settlers and exoticized their culture for entertainment purposes.
Mohawk wrote “Indian Mail Carrier” with her second husband, Charles W. Charles, a former Army captain turned actor, whom she married in 1888. The play’s copyright belongs entirely to her, which was exceedingly rare for a woman at the time, let alone an Indigenous woman (his contributions, too, were relatively minimal).
“It is natural for me to write,” she told The Liverpool Weekly Courier in 1893, while on tour in England, “and besides that, I never had a part in a play which seemed suitable to me, and therefore I made one for myself.”
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Mohawk was often billed as the “only living Indian actress,” or the first. But, Bethany Hughes of Oklahoma’s Choctaw Nation, an assistant professor of Native American studies at the University of Michigan, said in an interview, that was most likely a marketing tactic.
Still, she was probably one of the first. “There’s going to be very few self-identified Native female actresses or actors in the time period that are understood as legitimate theatrical performers,” Hughes said.
Mohawk made her Broadway debut in 1900 as the lead in “The Flaming Arrow,” a melodrama written by Lincoln J. Carter, playing a male Indigenous character named White Eagle who falls in love with a white woman.
Mohawk copyrighted another work, a melodrama chronicling the push and pull of Indigenous heroism and interracial love called “An Indian Romance: A Forest Tragedy.” But it was never published, and there is no record of it ever having gone into production.
Mohawk became so popular in England that she toured the country for almost a decade, first from 1893 to 1897 and then from 1903 to 1908. Upon returning to the U.S., she settled in Edgewater, N.J., with her husband.
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By then, audiences had become fascinated with the degree of fame she had achieved. She had previously been serialized as a character in dime novels; the character was reinvigorated, and a song, “Go-Wan-Go Mohawk: Intermezzo in Two-Step,” was released as sheet music by Dewitt Bell of the Bell Music Company in 1910.
She died of a stroke at her home on Feb. 7, 1924. She was 65.
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