Mona Darkfeather
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Mona Darkfeather (January 13, 1882 – September 3, 1977) was an American silent film actress.
Born Josephine Mercedes Workman in Los Angeles, California, of Scottish/Chilean (Mother) and English/Native American (Father) ancestry, she got her start in film, around 1909, when she answered a Bison Motion Pictures advertisement in a local newspaper. The movie studio was looking for someone with the physical attributes that would allow them to portray an American Indian and who was physically capable of doing stunts and riding horses. While she had never acted before, Workman fit the appearance director Thomas Ince wanted. She apparently embellished her riding skills as she had none, but nevertheless quickly learned horsemanship. Given the stage name Mona Darkfeather, she was cast in her first starring role as an Indian maiden named Owanee in the 1911 film "Owanee's Great Love." She soon became famous as Princess Darkfeather noted for leaping onto her pony "Comanche" and galloping away on bareback. She told reporters she was an Indian Princess, saying she had been made a blood member of the Blackfoot Nation and given the title of Princess by Chief Big Thunder. So successful was the studio's promotion of Princess Mona Darkfeather that over the years, and even in 2005, she is frequently referred to as an American Indian actress.
Although her film career only lasted about 9 years (1909-1917), she appeared in eighty-six one-reel western melodramas and feature-length films playing an Indian or Spanish woman. Darkfeather made films for Bison starting in 1909, Nestor Company in 1912, Selig Polyscope Company between 1909 and 1913, worked under director George Melford at Kalem Studios beginning around 1913 and, finally, joined Universal Studios in 1914. A fellow member in all these companies was Frank Edward Montgomery Akley (stage name Frank Montgomery) who married Mona sometime between 1909 and 1913, and directed her in a number of films. Divorced in 1928, they remarried in 1937. Mona is also reported to have been married to actor Artie Ortego at some point, but there is no evidence to support this to date.
In 1917, Darkfeather made her last film and for a time afterwards performed on stage headlined as Princess Darkfeather. She died in 1977 in Los Angeles and was interred in an unmarked grave in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California under the name Josephine Akley. There is information on her prominent Workman family at the Homestead Museum in City of Industry, California.
