Existing comment:
Mohongo (Myhangah), lifedates unknown
Mohongo was one of six Osage Indians taken to Europe by an unscrupulous promoted who planned to exhibit them for profit. Leaving from New Orleans, the group arrived in Le Havre, France, in July 1827. Feted and admired in Paris, taken to the opera, and presented at court, they were a sensational success until their promoter abandoned them. Some of them died of smallpox, including Mohongo's husband. Reportedly, the Marquis de Lafayette helped to pay for the rest of the group to return to the United States. Thomas McKenney brought them to Washington upon their return, where Charles Bird King painted Mohongo and her infant in 183.
John William Gear, after Charles Bird King, 1838 |