Mona Darkfeather

Princess Mona Darkfeather was born Josephine M. Workman in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles on 13 January 1882. Her grandparents were William Workman (1799-1876), a native of England, and Nicolasa Urioste (1802-1892), who hailed from the Taos pueblo of New Mexico. Consequently, though Darkfeather stated in a 1914 film magazine interview that she was descended "from an aristocratic Spanish family," she likely had at least some Indian blood through her grandmother. Her father was José (Joseph) Workman (1833-1901), who worked as a ranch superintendent in Kern County, California, when he married Josephine Belt (1850-1937), a native of Stockton, California of American and Peruvian ancestry. Josephine was the youngest of their seven children. The first hint of her involvement in entertainment appears to have been captured in the 1900 federal census, where her profession was given as "whistler." Some have speculated this was a job calling out to passersby to visit a nickelodeon