Unnamed Mother of Doom

The narrative introduces Doom himself as "a subchief, a Mingo, one of three children on the mother's side of the family" (317). What Faulkner means by "Mingo" is not clear. Historically, the Mingo were a tribe of Indians who would have been located along the Ohio River when this woman was born, but if her ancestry was "Mingo," it's not clear how her "family" became the ruling clan in a Mississippi tribe. What the story emphasizes is that as a woman, neither she nor her children are in the direct line of succession to the title of chief.