Nickname of Martha Jane Burke (c. 1852-1903) US heroine of Deadwood, South Dakota. She worked as a teamster, transporting supplies to the mining camps, adopted male dress and, as an excellent shot, promised “calamity” to any aggressor. Many fictional accounts of the Wild West featured her exploits.
She was also known as Martha Jane Canary. During a smallpox epidemic 1878, she assisted in caring for the victims who had been abandoned by local citizens.