Henry Wadsworth Longfellow has been described as the first truly American poet. His works took distinctly American themes and made them accessible to a worldwide audience. After reviewing Henry Rowe Schoolcraft's publication on the traditions of the Ojibwe Indians of Minnesota and seeing an early photograph of Minnehaha Falls, Longfellow penned 5,314 chanting lines of epic poetry and titled it Hiawatha.
Hiawatha became America's most widely read poem of the 19th Century, spreading the fame of Minnehaha Falls and the uppermost regions of the Mississippi. Today, a statue of Hiawatha carrying his bride Minnehaha graces Minnehaha Park, and the Minneapolis Park System operates an information center in a scale replica of Longfellow's home. Unfortunately, the poem also spread wide misconceptions about Ojibwa Traditions, the real history of Minnesota, and the true identity of the famous chief.
Who was Hiawatha? The historic figure lived centuries earlier and half a continent away among the Iroquois Nation in New England. In the early 15th Century, about a hundred years before Columbus undertook his voyage, chaos and warfare reigned among the tribes. Hiawatha began as a solitary warrior, living in isolation until called by the supernatural being Deganawida to promote peace among the tribes of the Iroquois. Hiawatha became the founder of the Five Nations of the Iroquois, and his internal peacekeeping measures helped the Five Nations grow and prosper.
So how did Longfellow transport Hiawatha across the country? In some Iroquois dialects, Hiawatha closely resembles the name of the deity Tahiawagi. Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, an extensive Ojibwa scholar, made an erroneous connection between Tahiawagi and Manabozo, a deity of similar feats and renowned among the Ojibwas in Minnesota. When Longfellow followed the false trail Schoolcraft laid in his book on Indian legends, the fictional Hiawatha was the result.
Despite its historical inaccuracies, Longfellow's poem inspired a love for the natural beauty of the Minnesotan forest, and today, the Grand Rounds Scenic Byway preserves the heritage of both fact and literature.
