James Baquet

Let’s look at the story found in “The Song of Hiawatha,” by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. One friend wrote of him, “no other poet was so fully recognized in his lifetime.”

The epic poem has 22 chapters and well over 5,000 lines. One line of the poem is very familiar, but most people know no more than that. “By the shores of Gitche Gumee,” it says, and continues:

By the shining Big-Sea-Water,

Stood the wigwam of Nokomis

Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis.

This Nokomis — who actually did fall from the moon — is Hiawatha’s grandmother. This little tidbit hints at the idea of the poem: Longfellow weaves myths of Native American culture into a story about a culture hero who was better known outside of the poem as Manabozho — along with plenty of his own ideas, for dramatic effect.

“Gitche Gumee,” by the way, is Lake Superior, the northern most of the five “Great Lakes” along the U.S.-Canadian border. (In fact, that border runs right through it.)

Predictions of Hiawatha’s birth say he is to be a mighty leader who will bring peace to his people. But before his birth, we hear numerous myths, such as the slaying of Mishe-Mokwa, the Great Bear of the mountains, by the warrior Mudjekeewis. As a result, he becomes the Father of the Four Winds, and in fact becomes himself the West Wind; his three sons are the others.

Nokomis, meanwhile, gives birth to Wenonah, who is then seduced by Mudjekeewis and gives birth to Hiawatha. After a number of childhood adventures, the young warrior meets and falls in love with Minnehaha, a girl from another tribe. As a proper culture hero, he invents reading and writing, discovers corn, and brings other gifts to his people. Sadly, Minnehaha dies of starvation in a harsh winter.

Near the end of the poem Hiawatha joyously greets the arrival of the “paleface.” He and the chiefs become Christians; then he paddles away in his canoe, leaving instructions that his people are to “listen to the truth [the missionaries] tell you.”

Vocabulary:

Which word above means:

1. persuaded to have sex

2. one that is long and tells of extraordinary people dealing with gods or natural forces

3. a Native American boat, pointed at both ends

4. stories of the gods and humans

5. puts together; combines

6. a mythical human who brought his people the foundations of their civilization

7. severe hunger

8. a Native American tent, also called a tepee

9. a small piece of something

10. a supposed Native American term for white people