Discover

'Hiawatha' (also known as 'Ayenwatha' or 'Ha-yo-went'-ha'; Onondaga '''Hayę́hwàtha''')^[1] who lived (depending on the version of the story) in the 1100s, 1400s, or 1500s, was variously a leader of the Onondaga and Mohawk nations of Native Americans.
Hiawatha was a follower of The Great Peacemaker, a prophet and spiritual leader who was credited as the founder of the Iroquois confederacy, (referred to as ''Haudenosaunee'' by the people). If The Great Peacemaker was the man of ideas, Hiawatha was the politician who actually put the plan into practice. Hiawatha was a skilled and charismatic orator, and was instrumental in persuading the Iroquois peoples, the Senecas, Onondagas, Oneidas, Cayugas, and Mohawks, a group of Native North Americans who shared similar languages, to accept The Great Peacemaker's vision and band together to become the Five Nations of the Iroquois confederacy. (Later, in 1721, the Tuscarora nation joined the Iroquois confederacy, and they became the Six Nations).

Contents

The Song of Hiawatha

Aborted movie

Hiawatha National Forest

References

The Song of Hiawatha

:Main articles: The Song of Hiawatha


Hiawatha is also the name of the legendary hero of the Ojibwa as described in Longfellow's famous epic poem, ''The Song of Hiawatha.'' Longfellow said that he based his poem on Schoolcraft's ''Algic Researches'' and ''History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States.'' Schoolcraft in turn seems to have based his "Hiawatha" primarily on the Algonquian trickster-figure Nanabozho. There is little or no resemblance between Longfellow's hero and the life-stories of Hiawatha and The Great Peacemaker; see Longfellow's Hiawatha vs. the historical Iroquois Hiawatha. The Song of Hiawatha unfolds a legend of Hiawatha and his mate, Minnehaha.

Aborted movie

In 1950, plans for a film about the historical Hiawatha by Monogram Studio were scrapped. The reason given was that Hiawatha's peacemaker role could be seen as "Communist propaganda." ^{[2] [3]}

Hiawatha National Forest

Today, there is the Hiawatha National Forest in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It covers 880,000 acres (3,600 km²) and contains 6 designated wilderness areas. Commercial logging is conducted in some areas. It is physically divided into two subunits, commonly called the Eastside and Westside.

References

1. Bright, William (2004). ''Native American Place Names of the United States''. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, ISBN 080613576X pg. 166
2. The People's Almanac, , David, Wallechinsky, Doubleday, 1975, p. 239

3. Digital History: Post-War Hollywood