Minnehaha

Also known as: Laughing Water · Family: Dacotahs · Role: daughter of the ancient Arrow-maker · First appears: IV · Hiawatha and Mudjekeewis · Part 2

In IV · Hiawatha and Mudjekeewis, the ancient Arrow-maker’s daughter is named Minnehaha, “Laughing Water,” for the waterfall; she is described as quick-footed, changeable in mood, and musical in laughter. In X · Hiawatha’s Wooing, Hiawatha tells her father he would marry the fair Dacotah to unite their tribes and heal old feuds. The ancient Arrow-maker agrees if Minnehaha wishes, and she accepts: “I will follow you, my husband!” Hiawatha departs with her, leaving her father behind, and brings her to Nokomis’s lodge.

In XI · Hiawatha’s Wedding-Feast, Nokomis holds a wedding feast for the couple, and Chibiabos sings of love and longing as he looks at them. In XII · The Son of the Evening Star, the banquet ends with the guests departing and Minnehaha left with Hiawatha. In XIII · Blessing the Cornfields, she walks around the cornfields and marks a sacred circle with her footprints, then joins Nokomis and the others in the harvest and husking. In XVI · Pau-Puk-Keewis, Pau-Puk-Keewis throws the household belongings into disorder as an insult to Nokomis and a taunt to Minnehaha.

In XX · The Famine, Minnehaha falls ill after Famine and Fever enter the wigwam. Hiawatha calls to Gitche Manito for food to save her, but she dies; he mourns beside her body for seven days and nights. She is buried beneath the hemlocks, and a fire is kindled on her grave for her soul’s journey to the Islands of the Blessed.