The Way Hiawatha Took Minnehaha Home, Minnesota

Categories

Special Collections > Keystone Slides

Type

tiff scanned file from original glass slide

Description

When Hiawatha had finished asking for the hand of Minnehaha, the Ancient Arrow Maker looked proudly at Hiawatha, then fondly at Laughing Water, and answered: 'Yes, if Minnehaha wishes;
Let your heart speak, Minnehaha!'
The maiden was standing. She walked over to Hiawatha, and
Softly took the seat beside him,
While she said, and blushed to say it,
'I will follow you, my husband!'
This was Hiawatha's wooing!
Thus it was he won the daughter
Of the Ancient Arrow Maker,
In the land of the Dacotahs! The succeeding part of the description, as Longfellow relates it, has to do with Hiawatha taking his bride home. The marriage ceremony had been simple. The wedding tour was in keeping. From the wigwam he departed,
Leading with him Laughing Water;
Hand in hand they went together,
Through the woodland and the meadow,
Left the old man standing lonely
At the doorway of his wigwam.
Pleasant was the journey homeward,
Through interminable forests,
Over meadow, over mountain,
Over river, hill, and hollow. The way they traveled over river and lake is here shown. It was some such canoe as this that Hiawatha had built by calling to the various trees to lend him their materials. The birch-bark canoe and the upright figures in it call to mind a civilization that has all but gone. Yet it was such scenes as this that were common to most parts of our great country before the coming of the White Man. Savage as was the Indian in war, and lazy as he was, yet he cherished and was true to the wife he had wooed. Keystone ID: 11943 Note: All titles, descriptions, and location coordinates are from the original Keystone Slide documentation as supplied by the Keystone View Company. No text has been edited or changed.

Rights

Copyright by the Keystone View Company. The original slides are housed in McConnell Library's Special Collections.