Minnehaha is a Native American woman documented in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 1855 epic poem The Song of Hiawatha . She is the lover of the titular protagonist Hiawatha and comes to a tragic end. The name, often said to mean "laughing water", literally translates to "waterfall" or "rapid water" in Dakota. [1]
The figure of Minnehaha inspired later art works such as paintings, sculpture and music. The Death of Minnehaha is a frequent subject for paintings. Minnehaha Falls and her death scene inspired themes in the New World Symphony by Antonín Dvořák. [2] Longfellow's poem was set in a cantata trilogy, The Song of Hiawatha in 1898–1900 by the African-English composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. Longfellow's poem also inspired Hugo Kaun's symphonic poems "Minnehaha" and "Hiawatha" composed in 1901. [3]
The character's name has been bestowed upon things, especially in the Great Lakes region of the United States. A ship bearing the name Minnehaha wrecked off the western shore of Lake Michigan in 1893, only 38 years after Longfellow's poem was published. [4] A Minnehaha Bay adjoins the small town of Sturgeon Falls in Ontario, Canada.
Minnesota claims Minnehaha Falls, Minnehaha Park, Minnehaha Creek, Minnehaha Academy, and a boat bearing her name once operated by Twin City Rapid Transit on Lake Minnetonka, which has now been restored and is currently operated by Museum of Lake Minnetonka. Minnehaha Avenue and Hiawatha Avenue run parallel to each other from downtown Minneapolis, while another Minnehaha Avenue runs through Saint Paul.
In Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada, the enchanting Minnehaha Falls and the adjacent Hiawatha Highlands beautifully commemorate her and her lover, creating a poetic tribute in close proximity.
Farther west, Minnehaha, Washington stands near Vancouver. Her name is also linked to Minnehaha County in South Dakota and Minnehaha Covenant Church and Minnehaha Park in Spokane, Washington. Lake Minnehaha is located in the center of Holliday Park in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Arizona's Bradshaw Mountains contain a Minnehaha Flat.
Toward the Atlantic coast, a Minnehaha Island stands in the Potomac River in Montgomery County, Maryland ( 39°01′30″N77°14′40″W / 39.025°N 77.24444°W ). A creek known as Minnehaha Branch empties into the Potomac at Glen Echo, Maryland. The town of Minnehaha Springs stands in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. Farther south, Minnehaha Falls in Lakemont, Georgia near Lake Rabun features a 100-foot cascading waterfall. Florida is home to two lakes named Minnehaha: one in the Clermont Chain of lakes in Clermont, Florida, one of the Outstanding Florida Waterbodies; the other in Maitland, Florida, linked to the Winter Park lake chain.
Minne Ha Ha is also the name of a fully functional steamboat operated on Lake George in New York by the Lake George Steamboat Company. Additionally, the name is the basis for the hamlet, Minnehaha, New York in the Adirondacks.
Minnehaha's name has proven inspirational beyond the North American continent: Minnehaha Rock was a phantom island between Easter Island and Sala y Gómez Island in Chile. Two avenues in suburbs of Auckland, New Zealand, in Titirangi and Takapuna, are named for the figure. Minnehaha Falls may be found in Katoomba, Australia.
Minnehaha is also the main character of the Adventures in the Old West four-book series by Emilio Salgari, Sulle Frontiere del Far-West (1908), La Scotennatrice (1909), Le Selve Ardenti (1910), and La Vendetta di Minnehaha (?).
In its Germanized form, Mine-Haha, the name was used by the German writer Frank Wedekind for the heroine of his 1903 novella Mine-Haha, or On the Bodily Education of Young Girls .
Minnehaha is mentioned in British glam rock band The Sweet's song "Wig-Wam Bam" (1972), in which she seduces Hiawatha.
In the popular 1992 Disney movie The Mighty Ducks , Coach Gordon Bombay plays for the fictional “Minnehaha Waves” hockey team during Gordon Bombay's minor league career. The “Minnesota Miracle Man” was one step away from the NHL before a knee injury derailed his career and sent him back behind the bench.
Minnehaha County is a county on the eastern border of the state of South Dakota. As of the 2020 census, the population was 197,214, making it the state's most populous county. It contains over 20% of the state's population. Its county seat is Sioux Falls, South Dakota's most populous city. The county was created in 1862 and organized in 1868. Its name was derived from the Sioux word Mnihaha, meaning "rapid water," or "waterfall".
Lake Minnetonka is a lake located about 16 miles (26 km) west-southwest of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Lake Minnetonka has about 23 named bays and areas. The lake lies within Hennepin and Carver counties and is surrounded by 13 incorporated municipalities. At 14,528 acres (5,879 ha), it is Minnesota's ninth largest lake. It is a popular spot for local boaters, sailors, and fishermen.
The Song of Hiawatha is an 1855 epic poem in trochaic tetrameter by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow which features Native American characters. The epic relates the fictional adventures of an Ojibwe warrior named Hiawatha and the tragedy of his love for Minnehaha, a Dakota woman. Events in the story are set in the Pictured Rocks area of Michigan on the south shore of Lake Superior. Longfellow's poem is based on oral traditions surrounding the figure of Manabozho, but it also contains his own innovations.
Nokomis is the name of Nanabozho's grandmother in the Ojibwe traditional stories and was the name of Hiawatha's grandmother in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, The Song of Hiawatha, which is a re-telling of the Nanabozho stories. Nokomis is an important character in the poem, mentioned in the familiar lines:
The Tahquamenon Falls are a series of waterfalls on the Tahquamenon River, shortly before it empties into Lake Superior, in the northeastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan. They are the largest waterfalls in Michigan, and one of the largest in the eastern half of North America. The water is noticeably brown in color from the tannins leached from the cedar swamps which the river drains, leading to the nickname "Root Beer Falls". The falls are within Tahquamenon Falls State Park, between the towns of Newberry and Paradise, and are a popular tourist destination during all seasons.
Minnehaha Park is a city park in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, and home to Minnehaha Falls and the lower reaches of Minnehaha Creek. Officially named Minnehaha Regional Park, it is part of the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board system and lies within the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, a unit of the National Park Service. The park was designed by landscape architect Horace W.S. Cleveland in 1883 as part of the Grand Rounds Scenic Byway system, and was part of the popular steamboat Upper Mississippi River "Fashionable Tour" in the 1800s.
Minnehaha Creek is a 22-mile-long (35 km) tributary of the Mississippi River that flows east from Gray's Bay Dam on Lake Minnetonka through the suburban cities of Minnetonka, Hopkins, Saint Louis Park, and Edina, and the city of Minneapolis. The creek flows over Minnehaha Falls in Minnehaha Park near its mouth at the Mississippi River.
Hiawatha (Haiëñ'wa'tha) is a Native American semi-historical figure who was the co-founder of the Iroquois Confederacy.
The Grand Rounds National Scenic Byway is a linked series of park areas in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, that takes a roughly circular path through the city. The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board developed the system over many years. The corridors include roads for automobile traffic plus separate paths for pedestrians and bicycles, and extend slightly into neighboring cities. About 50 miles (80 km) of roadway and paths are in the system, and much of it was built in the 1930s as part of Civilian Conservation Corps projects.
Minnehaha is a mythical Native American character.
Lake Street is a major east-west thoroughfare between 29th and 31st streets in Minneapolis, Minnesota United States. From its western most end at the city's limits, Lake Street reaches the Chain of Lakes, passing over a small channel linking Bde Maka Ska and Lake of the Isles, and at its eastern most end it reaches the Mississippi River. In May 2020, the Lake Street corridor suffered extensive damage during local unrest following the murder of George Floyd. In August of the same year, city officials designated East Lake Street as one of seven cultural districts to promote racial equity, preserve cultural identity, and promote economic growth.
Minnehaha is a steam-powered excursion vessel on Lake Minnetonka in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The vessel was originally in service between 1906 and 1926. After being scuttled in 1926, Minnehaha was raised from the bottom of Lake Minnetonka in 1980, restored, and returned to active service in 1996. The vessel operated uninterrupted on Lake Minnetonka until 2019. It is currently stored in a maintenance facility in the town of Excelsior.
Longfellow is a defined community in Minneapolis, Minnesota which includes five smaller neighborhoods inside of it: Seward, Cooper, Hiawatha, Howe and Longfellow. The community is a mix of agri-industrial properties along the old Northern Pacific Railway, expansive parkland surrounding the famous Minnehaha Falls, and smaller residential areas.
Minnehaha Falls is a series of cascades located on Falls Creek in Rabun County, Georgia. The waterfalls descend about 100 feet over a stepped rock formation. The falls are near Lake Rabun, within the boundaries of the Chattooga River Ranger District of the Chattahoochee National Forest.
Hiawatha is a 1952 American Western film based on the 1855 epic poem The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, centering on Native Americans in pre-Columbian times. Directed by Kurt Neumann, with stars Vincent Edwards and Yvette Dugay, it became the final feature produced by the low-budget Monogram Pictures, a mainstay of Hollywood's Poverty Row.
Jakob Henrik Gerhard Fjelde was a Norwegian-born American sculptor. He is remembered as both a prolific portraitist and the creator of public monuments. One of his better known works is the one dedicated to the 1st Minnesota Infantry (1897) located at Gettysburg Battlefield where its 262 members suffered 215 casualties.
Hiawatha and Minnehaha is a sculpture by Jacob Fjelde that has stood in Minnehaha Park in Minneapolis since the early twentieth century. Now a popular fixture of the park, its placement there was originally controversial.
The Clermont chain of lakes is a chain of lakes centered on Clermont, Florida. The chain is orientated from southeast to northwest and fed primarily by streams and groundwater flow. They make up the middle part of the Palatlakaha River watershed which forms the headwaters of the Ocklawaha River. The lakes are notable for their red to tea-colored water from tannic acid.
Min Hi Line is a proposed linear park and shared-use path that would eventually re-purpose an active rail and agri-industrial corridor in the Longfellow community of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Modeled after successful projects like the Atlanta Beltline and New York High Line, it would feature an approximately 3-mile (4.8 km), shared-use pathway that traverses housing, retail, commercial buildings, gardens, playgrounds, and public art installments. Two pilot projects completed in 2018 and 2019 connect the Min Hi Line corridor to trail systems at its northern and southern ends.