Don't Know Much About Mythology - Kenneth C. Davis [237]
MYTHIC VOICES
By the shore of Gitche Gumee,
By the shining Big-Sea-Water,
At the doorway of his wigwam,
In the pleasant Summer morning,
Hiawatha stood and waited.
All the air was full of freshness,
All the earth was bright and joyous….
—HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW, The Song of Hiawatha (1855)
What famous poem contributed to the “myth” of the Native Americans?
There was a time in the not-too-distant past when most American schoolchildren were forced to memorize at least some part of a piece of Americana that shaped their views about the Native Americans. Though its popularity has long since declined, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s epic poem, The Song of Hiawatha, is still found in the pantheon of American verse. It also inspired a 1952 Disney cartoon that did little to broaden our understanding of Native American traditions.
Written in 1855, The Song of Hiawatha employs twenty-two long sections to tell the story of an Ojibway Indian called Hiawatha, whose life is full of triumphs and tragedies. The poem recounts the somewhat miraculous birth of Hiawatha in a time of turmoil between tribes, how he grows to become a great hunter and woos and weds the beautiful but doomed Minnehaha, commencing a golden age that will carry him toward further trials and adventures. The poem ends with the coming of the white men called “Black Robes,” who bring the Christian gospel, and Hiawatha’s own symbolic departure into the sunset in his canoe. As he leaves his people, to whom he has brought peace, he tells them to listen to the wisdom of the Black Robes:
But my guests I leave behind me;
Listen to their words of wisdom,
Listen to the truth they tell you,
For the Master of Life has sent them
From the land of light and morning!
Though it may sound to modern ears like Christian-mission propaganda, Longfellow (1807–1882) meant well. Writing his melodic paean in the heroic style of old sagas, he was trying to capture a sense of the humanity and nobility he saw in the Native American experience. His poetic sentiments were based on the anthropological writings of the first “experts” of his day, who were certainly not Native Americans. Most were people of European descent, who may have truly believed that the natives benefited from the coming of the white man. Along with Longfellow, these well-meaning “experts” helped create, during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a highly romanticized myth of America as a “New Eden,” and the native people as “noble savages.” The latter concept was coined by the influential French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who believed that true men of nature were proud and uncorrupted by civilization.
Longfellow’s poem became standard classroom fare for more than a century. As it did, it left the impression that Hiawatha had done his people a great favor by leaving them in the hands of the “Black Robes.” According to the poem, God Himself—the “Master of Life”—sent these Christian missionaries “from the land of light and morning” to speak “words of wisdom.” It sounded like a good deal. But, in truth, the paternalistic missionaries weren’t concerned with much besides bringing the “savages” to Jesus. Then there were the great masses of Americans who, by the mid-nineteenth century and certainly after “Custer’s last stand” in 1876, agreed with the popular notion that “the only good Indian is a dead Indian.” Of course, the grim testimony of history shows that last sentiment largely won out.
While Longfellow may have had good intentions in helping foster the “noble savage” myth, he also took poetic license with a few facts, beginning with the name of the poem’s chief character. The name Hiawatha—which the poet apparently used because it fit his meter—comes from the Hodenosaunee. Commonly called the Iroquois, the Hodenosaunee lived in