Minnehaha
Encyclopedia
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
woman documented in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline...
's 1855 epic poem The Song of Hiawatha
The Song of Hiawatha
The Song of Hiawatha is an 1855 epic poem, in trochaic tetrameter, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, featuring an Indian hero and loosely based on legends and ethnography of the Ojibwe and other Native American peoples contained in Algic Researches and additional writings of Henry Rowe Schoolcraft...
. She is the lover of the titular protagonist Hiawatha
Hiawatha
Hiawatha was a legendary Native American leader and founder of the Iroquois confederacy...
. The name is often incorrectly said to mean "laughing water", though in reality it translates to "waterfall" or "rapid water" in Dakota
Sioux language
Sioux is a Siouan language spoken by over 33,000 Sioux in the United States and Canada, making it the fifth most spoken indigenous language in the United States or Canada, behind Navajo, Cree, Inuit and Ojibwe.-Regional variation:...
. She is the subject of the poem, and later song, cantata, and painting, The Death of Minnehaha
The Death of Minnehaha
"The Death of Minnehaha" was a part of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem The Song of Hiawatha.It was later arranged by Charles Crozat Converse into a popular song. It was the second part of the cantata trilogy The Song of Hiawatha by the English composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.-External links:*...
.
Her name is connected to many things in Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
, such as Minnehaha Falls
Minnehaha Falls
Minnehaha Creek is a tributary of the Mississippi River located in Hennepin County, Minnesota that extends from Lake Minnetonka in the west and flows east for 22 miles through several suburbs west of Minneapolis and then through south Minneapolis. Including Lake Minnetonka, the watershed for the...
, Minnehaha Park, Minnehaha Creek, Minnehaha Academy
Minnehaha Academy
Minnehaha Academy is a Christian private school in Minneapolis, Minnesota for students in preschool through 12th grade, and established in 1913. It is owned by the Northwest Conference of the Evangelical Covenant Church, and is located in the Cooper and Longfellow neighborhoods. The student body...
, and the name of a boat once operated by Twin City Rapid Transit
Twin City Rapid Transit
The Twin City Rapid Transit Company , also known as Twin City Lines , was a transportation company that operated streetcars, and buses in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Minnesota...
on Lake Minnetonka
Lake Minnetonka
Lake Minnetonka is a lake in the U.S. state of Minnesota. Throughout its recorded history, the lake has been a resort destination. It is located west-southwest of Minneapolis-St. Paul. The lake is an irregular shape with numerous bays and islands which make up about of shoreline...
, which has now been restored, and is now at the Museum of Lake Minnetonka
Museum of Lake Minnetonka
The Museum of Lake Minnetonka is an organization that was split from the Minnesota Transportation Museum in 2004–2005 to operate the steamboat Minnehaha that was part of a small fleet made by the Twin City Rapid Transit Company in 1906...
. Minnehaha Avenue and Hiawatha Avenue are both major thoroughfares that run parallel to each other, heading southeast from downtown Minneapolis, and yet another Minnehaha Avenue that runs east-west through Saint Paul. The Hiawatha Line
Hiawatha Line
The Hiawatha Line is a light rail corridor in Hennepin County, Minnesota that extends from downtown Minneapolis to the southern suburb of Bloomington. It was formerly known as the Hiawatha Line named after Hiawatha Avenue. Major connections on the line include the Minneapolis-St...
, part of the Twin Cities' light rail system, is named after the latter avenue.
Her name is also linked to the name of a town called Minnehaha Springs, located in Pocahontas County
Pocahontas County, West Virginia
As of the census of 2000, there were 9,131 people, 835 households, and 527 families residing in the county. The population density was 10 people per square mile . There were 7,594 housing units at an average density of 8 per square mile...
, West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
. In Florida, there are two lakes named Minnehaha: one is on the Clermont Chain of Lakes in Clermont, Florida
Clermont, Florida
Clermont is a city in Lake County, Florida, United States, west of Orlando. The population was 13,100 in 2008. The city is essentially residential in character and its economy is centered in retail trade, lodging, and food and beverage establishments, which are tourism oriented. The historic...
, one of the Outstanding Florida Waterbodies
Outstanding Florida Waters
Outstanding Florida Waters are rivers, lakes and other bodies of water designated by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection as worthy of special protection because of their natural attributes. Outstanding Florida Waters have special restrictions on any new activities that would lower...
; the other is in Maitland, Florida
Maitland, Florida
Maitland is a suburban city in Orange County, Florida, United States, part of the Greater Metro Orlando area. The population was 12,019 at the 2000 census. As of 2006, the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau is 14,172...
linked to the Winter Park chain of lakes. Minnehaha Falls in Lakemont, Georgia is a beautiful 100 foot cascading waterfall near Lake Rabun. Another association is Minnehaha Island, Montgomery County, Maryland (39.025°N 77.24444°W), in the Potomac River
Potomac River
The Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, located along the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States. The river is approximately long, with a drainage area of about 14,700 square miles...
. A creek known as Minnehaha Branch empties into the Potomac at Glen Echo, Maryland. There is also a Minnehaha Bay in the small town of Sturgeon Falls, Ontario, Canada.
Her name is also linked to Minnehaha County in South Dakota and Minnehaha Covenant Church in Spokane
Spokane
Spokane is a city in the U.S. state of Washington.Spokane may also refer to:*Spokane *Spokane River*Spokane, Missouri*Spokane Valley, Washington*Spokane County, Washington*Spokane-Coeur d'Alene-Paloos War*Spokane * USS Spokane...
, Washington.
Probably the most peculiar association is the Roca Minnehaha, a ghost island near to the Easter Island
Easter Island
Easter Island is a Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian triangle. A special territory of Chile that was annexed in 1888, Easter Island is famous for its 887 extant monumental statues, called moai, created by the early Rapanui people...
and the Sala y Gómez Island in Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
.
In its Germanised form, Mine-Haha, the name was used by the German writer Frank Wedekind
Frank Wedekind
Benjamin Franklin Wedekind , usually known as Frank Wedekind, was a German playwright...
for the heroine of his 1903 novella Mine-Haha, or On the Bodily Education of Young Girls
Mine-Haha, or On the Bodily Education of Young Girls
Mine-Haha, or On the Bodily Education of Young Girls is a novella by German dramatist Frank Wedekind, first published in its final form in 1903.-Plot:...
.