Native American Children's Literature

Text: Longfellow, H. W. (1983). Hiawatha. New York, NY: Penguin Books.

Synopsis: Longfellow gathered the material for The Song of Hiawatha from many sources, and his aim was to codify the various tales he read into a coherent mythology. He sought to introduce a white audience to Indian mythology. It begins, as most mythologies do, with people and their god. Gitche Manito, “the mighty/ He the Master of Life,” brings the various tribes together to smoke the peace pipe. Gitche Manito will also send a prophet to the people “Who shall guide you and shall teach you,/ Who shall toil and suffer with you.” This prophet, who sounds very much like Jesus, will bring prosperity if the people listen. The prophet is Hiawatha.

Author Information: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was the most popular and influential American poet of the 19th century. Longfellow had the widest range and greatest technical skill of all the poets of "the flowering of New England." Born in Portland, Maine on Feb. 27, 1807, he would grow up to influence the poetic taste of generations of readers throughout the English-speaking world. He was successful in both lyric and narrative poetry, and during his later years became a master of the sonnet. Ballads like "The Wreck of the Hesperus" and "Paul Revere's Ride" were familiar to every schoolchild, and Evangeline became the first enduringly successful long poem written in the United States. He died on March 24, 1882 at the age of 75.

Genre: Poetry

Interest Level: Pre-k-Kindergarten

Reading Level: Fourth grade