The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Fiction, Classics, Literary

Longfellow insisted, "I can give chapter and verse for these legends. Their chief value is that they are Indian legends."

Longfellow's sources for the legends and ethnography found in his poem were the Ojibwe Chief Kahge-ga-gah-bowh during his visits at Longfellow's home; Black Hawk and other Sac and Fox Indians Longfellow encountered on Boston Common and additional writings by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, an ethnographer and United States Indian agent.

In sentiment, scope, overall conception and many particulars, Longfellow's poem is a work of American Romantic literature, not a representation of Native American oral tradition.

About the Author
Casil, Amy Sterling: - Amy Sterling Casil is a 2002 Nebula Award nominee and recipient of other awards and recognition for her short science fiction and fantasy, which has appeared in publications ranging from The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction to Zoetrope. She is the author of 28 nonfiction books, over a hundred short stories, three fiction and poetry collections, and three novels. Amy is a founding member and treasurer of Book View Café and former treasurer of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, and teaches writing and composition at Saddleback College. She is the founder of Chameleon Publishing.Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth: - "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 - 1882) was an American poet and educator whose works include Paul Revere's Ride, The Song of Hiawatha and Evangeline. He was also the first American to translate Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy and was one of the five Fireside Poets. Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine, which was then a part of Massachusetts. He studied at Bowdoin College. After spending time in Europe he became a professor at Bowdoin and later, at Harvard College. Longfellow retired from teaching in 1854, to focus on his writing, living the remainder of his life in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in a former Revolutionary War headquarters of George Washington."