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]