Show 0 y rr Z sk j t I 1 r X arc f 1 A I 1 41 ludwa Irdi aos legend of hiawatha j 4 the indian story of hiawatha Is even more MAhan that which longfellow has told so charmingly in the justly popular poem bearing that title but it depicts the hero as a very different man from the bold and tenderhearted warrior of whom the poet writes the indian story though in part fiction la is founded an fm tact fact there is no doubt that such a ann man as hiawatha once lived and that ho he played a leading part in forming the compact of 01 the six nations according to the story hiawatha was the wisest man of the onondagas Onon dagas and when the different tribes were troubled by the durons who lived to the north of them and the Algon quins who were their eastern neighbors he proposed a metting meeting of the tribes to form a union for mutual defense but the scheme was defeated by a great war chief of the onondagas Onon dagas haq who was or of manpower and hiawatha was driven out oui bithe bi ot the tribe he did not give uw up the plan however lio wever As he journeyed award the he came camas to a beautiful lake probably onelda oneida on the shore he picked up a quantity of beautiful white shells hiawatha living alone all this time and never seeing any man learned much from the great spirit it was finally revealed to him that iria bis people were at fact ready to unite arid and he nas aas bened back bothem to them then there was a great meeting which all the chifa chiefs attended still sat back defiant saying ita ying never a word when a at t last hiawatha arose and began to speak the people were charmed by his bis voice and listened in silence tor for it seemed to them that he spoke with the wisdom of the great spirit himself lifting his strings of sampun hiawatha unfolded his plan tor for tile the union telling off on each shell the position and power allotted abi each tribe and to its chief vaas was to be made the great war chief of the confederacy which chic h shows that hiawatha was some thing ot of a politician an at even he gave way and the treaty was adopted while the people were celeb celebrating tating the treaty with the usual feasting it was observed that hiawatha was sad and silent feasting Is not tor for me he said when his friends urged him to join the festivities 1 I am to go 90 on a far lourney journey at that moment a beautiful white canoe was seen approaching across the lake driven by some unseen power when it reached the shore hiawatha bidding farewell to those who had crowded about him stepped into the canoe which moved rapidly away As it reached the middle of the lake it suddenly rose into the air higher and higher into the blue sky flew the white canoe with its single passenger until jt 41 became a dim speck and then vanished altogether that was the last of hiawatha but the league which he founded continued tor for centuries and was never conquered by Us ila enemies and every year since the wampum has been brought out at the great county and jhb solemn rites with which If hiawatha lawatha had instituted the confederacy have been rehearsed anro |