Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 'The Song Of Hiawatha'

Understanding the rich and storied culture of Native Americans and how they were basically one with nature really opens one’s eyes to how wonderful life can remain even in the most simplest of ways. Nature is universally conveyed by the characters, the surroundings, and the situations brought upon the Native Americans in The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Nature is apart of Native Americans’ culture and it provides every possible living necessity for the Indians, portraying their connection to the Earth itself.

Without question, every item made from nature was integral pieces of the larger picture that wove together the tapestry of Native American life. Everything from native plants and animals to housing to the weather became

‘Give me of your balm, O Fir Tree! Of your balsam and your resin, so to close the seams together that the water may not enter, that the river may not wet me!’ And the Fir Tree, tall and sombre, [and] Answered wailing, answered weeping: ‘Take my balm, O Hiawatha!’ And he took the tears of balsam, took the resin from the Fir Tree, made each crevice safe from water.” The trees willingly offered Hiawatha their parts, to aid him in his task of making a canoe. Without the simple yet vital offerings of the plants and trees surrounding the Indians, they would not be able to succeed in producing their many essential necessities to live their daily

Indians’ source of food, shelter, clothing, weapons, art and other material making (instruments, pipes, bowls and pots, etc.), as well as transportation, was all possible only because of what nature produced. Longfellow precisely conjures up an image in the reader’s mind of the wonders that were crafted from nature when he writes, “Forth upon the Gitche Gumee, on the shining Big Sea Water, with his fishing line of cedar, of the twisted bark of cedar, forth to catch the sturgeon , Nahma, Mishe-Nahma, Kind of Fishes, in his birch canoe exulting.” Both Hiawatha’s fishing pole and canoe were made from native trees, if it wasn’t for those birch or cedar trees, how would one assemble their rod to catch their food? Once more, how would one travel upon the rivers, to get from place to place, to carry themselves as well as what they’ve just hunted or gathered? Native Americans would have been helpless, without the generous supply of nature’s materials. To embellish on this point, The Song of Hiawatha included yet another example of remarkable tools created with the simple materials the outside has to offer, “At the doorway of his wigwam sat the ancient Arrow-Maker, in the land of the Dacotahs, making arrow heads of Jasper, arrow heads of Chalcedony.” Everything was natural, nothing used was created or altered by humans. A last continuation of the focus of man relying on its