A dramatization of Longfellow's Hiawatha: A spectacular drama in six acts

In Short

Adapting Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s famous epic poem into a stage play, A. L. De Vine’s drama presents the life and spiritual mission of Hiawatha, an Ojibway prophet. The narrative moves from Gitche Manito’s call for peace among hostile tribes to Hiawatha’s childhood, his romantic wooing of the Dacotah maiden Minnehaha, and their grand wedding feast. When a devastating winter brings Famine and Fever to their tepee, Minnehaha dies, plunging the community into mourning. Ultimately, Hiawatha receives a vision of the coming future and departs into the sunset, reuniting with his lost bride.

The Story

The drama opens high in the mountains as Gitche Manito, the Indian Great Spirit, descends from Heaven amid music and glowing lights. Smoking a newly fashioned calumet, he calls together the hostile tribes of North America, who arrive clad in war paint with ancestral hatred in their hearts. Moved by compassion, the Great Spirit commands them to abandon their feuds. The warriors leap into the rushing river, wash away their crimson war paint, bury their weapons on the riverbanks, and fashion peace pipes from the red stone quarry before Gitche Manito ascends back into the clouds.

Years later, old Nokomis nurses the infant Hiawatha in her wigwam by the Big-Sea-Water, singing lullabies to quiet his cries. Grown into a swift and powerful young man skilled in hunting and magic, Hiawatha resolves to seek a wife. Ignoring Nokomis’s warnings against marrying outside their people, he journeys to the land of the Dacotahs to woo Minnehaha, the daughter of an ancient arrow-maker, hoping their union will permanently heal the old wounds between their tribes. He slays a deer along the way and presents it at her doorway. Minnehaha accepts his suit, and together they journey back to the Ojibway village.

Their return is celebrated with an extravagant wedding feast featuring traditional dishes, songs from the musician Chibiabos, and dynamic dances performed by Pau-Puk-Keewis. However, this joy proves short-lived. A harsh, unrelenting winter descends upon the forest, burying the landscape in deep snow and driving away all game. Starvation grips the village. Two ghastly figures—Bukadawin (Famine) and Ahkosewin (Fever)—enter Nokomis’s tepee uninvited. While Hiawatha desperately ranges through the frozen, vacant woods praying to Gitche Manito for food, Minnehaha succumbs to delirium and dies.

Hiawatha returns to find his bride lifeless. The village gathers for an Indian funeral, wailing and shaking medicine pouches as Hiawatha grieves in silent agony before saying his final farewells. Summer returns, and while the Ojibways engage in daily pastimes on the lake shore, a bright heavenly light appears on the water. A birch-bark canoe glides toward them containing Minnehaha, now dressed as an angel. Hiawatha steps into the canoe to join her, offering a final prophecy to his people about the incoming westward migration of white settlers and the scattering of the native tribes, before drifting away toward the portals of the sunset.

How It Unfolds

The Great Spirit commands peace Gitche Manito smokes the Peace Pipe atop the mountains, summoning warriors from distant tribes to wash off their war paint and bury their weapons in the river.

Hiawatha grows in strength and wisdom Nokomis raises the youthful hero by the Big-Sea-Water, nursing him through childhood until he matures into a fleet-footed hunter equipped with magic mittens and enchanted moccasins.

The wooing of Minnehaha Disregarding his grandmother's warnings about tribal rivalries, Hiawatha travels to the Dacotah nation, presents a slain deer to the ancient arrow-maker, and wins the heart of Laughing Water.

The wedding festivities The Ojibways welcome the couple with a lavish feast, complete with love songs sung by Chibiabos and the wild Beggar's Dance executed by Pau-Puk-Keewis.

Famine and Fever strike A brutal winter freezes the landscape, driving game away and bringing the spectral figures of Famine and Fever into Nokomis’s tepee to torment the starving family.

Minnehaha passes away While Hiawatha fruitlessly scours the icy forest for food, Minnehaha suffers hallucinations of her father and death before dying, leaving Hiawatha and Nokomis in deep mourning.

Hiawatha's final departure An angelic Minnehaha returns in a glowing birch canoe; Hiawatha bids farewell to his tribe, foretells the coming of new nations, and sails away into the sunset.

The People

• Hiawatha: The central prophet of peace and leader of the Ojibways. He desires harmony among tribes and a strong union with Minnehaha. Despite his superhuman strength and magic garments, he is helpless against the winter famine, ending his earthly journey by ascending into the spiritual realm with his bride.
• Minnehaha: The Dacotah maiden, also named Laughing Water, daughter of the ancient Arrow-maker. She wants to be a devoted wife to Hiawatha and unite her people with his. Her life is cut short by starvation and illness, though she returns as a heavenly angel to guide Hiawatha home.
• Old Nokomis: Hiawatha’s grandmother, who nursed him in childhood. She wants to protect Hiawatha from harm and keep him tied to his own tribe, but she must endure the loss of Minnehaha and ultimately watch her grandson depart forever.
• Gitche Manito: The Great Spirit and Creator who desires an end to mortal bloodshed. He intervenes to establish peace among the native nations, promising Hiawatha as their guide.
• Arrow-maker: Minnehaha's aged father who crafts jasper arrowheads in the Dacotah lands. He deeply loves his daughter, granting her hand to Hiawatha to ensure lasting peace between their tribes.

In Its Own Voice

"As unto the bow the cord is, So unto the man is woman, Though she bends him, she obeys him, Though she draws him, yet she follows, Useless each without the other!"

Hiawatha meditates on the nature of love and partnership while shaping an arrow in his grandmother's tepee before embarking on his journey to the Dacotahs.

"From the red stone of the quarry With his hand he broke a fragment, Moulded it into a pipe-head, Shaped and fashioned it with figures;"

The narrator describes how Gitche Manito crafts the first Peace Pipe from the earth to signal the surrounding tribes.

"I beheld the westward marches Of the unknown crowded nations. All the land was full of people, Restless, struggling, toiling, striving, Speaking many tongues, yet feeling But one heart-beat in their bosoms."

Before stepping into the glowing canoe, Hiawatha delivers a final prophetic vision to his assembled people regarding the future of their land.

What It's Really About

The play explores the tension between mortal mortality and divine destiny, framing human life as a brief passage governed by higher spiritual forces. At its heart, the drama argues that peace and love are the only enduring remedies for ancient rivalries and ancestral bloodshed. Through Hiawatha’s efforts to unite the Ojibways and Dacotahs, the story emphasizes reconciliation over division. At the same time, the tragic arrival of Famine and Fever underscores humanity's vulnerability to the indifferent forces of nature. Ultimately, the work reflects nineteenth-century theatrical themes of a disappearing primitive world, framing Hiawatha's final departure not as a defeat, but as a spiritual transition into the "Land of the Hereafter."

Why Read It Today

This dramatization offers a fascinating window into late nineteenth-century American stagecraft and public spectacle. Readers interested in theatre history, verse drama, or the cultural reception of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poetry will appreciate how A. L. De Vine adapted an iconic literary work into a six-act theatrical presentation complete with detailed scenic directions, music cues, and tableau setups.

The reading experience is rhythmic and distinctly stylized, driven by Longfellow's famous trochaic tetrameter. It flows quickly due to its theatrical layout, blending poetic dialogue with vivid stage directions that describe colored lighting effects, floating canoes, and elaborate ghost transformations.

Modern readers must approach the play aware of its era's limitations. Published in 1895, the text reflects nineteenth-century romanticized and paternalistic attitudes toward Native American cultures, explicitly framing the drama as a tribute to an allegedly "extinct" race. Its simplified portrayal of indigenous customs and stylized language belong firmly to Victorian stage melodrama. Yet, as an artifact of historical drama, it remains a striking attempt to translate epic poetry into visual spectacle.