Although virtually unread today, there is still much in The Song of Hiawatha to appeal to young readers. In addition to the conventional epic features of heroic action, supernatural event, and thrilling adventure, The Song of Hiawatha is an entertaining source of American Indian lore. The epic story of Hiawatha is as much a rhetorical excuse for narrating tales of American Indian mythology as it is important for its own sake.

These tales are highly imaginative and interesting, such as how the lonely Wabun, the East-Wind, yearned for a lovely maiden, whom he wooed with “sighing and singing,” eventually changing her into the star of morning that is visible each dawn as the East-Wind gently blows. Many of the tales are mighty adventures of bravery and magic. In order to fight off a fever plaguing his people, Hiawatha challenges Megissogwon, the powerful magician who is the cause of the fever. After striding a mile per step in his magic mocassins, Hiawatha arrives in the land of the magician, where he battles poison serpent guards. When finally face to face with Megissogwon, Hiawatha finds that his expert bowmanship is of no avail because the magician’s wampum shirt is enchanted and protects him. A woodpecker reveals to Hiawatha the magician’s vulnerable spot, which enables Hiawatha to vanquish Megissogwon and save his village from the fever. To reward the woodpecker, Hiawatha dyes the bird’s head red with the magician’s blood as an everlasting token of his service.

In addition to the physical prowess demonstrated by Hiawatha and others, the tales emphasize how intelligence is highly valued among the American Indians in the poem. Hiawatha depends as much on his wit as does the Greek hero Ulysses. For example, he taunts Nahma the sturgeon into swallowing him so that he can kill the giant fish from the inside. When battling his father, Mudjekeewis, Hiawatha fools him into thinking that the bulrushes are his weakness. Most important, however, in demonstrating his intelligence in useful ways, Hiawatha builds a canoe, invents picture writing, and develops corn production, making him a hero because of his mind as well as his brawn.

The poem is also a wonderful source for young readers of American Indian perspectives on nature and human life. In the world of the poem, the animals represent different tribes, in many ways equal participants with the people in the grand spectacle of survival. When Mudjkeewis defeats Mishe-Mokwa, the Great Bear, he taunts the creature for crying and whimpering and for thus disgracing his bear tribe. Wind and cold, moon and stars, waterfalls and cornstalks are all given human qualities; thus, Longfellow succeeds in suggesting the indeterminacy of human character typical of American Indian mythology. For example, the four winds behave as human beings as well as natural phenomena, baffling human efforts to distinguish living beings in nature.