Legends of the Northwest — Context and Discussion

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In Category - Folklore

Authors: Gordon, Hanford Lennox, 1836-1920 Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2005 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Dakota Indians -- Folklore; Ojibwa Indians -- Folklore; Dakota Indians -- Poetry; Ojibwa Indians -- Poetry Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

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Words 44,518

Reading time 194 min

Text sections 6

The catalog record for Legends of the Northwest — Context and Discussion provides practical reading context through 44,518 words, 3 hr 14 min estimated reading time, and 6 detected text sections.

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Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “Dakota Indians -- Folklore,” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.

Source: Project Gutenberg record #8122

Gordon's verse retellings of Dakota and Ojibwa legends, structured around seasonal cycles and journeys along the Mississippi and Lake Superior, with recurring imagery of water, stone, and the Ha-ha (Falls of St. Anthony).

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File: pg8122

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They were open-hearted, truthful and brave. In their wars with other tribes they seldom slew women or children, and rarely sacrificed the lives of their prisoners.

For many years their chiefs and head men successfully resisted the attempts to introduce spirituous liquors among them. More than a century ago an English trader was killed at Mendota, because he persisted, after repeated warnings by the chiefs, in dealing out _mini-wakan_ (Devil-water) to the Dakota braves.

With open arms and generous hospitality they welcomed the first white men to their land; and were ever faithful in their friendship, till years of wrong and robbery, and want and insult, drove them to desperation and to war. They were barbarians, and their warfare was barbarous, but not more barbarous than the warfare of our Saxon and Celtic ancestors. They were ignorant and superstitious, but their condition closely resembled the condition of our British forefathers at the beginning of the Christian era. Macaulay says of Britain, "Her inhabitants, when first they became known to the Tyrian mariners, were little superior to the natives of the Sandwich Islands." And again, "While the German princes who reigned at Paris, Toledo, Arles and Ravenna listened with reverence to the instructions of Bishops, adored the relics of martyrs, and took part eagerly in disputes touching the Nicene theology, the rulers of Wessex and Mercia were still performing savage rites in the temples of Thor and Woden."

The day of the Dakotas is done. The degenerate remnants of that once powerful and warlike people still linger around the forts and agencies of the Northwest, or chase the caribou and the bison on the banks of the Sascatchewan, but the Dakotas of old are no more. The brilliant defeat of Custer, by Sitting Bull and his braves, was their last grand rally against the resistless march of the sons of the Saxons and the Celts. The plow-shares of a superior race are fast leveling the sacred mounds of their dead. But yesterday, the shores of our lakes, and our rivers, were dotted with their tepees. Their light canoes glided over our waters, and their hunters chased the deer and the buffalo on the sites of our cities. To-day, they are not. Let us do justice to their memory, for there was much that was noble in their natures. In the following Dakota Legends I have endeavored to faithfully represent many of the customs and superstitions, and some of the traditions, of that people. I have taken very little "poetic license" with their traditions; none, whatever, with their customs and superstitions. In my studies for these Legends I have been greatly aided by Rev. S. R. Riggs, author of the Grammar and Dictionary of the Dakota language, "Tah-Koo Wah-Kan," &c., and for many years a missionary among the Dakotas. He has patiently answered my numerous inquiries and given me valuable information. I am also indebted to Gen. H. H. Sibley, one of the earliest American traders among them, and to Rev. S. W. Pond, of Shakopee, one of the first Protestant missionaries to these people, and himself the author of poetical versions of some of their principal legends; to Mrs. Eastman's "Dacotah." and last, but not least, to the Rev. E. D. Neill, whose admirable "History of Minnesota" so fully and faithfully presents almost all that is known of the history, traditions, customs, manners and superstitions of the Dakotas. In _Winona_ I have "tried my hand" on Hexameter verse. With what success, I leave to those who are better able to judge than I. If I have failed, I have but added another failure to the numerous vain attempts to naturalize Hexameter verse in the English language.

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Gordon's Legends of the Northwest moves through a landscape shaped by water: the Mississippi, Lake Superior, and the Falls of St. Anthony (called Ha-ha by the Dakotas). The poems are anchored in specific geography—from the North Shore's 'dark rugged rocks' to the 'green, templed hills' of the river valley—and in the seasonal rhythms of the Dakota year. The preface establishes the author's ethnographic stance, describing the Dakotas as 'the Iroquois of the West' and emphasizing their distinct language and traditions. The verse itself shifts between narrative passages and lyrical interludes, often marking transitions with natural imagery: the 'soft, dreamy Indian Summer' or the 'lurid' flames of prairie fires.

Water as a Structural Element

The poems are organized around bodies of water that serve both as settings and as narrative devices. The Mississippi appears as a 'dark-rolling river' that carries the action from the Falls of St. Anthony to the 'plunge of the Ha-ha.' Lake Superior is evoked through its bays and capes—'the grand Thunder Bay,' 'the isle Wau-ga-bá-mé'—and through the figure of DuLuth, the French explorer whose boat 'flew like a Sea-Gull' along the shore. Gordon uses water to connect episodes: the journey of DuLuth in 'The Seagull' follows a route from the Holy Ghost Mission to the Saut St. Marie, while Winona's story unfolds beside the river. The recurring image of the Ha-ha—the falls—functions as a central landmark, a place of both beauty and danger.

Seasonal Cycles and the Passage of Time

Gordon marks the passage of time through precise seasonal details. The excerpt from 'Winona' opens in 'the moon of the sere, falling leaves,' with maples shedding 'red-and-gold plumage' and cranes gathering for migration. The 'soft, dreamy Indian Summer' is attributed to the god of the South looking back over his shoulder as he flees Wazíya, the god of Winter. These seasonal cues are not mere decoration; they structure the narrative, linking human events to the natural world. The blind chief Ta-té-psin sits 'in the warm, dreamy haze of the beautiful Summer in Autumn,' a phrase that echoes the poem's attention to transitional moments. The harvest of wild rice and the gathering of cranberries ('po-pán-ka') ground the story in the material culture of the Dakota.

Movement Between Scenes: Journey and Return

The poems frequently depict movement across the landscape, whether by canoe, on foot, or through the eye of a traveler. In 'The Seagull,' DuLuth's voyage is traced with place names—'the Ké-we-naw,' 'the Mission Sainte Marie'—and the boat's progress is accompanied by the wind and waves. The narrative voice shifts between the present tense of the journey ('the swift west-wind sang in the sails') and the reflective past. In 'Winona,' the aged chief moves slowly, 'bends as he walks,' and his blind steps are guided by his daughter and his dog Wicháka. These scenes of travel and stasis create a rhythm of departure and return, with the falls and the river as constant points of reference. The reader is carried from the shore of Lake Superior to the prairie, from autumn to winter, following the same paths the characters tread.

Recurring Images: Stone, Smoke, and the Watchful Animal

Certain images recur across the excerpts, binding the poems together. Stone appears in the 'gray rocks' of the North Shore and the 'Stone Giant' who sleeps on the Cape. Smoke rises from prairie fires that roll 'on the somber skies flashing their torches.' Animals are ever-present: the crow that 'sits on a dead, withered branch,' the geese and mallards flocking from the marshes, and the faithful dog who 'lovingly lays his head at the feet of his master.' These details are not decorative; they carry symbolic weight. The dog Wicháka, whose name means 'Faithful,' mirrors the loyalty of Winona. The crow, peering 'askance at the old man,' suggests mortality. Gordon builds a world where every element—stone, smoke, bird, beast—participates in the story.

Readers attentive to the interplay of geography and season will find that Gordon's poems reward careful attention to the natural world he describes. The excerpts offer only fragments of the longer narratives, but they reveal a consistent method: the use of water, stone, and animal life to anchor mythic events in a recognizable landscape. The movement between scenes—from the roar of the falls to the quiet of the prairie—invites the reader to follow the same currents that carry the characters forward.

That rainy afternoon, with the Ha-ha’s water in my ears and Ojibwa stones in my head, I found myself drowsy, trailing off from Gordon’s winter lodge to another shore. By chance, my hand found Lays and Legends of the English Lake Country With Copious Notes — Context and Discussion, and the same quiet patience of water over rock seemed to wait there, grey and familiar.