Today's "Stutuesday" features an old postcard of a statue of Hiawatha from the 1970s or 1960s. I featured this one a few years ago, actually, and have decided to bring this postcard back.The back says "Sculptured by Anthony Zimmerhaki and his three sons here in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Made of steel and concrete it took three years to build and stands at the north end of Riverside Park. Where three rivers meet. The La Crosse, Black, and Mississippi Rivers"
It's 25 feet tall. Please see this page for some sculptural and other oddities in La Crosse, including the giant 6-pack that was featured in the Stephen King and Peter Straub novel Black House.
Hiawatha as we known him is a actually mythical figure made up by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow from sources that included an actual Iroqois historic figure, Ojibwe legends, and the finish epic song "The Kalevala", which was one of the inspirations for Tolkien in his "Lord of the Rings" and "Silmarillion".In other words, this statue has nothing to do with the Winnebago (Ho-Chunk) Indians native to the area of La Crosse.
4 comments:
I first heard,
"By the shores of Gitche Gumee, By the shining Big-Sea-Water, Stood the wigwam of Nokomis, Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis..." as a very
young child. Nighttime bed story,
much preferable to the terrifying
(to a wee tot) 'Wizard of Oz'.
In the five dozen years since, I've learned more of the people and times..Gichegami-Objibwe for
Lake Superior, those peoples having
made slow migration from the east
and sharing the source lanquage
Algonquin with tribes north and even east of the Iroquois.. maps of the distribution of Indian languages give some hint of pre-contact migrations. The Sioux
speaking Winnebago, were isolated and seemingly long time residents of that area. Old time residents will also recall that other Hiawatha
legacy of Longfellow.
Thanks. I've always been interested in the Hiawatha trains too.
I too first heard that poem as a child at bedtime.
That is one big statue! I often wonder how accurate the style of dress is on statues of First Nations people. I guess I wonder because I don't know myself and that sort of thing interests me.
I have not heard of the Hiawatha trains.
I doubt this statue is accurate at all. In fact it has become controversial in recent years.
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