HIAWATHA ("he makes rivers"), a legendary chief (c. 1450) of the Onondaga tribe of North American Indians. The formation of the League of Six Nations, known as the Iroquois, is attributed to him by Indian tradition. In his miraculous char acter, Hiawatha is the incarnation of human progress and civiliza tion. He teaches agriculture, navigation, medicine and the arts, conquering by his magic all the powers of nature which war against man. He was adopted as the hero of the well-known poem by Longfellow.
See J. N. B. Hewitt, in Amer. Anthrop. for April 1892.