hiawatha Definition

Hiawatha is a 19th-century American Indian hero and a principal founder and leader of the Iroquois Confederacy. The term is also used to refer to a type of canoe associated with the Native American tribes of the Great Lakes region, and to the name of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's long narrative poem 'The Song of Hiawatha' (1855), which tells the story of this legendary chief.