Lelawala

In Native American legend, Lelawala was a beautiful woman of the tribe of the Iroquois that was venturing in waterfalls one day, but happened to fall out of her canoe. The thunder spirit Hé-no then saved her, as Hé-no was the one who lived behind the falls. At the time, her canoe was broken so Hé-no offered to build a new one. On the day he finished building the canoe, a huge snake with venom so powerful it could kill a whole village, was headed towards the village of Lelawala, but Hé-no then threw a lightning bolt at the snake. The snake landed on top of the falls, creating the curved shape of Horseshoe Falls.

Adaptations

Henry Hadley composed a cantata entitled Lelawala: A Legend of Niagara in 1898, in which Lelawala sacrifices herself to appease the "Thunder Waters" and save her tribe from a famine.^[1] Charles Wakefield Cadman's three-act operetta Lelawala: The Maid of Niagara (1926) is based on the story of Lelawala. The libretto includes a number of colonialist plot points, including Lelawala learning about Christian forgiveness from a white missionary.^[1]^[2]

References

1 2 Levy, Beth E. (2012-04-18). Frontier Figures: American Music and the Mythology of the American West. University of California Press. pp. 137–138. ISBN 978-0-520-95202-7.
↑ Cadman, Charles Wakefield (May 1927). ""Lelawala", The Maid of Niagara". Music Supervisors' Journal. 13 (5): 73. doi:10.2307/3383281. ISSN 1559-2472. JSTOR 3383281. S2CID 143690230.

[:0-1] 1 2 Levy, Beth E. (2012-04-18). Frontier Figures: American Music and the Mythology of the American West. University of California Press. pp. 137–138. ISBN 978-0-520-95202-7.

[2] Cadman, Charles Wakefield (May 1927). ""Lelawala", The Maid of Niagara". Music Supervisors' Journal. 13 (5): 73. doi:10.2307/3383281. ISSN 1559-2472. JSTOR 3383281. S2CID 143690230.

[1]

[2]