Hiawatha (1913 film) only an abridged copy of the film. Hiawatha (1913 film) Hiawatha is a 1913 American silent drama film directed by Edgar Lewis and based upon Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's epic poem "The Song of Hiawatha" (1855). The film stars Jesse Cornplanter of the Seneca people and Soon-goot, a 17-year-old unknown actress. The movie is the first feature film to use a cast of American Indians. The story begins along the Lake Superior Michigan shoreline with the appearance of a mighty spirit that tells the Indians a peacekeeper will bring wisdom and unite the warring tribes. Hiawatha is born to Wenonah and
The Song of Hiawatha (Coleridge-Taylor) was published as The Song of Hiawatha and had its first complete performance in 1900, at the Royal Albert Hall. The later parts of the overall work were not nearly as successful as the first part, "Hiawatha's Wedding Feast", which continued to be regarded as a work in its own right and received many hundreds of performances in the UK and overseas countries such as the USA, Canada, South Africa and New Zealand. It became so famous in Britain that for many years it rivalled Handel's "Messiah" and Mendelssohn's "Elijah" in the public's affections. Nothing else he ever wrote equalled