Haudenosaunee+Homage+Assignment+and+Posting+Page

SONGS OF THE HAUDENOSAUNEE Despite Longfellow’s inconsistencies and the argument that his epic might insult Native American cultures by ignoring the real Hiawatha, we can at least appreciate his attempt to challenge the stereotypes of and animosity towards Native Americans on behalf of the American public. Since you’ve been studying the traditions and codes of the Haudenosaunee, perhaps you could correct Longfellow’s mistake. **Your group will write a short elegy dedicated to one of the six tribes of the Haudenosaunee. You will familiarize yourselves with some of the traditions and history of the tribe, then follow my guidelines in order to put together a three (or more) stanza poem.**

Your tools: Your limitations:
 * An informative handout on the tribe you’ve been assigned. This marks the tangible beginning of your knowledge of this tribe. Longfellow had Copway and the Schoolcrafts; you will have this handout. If the handout spurs some curiosity to research further, feel free to. You’ll need plenty of fodder for the ultimate product.
 * The original Song of Hiawatha to model the meter and style you must follow.
 * This handout, which delineates the number of lines that will be in your poem as well as its formulaic beginning an end.
 * You must work with this tribe. The details and story of your poem must relate in some way to the specifics of that tribe: the lands they inhabited, the clothing and makeup they donned, the food they grew/hunted and ate, the beliefs that guided their actions, and their history.
 * You must attempt to recreate the same meter. This will involve your group rewriting lines over and over again and changing the word order so the accents fall on the correct syllables and so each line does not exceed the designated number of syllables.
 * You must mimic the style of the poetry. Based on what features we discovered and discussed in class, you too must tell of this tribe with similar description, repetition, and speeches.

The Rules:

1) Your poem must begin with the following lines:

 Should you ask me,

 Whence these stories?

 Whence these legends and traditions,

 With the ________________ (6 syllable phrase)

 With the ________________ (6 syllable phrase)

 I should answer, I should tell you,

 “From the _________________ (6 syllable phrase)

 “from the _________________ (6 syllable phrase)

 “from the land of ____________ (your assigned tribe’s name, but in 4 syllables)”

2) After this “invocation.” You must set forth on telling a tale of these people. What parts of their culture that tale focuses on will be completely up to you. However, it must be told in **60**  to 80 lines  of 8 syllables  each, following the meter (- = soft syllable, / = accented syllable):

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman Bold","serif";">- - /- - - / - <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Times New Roman Bold","serif";">(The unstressed parts should not matter much, but you want to make sure that the stresses in your poetry fall on the natural stresses of the words you choose).

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">This part of the poem must also mimic the <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman Bold","serif";">repetition <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> and <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman Bold","serif";">description <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> of the original <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman Italic","serif";">Song of Hiawatha <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">. Some of you might create a character who faces an obstacle, others might simply tell more about the people and their ways.

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">3) Your poem must end with the following lines:

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> Now we’ve told of _______________ (your assigned tribe’s name, but in 4 syllables)

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> Told of ________________________, (six syllables)

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> told of _________________________, (six syllables)

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> told to you, the faithful learner.

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> So remember _________________ (four syllables)

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> and remember ________________ .(four syllables)

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> Then, you’ll learn that _______________ (four syllables)

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> and you’ll preach that _______________ (four syllables)