Maid of the Mist – Mythology and Mis-telling in Niagara Falls, NY
On June 4 we continued the first part of our journey by driving from Albany to Niagara Falls, New York. We had left part of Aaron’s mother’s ashes in Two Lights, Maine, and were on a road trip with Aaron’s father, brother, and sister-in-law to take the rest of her ashes to Harvard, Illinois, about an hour north of Chicago, and scatter them on the farm where she grew up. Only one of the five of us had seen Niagara Falls and so it was decided that we would stay the night there and visit the falls before continuing our pilgrimage with Mary Alice’s ashes.
We were amazed at the diversity of people we encountered in our visit to Niagara Falls. It is not surprising that such a magnificent natural wonder would attract visitors from all over the world, just amazing to see them all capturing their photographs in front of the falls. People are so helpful in that regard. Almost anyone you ask is willing to take a photo so that everyone can be included, and then are grateful when the favor is returned. There is no language barrier on this exchange of kindness.
Long before our visit to Niagara Falls, the area was inhabited and held sacred by America’s indigenous peoples. When American Indians, members of the Clovis culture, first came to this region around 12,000 years ago, the falls were just beginning to form. A small group seems to have settled here year-round, while much larger groups of nomadic Indians moved in and out of the area on a seasonal basis, fishing in the warmer months and following the migration of caribou, moose, elk, and mastodons. One of the earliest groups called themselves the Onguiaahra, which Is the likeliest origin of modern name Niagara.
Later, with the shift from a nomadic to an agricultural existence, the Iroquois would settle this region in much larger numbers creating permanent communities and alliances with other native tribes of the area. The Iroquois confederacy included peoples whose group names grace local places and landmarks: Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk and Tuscarora. Of the Iroquois confederacy, the most prolific in the Niagara region was the Atiquandaronk tribe. This group, like many of the Iroquois peoples, lived communally in longhouses with separate areas for different kinships and classes. Another designation for the Iroquois people is the Haudenosaunee, meaning "people who are building the longhouse.”
Because the river and the falls were so important to the peoples who lived here, a number of stories linked to these waters arose among the people. After visiting the falls and experiencing the power and the sound of the rushing water, it makes perfect sense that the Niagara Falls was known as the home of the Thunder god.
One American Indian story that has become well known is the story of the “maid of the mist.” The erroneous version of the story that became popularized by its repetition to millions of visitors on the boat tour of the same name, has been traced to Robert Cavelier de La Salle, who made contact with he Iroquois in 1679. In his writings, the European explorer, told a version of the story in which a virgin maiden of the village was sacrificed yearly to appease the god of the falls. He wrote, “When learning of this yearly sacrifice, I attempted to stop them of such a practice.” He also wrote about a supposed sacrifice that he witnessed first hand, in which “Chief Eagle Eye’s daughter named Lelawala” was the chosen sacrifice. He explains that the Chief changed his mind, set out to rescue her in his own canoe and that both fell to their death. This account concluded that “Iroquois believed that after their deaths, both were changed into pure spirits of strength and goodness. The Chief would be the ruler of the cataract and she would be the Maid of the Mist. “
This version of the story did not make sense to scholars of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) people. The Haudenosaunee had an innate sense of the sacredness of life, and venerated the women of their tribes as the bearers of new life. The Haudenosaunee held women in such high regard, that they elevated them to positions of power and responsibility in their government and community life. Their respect for women caused them to be one of the earliest recorded peoples to have equal voting rights in ordinary matters of communal decision making. So why would these same people make an annual sacrifice of a woman of child-bearing years?
After much research by both Native and non-Native scholars, no proof of human sacrifice among the Haudenosaunee was ever found. Going back to the most likely source of this false narrative, it was discovered that Cevelier de La Salle’s wife refuted his account of their encounter with the Haudenosaunee people. Telling a story of human sacrifice and how he tried to stop it accomplished two important things according to her. It gained the praise of the King and Queen of France, who were the source of funding for future expeditions. It also sent the message that the natives of the region were savages. Demonizing them meant there would be little opposition to taking their land for colonization. According to her, the Haudenosaunee people were intelligent and hospitable, completely undeserving of the negative characterization of her husband.
So what was the original Iroquois story from which the erroneous “maid of the mist” story was extracted? According to the legend, a young Indian woman lost her husband at a very young age. Distraught over his death, she attempted suicide by launching her canoe into the waters above Niagara Falls. The god of Thunder, who lives inside the falls, took pity on her and saved her. He took her into his dwelling place behind the waterfall. He and his sons nursed her wounds and taught her many secrets about the life of gods and humans. The young woman fell in love with his youngest son and the two married. She remained living with them in the falls, but when there was a threat to her people, she returned to them carrying the knowledge she had acquired from the gods of the falls.
There are several versions of this sacred legend, but none of them mention human sacrifice. These legends are, at their core, a cosmology about the wisdom of women, signified by one woman who gained important and sacred knowledge and used it to help her people.
In recent years, modern Iroquois Indians and anthropologist have come together to challenge the erroneous and “europeanized” version of the story that was still being told to tourists aboard the tour boats at the falls. In our tour on the “maid of the mist” we were thoroughly soaked, amazed at the natural wonder, and told to do our own research if we wanted to know why the boat was called “maid of the mist.” The company has discontinued the practice of telling the false tale of human sacrifice at Niagara Falls.
