https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnehaha
Minnehaha is a fictional
Native American woman documented in
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 1855 epic poem
The Song of Hiawatha. She is the lover of the titular protagonist Hiawatha and comes to a tragic end. The name, often said to mean "laughing water", literally translates to "waterfall" or "rapid water" in
Dakota.
[1]
The figure of Minnehaha inspired later art works such as paintings, sculpture and music.
The Death of Minnehaha is a frequent subject for paintings. Minnehaha Falls and her death scene inspired themes in the
New World Symphony by
Antonín Dvořák.
[2] Longfellow's poem was set in a cantata trilogy,
The Song of Hiawatha in 1898–1900 by the African-English composer
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. Longfellow's poem also inspired Hugo Kaun's symphonic poems "Minnehaha" and "Hiawatha" composed in 1901.
We have a waterfall, a park, a creek, an academy and boat named after her here in Minnesota. There's many other places and things named after Minnehaha all over the US.
Don't disrepect Minnehaha.