YMMV / The Song of Hiawatha

• Fair for Its Day: Today The Song of Hiawatha can seem condescending to its subject matter, with its emphasis on just how primitive the Native Americans are, its very unfaithful retelling of Ojibwe legend (it barely scratches the surface to point out that it gives the Nanabozho analogue a name from a totally unrelated language), and the ending, where the hero endorses his people accepting Christianity on the spot and being, in hindsight, rather too welcoming of the white settlers. Yet at the time many white readers felt that Longfellow was being too sympathetic to Native Americans and too respectful of Native American mythology, which they didn't believe was worthy of a similar treatment to European mythology. The introduction contains a frank plea on behalf of the common humanity of "savage" people.
• Have a Gay Old Time: The introduction describes the poem as a "rude inscription." The somewhat archaic sense that "rude" is used here means "unrefined" or "primitive," not "impolite" or "obscene."