(Some observations from a presentation at the Missouri Folklore Society on Lover's Leaps) The article published in Missouri Folklore Society Journal Volume 21 (1999) 81-98.

Louise Pound, in her work on Nebraska's Lovers' Leaps, has a number of very interesting observations about both the history and also the folklore of those leaps. Her general description of a lover's leap is quoted from Krapp's book on folklore.

In mountainous regions it is difficult not to find a precipice from which it is fabled that some human being has leaped, a knight pursued by the enemy, or a virgin fleeing from her captor. The leap may end with disaster, or the fugitive may be saved by a miracle. ⁽¹⁾

The Upper Mississippi, with its spectacular and imposing bluffs, has a number of legends that tell of individuals or couples who leap to their deaths because relatives or parents object to their marriage. Thompson ⁽²⁾ describes a legend as an account of a happening that had actually occurred. It may have happened in ancient times or it may have happened in another place and it may be narrated in other localities with the same conviction that it had actually occurred in those places. These legends, which are not easily verified, are passed from one generation to the next and eventually becomes a part of the Mississippi River's rich history. For the most part, none of the accounts seem to have considered suicide and how the participants justified the taking of their own lives.

The legend, sometimes involving the supernatural, is usually concerned with a real person, place or subject. ⁽³⁾ Louise Pound in her article maintains that there are two legends that may have given impetus to others. The two are the legend of Sappho of Lesbos who supposedly leaped into the Ionian Sea from a white rock because she had fallen in love with Phaon. People who had studied the legend believe that the story is of a later time than the 610 BC date that had been given for Sappho's leap to death. The other legend is the tale of Leander who swam the Hellespont to be with his love, Hero. He died in the attempt and when Hero, a young priestess of Apollo, learned of her lover's death, she threw herself into the sea. The sixteenth century poet, Marlowe, retold this tale in his couplets and George Chapman finished the poem after Marlowe's death.

Pound wonders why the lovers' leap legends are not chronicled by folklorists as frequently as legends of other types. Although she also notes that in the Old World there are many legends of lovers' leaps, the distinctive part of the leaps in America is that the heroes and heroines are generally Indians. In her discussion of Lovers' Leaps she explains the interest of American literary people in Lovers' Leaps.

Legends are supposed to descend from the past. In our country the past is not classic or feudal-chilvalric but belongs to the aborigines. Tales of desperate lovers taking refuge in suicide would be told less suitably of explorers, hunters, trappers, or soldiers. They would have less appeal than those told of Indians and colored by the preconceptions of the day, when the idea of the Noble Savage reigned and the Red Man was in the foreground of romantic interest. The history and traditions of the Indians seemed, in the earlier nineteenth century, to afford excellent material for American literary men, especially poets. ⁽⁴⁾

As the twentieth century society learns more of urban folklore one can find some parallels between the Lover's Leap legends and such urban legends as that of the stunned deer. ⁽⁵⁾ When and where did the leap take place? How much actually is true in the story of the leap?

How authentic is a legend of Lover's Leaps? G. Hubert Smith (The Winona Legend) quotes Stephen Riggs, who wrote in 1893, on the authenticity of such legends.

Sometimes it happens that a young man wants a girl, and her friends are also quite willing, while she alone is unwilling. The purchase bundle is desired by her friends, and hence compulsion is resorted to. The girl yields and goes to be his slave, or she holds out stoutly, sometimes taking her own life as the alternative. Several cases of this kind have come to the personal knowledge of the writer. ⁽⁶⁾

Many Versions of Legend

There are many variations of these legends, and each one usually ends with one or two people committing suicide, because marriage is not permitted by the tribe or the family. One can find a description of a Lover's Leap in "American Folklore: An Encyclopedia":

Typically, two Indian lovers, often from different tribes, are prevented from marrying because of tribal enmity or taboo; in despair or defiance, one or both commit suicide by jumping off a precipice. ⁽⁷⁾

There are many versions of this definition and in some cases it is a white man who wishes to marry the Indian princess. For example, in Cumberland, Maryland the Lovers' Leap involved a daughter of an Indian chief and a white mother, and Jack Chadwick, a white hunter. The chief, for financial reasons, really wanted his daughter to marry, instead of the hunter, a white officer from the nearby fort instead of the hunter. After Jack became lucky and discovered silver on his property, he thought that his problems were behind him because he had now become wealthy. Jack confidently went to the chief, and again asked for his daughter's hand in marriage. The chief not only refused, but attacked Jack with a club, and, in the struggle, the chief was killed by a stone thrown by the young suitor. The girl, being distraught over the death of her father whom she loved very dearly, now knew that she could never be happy in marriage to a man who had killed her father. The legend concluded that Jack and the princess leaped, hand in hand, to their deaths. This Lovers' Leap produced another legend which has two Indians fleeing from the warring tribes who are pursuing the young lovers. As both tribes begin to get close to them, the young lady and her beloved leap to their deaths from the precipice.

Charles M. Skinner (1895) relates an interesting legend that describes how a soldier was saved by a young Indian lady when the Indians massacred the soldiers in the fort. The lady, who was half-white and half-Indian, then married the soldier and the couple seemed to be destined to "live happily ever after." However, when the fort was rebuilt, the soldier not only rejoined the army, but also brought a white woman with him. The distraught wife, who had saved his life, cunningly invited him to spend one hour with her before he left their home for the fort. The home had been a gift of the government in appreciation for her saving the soldier's life. She then put her arms lovingly around the neck of the soldier and pulled him over the precipice so that they both died in the fall. This place should probably have been called "Lover's Revenge" instead of "Lover's Leap."

One of the oldest legends in the United States is from Fern Angus ⁽⁸⁾ who writes of a 16th century Lover's Leap which was known as the Virgin Bluff. This legend dates back to the time of DeSoto and his soldiers who were moving through the area of Cape Fair, Missouri. Today the waters of Table Rock Lake cover those lowlands that were beneath the Virgin Bluff. It seems that one of the Spanish soldiers fell in love with the princess of the chief of the Delaware tribe. When the chief would not consent to the marriage the young lady leaped to her death from the high cliff. The sequel to this legend is that during a certain season of the year when the waters are high one can hear the death song of the princess.

The Hannibal Legend

In the Hannibal legend, a young brave from the Illinois tribe falls in love with an Indian princess from the Fox tribe. When the young brave was about to be killed by the father of the princess, she knew that her life would not be worth living without her beloved brave. Because of the threat to his life, the two leaped to their deaths into the Mississippi River that flowed below. ⁽⁹⁾ This story, as fiction, first appeared in the newspaper in 1840 and was written by Orion Clemens, the brother of Mark Twain. A folklorist would love to know where Orion found the idea for this story. Was it an old legend that he had heard from local Indians who inhabited the area at the time? Did he learn of the legend from steamboat people who would certainly have known about the Winona legend by this time. The tour guide on the Mark Twain, the excursion boat, had this comment (probably with tongue in cheek) as the boat passed near Lover's Leap: "There are many Lovers' Leaps up and down the river. This one is, however, believed to be the real, authentic, absolute and honest-to-goodness, Lover's Leap. It is attested to by an old Indian legend from many years gone by." According to this legend a brave from the Illinois tribe fell in love with a princess from the Fox tribe. After the father of the girl discovered their secret meetings, he attempted to kill the brave. He did not succeed and the two lovers leaped to their deaths." (Quoted from Tour Guide's Presentation on Mississippi Riverboat in Hannibal).

Some variations of the Hannibal legend permit the lovers to live. One account tells how they fell into a barge of grain and floated down the river to New Orleans where they opened a gift shop. This version would certainly have developed after the steamboat age.

LaGrange Lover's Leap

A Lover's Leap which had been located near LaGrange, Missouri, no longer exists; it was located on Wakonda Creek, which enters into the Mississippi at LaGrange. The legend, somewhat vague, is that an Indian maiden and an Indian man were in love and, could not marry because of their parents' objections. Because they could never be happy together as husband and wife they leaped to their deaths.

Although Mark Twain may have been exaggerating in his "Life on the Mississippi" (1883) when he wrote that there were at least fifty Lovers' Leaps on the great river, nevertheless one still finds a number of ledges with their lovers' legends. These legends, which refer to incidents which happened many years ago, raise many questions with no easy answers. Why are there so many legends? Did the suicides really happen? Who is the source of the legend? Why did the nineteenth century Americans find these legends so fascinating? Do the legends tell us something about the nineteenth century people and their ideas? How did the Indians view the morality of suicide?

William Joseph Snelling (b.1804), an author, lived with the Sioux Indians for a winter. He is known in American literature for encouraging his readers to appreciate the short story rather than the novel. He vigorously opposed the nineteenth century view that portrayed the Indian as a figure of violence and sentiment. He endeavored to show, in his short stories, that Indians were just like other human beings and this attitude is reflected in his semi-or quasi-historical account of the Winona legend. David Steinback, (editor of the last edition) in the Introduction to Snelling's "Tales of the Northwest" (1830), argues that Snelling attacked the commonly received opinion that "the aborigines were all heroes."

The importance of Snelling's fictional treatment of Indians in these stories can be understood if one quickly examines the standard appearance of Indians in nineteenth-century American fiction. Whether the Indian was pictured as a "noble savage" or a mere "panther" in the forest. His identity and worth were always determined, in early American fiction, by those characteristics that were distinctly his own. He was what the white man could never become and still be considered civilized. In novel after novel--the Indian (demonic or not) continually appeared as an alien being, rather than as member of a different culture. The Indians who were endowed with qualities of loyalty, self-sacrifice, beauty, and eloquence were invariably chiefs or descendants of chiefs, while Indians as a group were made to seem inherently stupid and violent (even in the work of a writer like Cooper, who was constantly accused of idealizing the Indian.) Moreover, the Indians who had the good fortune to be given noble qualities by their white creators were also given the questionable privilege of expressing the author's faith in Manifest Destiny. ⁽¹⁰⁾

Many of Mark Twain's writings appear to be enjoyable, simple, and straightforward.

The meaning of his work may often appear quite evident, but after more analysis, one frequently suspects that he is just as interested in telling us about the people of the nineteenth century, as he is in giving us a good story. After reading both his account of Maiden Rock and his reflections on his dinner talk at the celebration of John Greenleaf Whittier's birthday party, one is faced with a number of questions. Did Mark Twain take the legends of the Lover's Leaps seriously? Was he familiar with Snelling's works? Did he think that the legends were a product of the Romanticism of the nineteenth century? Even though he was quite young when his brother Orion wrote the story of Hannibal's Lover's Leap, was he influenced by that account?

The Winona Legend

There are Lovers' Leaps at Winona, Minnesota, LaGrange, Missouri, Hannibal Missouri, and at Oyeka Rock (location unknown). The most famous legend along the Mississippi River is that of Winona and this legend has almost as many versions as there are narrators. G. Hubert Smith in his article "The Winona Legend" which investigated its authenticity, stated that this was one of the best known legends of a Lover's Leap. ⁽¹¹⁾ The Winona story, which is typical of Lover's Leap legends, concerns a girl, We-no-nah, who wished to marry a hunter of the tribe; but her mother and father, and mainly her father, wanted her to marry a famous warrior of the tribe. Since she could not change their minds about her choice of a husband, she climbed to Maiden Rock, and after singing her death song, leaped to her death. A statue in the park at Winona has this message engraved on it.

THE STATUARY GROUPING OF WE-NO-NAH AND ITS TURTLES AND PELICANS WAS ERECTED IN CENTRAL PARK ON AUGUST 26, 1902, AND INCORPORATED IN LEVEE PLAZA IN 1977. WE-NO-NAH MEANING FIRST BORN DAUGHTER IN THE DAKOTA LANGUAGE IS THE NAMESAKE FOR OUR CITY AND COUNTY. LEGEND TELLS OF HER LOVE FOR A SIMPLE HUNTER INSTEAD OF THE WARRIOR CHOSEN BY HER FATHER, CHIEF WAPASHAW. RATHER THAN MARRY A MAN SHE DIDN'T LOVE, WE-NO-NAH CLIMBED TO THE TOP OF A BLUFF OVERLOOKING THE RIVER, PROCLAIMED HER TRUE LOVE AND JUMPED TO HER DEATH.

Historians, such as G. Hubert Smith, think that if the leap of Winona is historical; it probably took place before 1800. It is interesting that Smith does not refer to Skinner's work, which places the Winona Legend in 1700. ⁽¹²⁾ It is also noteworthy that Smith does not refer to Mark Twain's account of that legend in his "Life on the Mississippi." Mary H. Eastman also places the leap around 1700, but Smith believed that there was not much evidence for her suggestion, even though he considered her research on the legend to be excellent.

William Joseph Snelling wrote a fictionalized version of the leap. In Snelling's account, the man who wished to marry Weenona was a French trader, Raymond, who had generously given a gun and other gifts to Wa-pa-sha, Weenona's father, for his daughter. After her death the trader, fearing the vengeance of the tribe, hurriedly canoed down the river. According to Snelling, Winona's beloved hunter did not grieve very long over his loss, and within a year, had married two wives and was as great a beau as ever. Snelling was familiar with the work of Rousseau and his "noble savage" and made some critical comments in his story of Maiden Rock.

All the Dakotahs can say on the subject is that she was Weenona, or the oldest girl of the family. By this title, then, we shall designate her. Weenona, in the opinion of the young hunters, was the prettiest maiden in the tribe; but the women, and more especially the girls, who ought to be the best judges in such matters, were of a quite contrary opinion. If we were telling this to one of those philosophers who believe with Jean Jacques that envy and jealousy are strangers to savage life, it would probably startle him; but those who are better judges of human nature will not be astonished when we say that these vices, as well as uncharitableness, are as often found in a lodge as in a palace. ⁽¹³⁾

Oyeka Rock

Oyeka Rock or "The Legend of Lovers' Leap" is another account of a Lover's Leap. The brief description of this legend is especially interesting not only because it was written in verse, but especially because of its romantic language. According to this legend, the Chippewa and the Daklota tribes had been at war for a long time, and finally decided to smoke the peace pipe. During the visit, Weharka, a princess of the Dakotas, and Oyeka, the son of the Chief of the Chippewas, fell deeply in love. The poem begins in a very romantic manner and sets the stage for the story which is one of savagery, passion and never-dying love.

While the Chippewa and Dakota Council members smoked the pipe of peace and agreed to peace between the tribes, the poem continues: "So it happened that the warriors billed and coo'd, like the gentle wood-doves, vanquished by the victor Love." Even the most sentimental persons would have some difficulty attempting to imagine these hardened warriors "cooing like doves."

The meeting of the tribes ended with a pledge of friendship and it was thought that wars between the Chippewas and Dakotas were finally over. As with many treaties, there is often one or two persons who can disrupt the agreement. In this situation it was Weharka's only brother, Oshonee, who not only did not honor the treaty, but actually murdered the Etoka, the chief of the Chippewas, and the father of Oyeka. Oshonee was seeking vengeance because Etoka had killed his father a few years before the peace meeting. The message of Eetoka's death reached Oyeka when he was hunting buffalo for his tribe. At his father's death, he immediately became the chief and his first official act was to declare vengeance on all Chippewas. He led his men on the warpath and returned to slaughter the enemy. However, when the Dakota men stormed into the Chippewa camp the men were away on a hunt, and the women and children were at the mercy of Oyeka and his warriors. The behavior of Oyeka changed dramatically from being the gentle lover to the warrior who slaughtered the Chippewa babies and mothers. The poem describes the horrible scene as follows:

After slaughtering many of the Chippewa tribe, Oyeka came to Weharka who knelt at his feet with her eyes full of love. When she saw only anger and hate in his face she leapt to her death from the precipice.

After the massacre, Oyeka went to the precipice and looked into the water where Weharka called to him from the depths. She begged him to leave the grief and sadness that he had experienced and to join her. The poem ends with the implication that Oyeka also leaped to his death to join his love.

The poem does not describe Oyeka's leap into the river to join Weharka, but the verses indicate that death could not separate him from his only true love.

Francis A. deCaro who has done a very thorough study of Lovers' Leaps has offered a number of explanations for the large number of lovers' leaps in the United States. ⁽¹⁸⁾ The great interest and fondness among Americans for legends that describe Indians, who leap individually or together to their deaths, required some explanation. He noted the various ways in which the Indians were perceived by White Americans in the nineteenth century. Sometimes the Indian was seen as a romantic figure with love and death being a part of the legend, while at other times the Indian was portrayed as the barbaric savage whose cruelty knew no limits. The different perceptions are very evident in the poem that describes the romance of Weharka and Oyeka. At one time Oyeka is the loving brave who cannot bear to leave Weharka, and a short time later, he is pulling Chippewa infants from their mothers' arms and dashing them to their deaths on the rocks. Among his observations deCaro asked if the many legends of Lover's Leaps may not be due to a guilt complex on the part of the white people who had mercilessly destroyed many Indians. If Indians killed themselves, then maybe the white people would feel less guilty for the disappearance of the Indians.

Many answers have been offered to the questions raised by Lover's Leaps. There is no simple explanation for the number of legends, and why the white settlers found them so fascinating. In discussing these, one probably should consider a number of factors; one being the attitudes and values of the nineteenth century American people. These factors should include such influences as the psychological, philosophical, theological, and political perspectives of the nineteenth century settlers.

Are legends created by white people? One Native American suggested that legends were sometimes based on actual happenings, and were expressed orally, and then gradually spread from tribe to tribe with variations. Perhaps the legends were exchanged and shared in the many meetings between tribes when they gathered to trade. Were the tribes also exchanging their views on the world when they related the legends? Charles W. Skinner, in his study of myths and legends, writes that these traditions sometimes symbolize high truths. ⁽¹⁹⁾

In his "Life on the Mississippi" ⁽²⁰⁾ he describes in "Legends and Scenery" a new passenger who boards the steamboat at LaCrosse. This gentleman seemed to be familiar with every part of the river and its surroundings. As this gentleman related many stories about the river, Mark Twain became suspicious, and asked the storyteller if he had ever traveled with a panorama. The man answered in the affirmative, and admitted that he was gathering material for a Tourist's Guide for the St. Louis and St. Paul Packet Company. At the suggestion of Mark Twain, the lecturer told the Lover's Leap legend of Maiden Rock, and of "the long-departed Winona, darling of Indian song and story." Winona had been in love with a hunter but her father and mother had chosen a warrior for her husband. He concluded his story in this way:

On reaching the rock, We-no-na ran to its summit and standing on its edge upbraided her parents, who were below, for their cruelty, and then singing a death dirge, threw herself from the precipice and dashed them to pieces on the rock below. ⁽²¹⁾

SCHNELLING'S VERSION

After Weenoona leaped to her death, the father died because of a wound from a bear and because of grief. Then his wife cut her wrists because of the deaths of her husband and her daughter. Interestingly, Snelling did not comment on the mother's suicide, but had this observation about Weenoona's condition after her leap from "Maiden Rock."

The common opinion of the Dakotahs was that the poor girl would be obliged, in the other world, to carry about with her a burthen of the very stones on which dashed herself to death to pieces, as a punishment. ⁽²³⁾

One immediately asks the question about the mother and what her punishment would be in the next life and why Weenoona had to carry stones.

Conclusion:

It seems that there is no single explanation as to why there are so many Lover's Leaps in the United States. There are many influences that must be considered when one searches for the causes and reasons for so many legends. Smith (page 375), in his study, quoted George W. Featherstonbaugh, who accounted for the Winona legend because of "perpendicularity of the precipice." A high precipice naturally draws attention, and it would probably be safe to say that many Lovers' Leaps stories are products of white people, who, for a number of reasons, loved these stories. Tourism has certainly contributed to the popularity of the legends, for it is quite entertaining to graphically tell the story of a Lover's Leap to visitors. It is especially exciting and romantic when the excursion boat travels under the ledges on a starlit night. The psychological aspect that deCaro has proposed should not be ignored and may account for some of the 19th century interest in the legends. At the same time one cannot ignore the thought of many of the leading literary people who were very much interested in the wildness of nature and recognized the need to preserve the wilderness.

It is also almost impossible to determine when the legends began, and how they were changed by their telling and retelling. G. Hubert Smith, who had done so much research on the Winona legend, admitted that few Lovers' Leaps were as authentic as that of Maiden Rock on Lake Pepin. At the same time, he quotes many authors who questioned the historicity of Winona's suicide. Have the individual areas produced their own legends on the basis of legends that were passed orally across the country from tribe to tribe? How much did tourism influence the popularity of the legends in the nineteenth century? One certainly cannot ignore the influence of the romanticism that was prominent in the United States at that time. It is interesting to note that Skinner, in his narrative of the Winona legend, refers to her as Juliet and to her hunter as Romeo. ⁽²⁴⁾ There certainly was a western culture influence on the selection of legends to be printed and the details radically changed the traditional accounts.

24. Charles M. Skinner, Myths and Legends in Our Own Land, Vol II, J.B. Lippincott Co. 1896, p. 321.