The Grand Excursion, a trip sponsored by the Rock Island Railroad, brought more than a thousand curious travelers into Minnesota by rail and steamboat in 1854. The next year, in 1855, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow published The Song of Hiawatha, an epic poem said to be based on Ojibwe legends of Hiawatha. Inspired by coverage of the Grand Excursion in eastern newspapers and those who read Longfellow's story, tourists flocked to the area in the following decades. Hiawatha, the real person, was a co-founder of the Haudenosaunee or Iroquois confederacy. Depending on the version of the narrative he was a leader of the Onondaga, or the Mohawk or perhaps both. According to some versions he was born an Onondaga, but adopted into the Mohawk.

Hiawatha was a follower of The Great Peacemaker (Deganawida), a Huron prophet and spiritual leader who proposed the unification of the Iroquois peoples, who shared common ancestry and similar languages. The Great Peacemaker was a compelling spiritual presence, but was impeded in evangelizing his prophecy by foreign affiliation and a severe speech impediment. Hiawatha, a skilled and charismatic orator, was instrumental in persuading the Senecas, Cayugas, Onondagas, Oneidas and Mohawks to accept the Great Peacemaker's vision and band together to become the Five Nations of the Iroquois confederacy. The Tuscarora nation joined the Confederacy in 1722 to become the Sixth Nation.

In attempting to date the Great Peacemaker and Hiawatha, an incident related to the founding of the Iroquois Confederacy, that involves a division among the Seneca nation, a violent confrontation began and was suddenly stopped when the sun darkened and it seemed like night. Possible dates for an eclipse include 1451 and 1142AD. There is debate about which would mark the creation of the Iroquois Confederation. The Seneca were the last to join the original five nation confederacy.