Longfellow insisted, "I can give chapter and verse for these legends. Their chief value is that they are Indian legends."

Longfellow's sources for the legends and ethnography found in his poem were the Ojibwe Chief Kahge-ga-gah-bowh during his visits at Longfellow's home; Black Hawk and other Sac and Fox Indians Longfellow encountered on Boston Common and additional writings by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, an ethnographer and United States Indian agent.

In sentiment, scope, overall conception and many particulars, Longfellow's poem is a work of American Romantic literature, not a representation of Native American oral tradition.