Elders in the smoky council lodge had spoken,
“Show no fear, oh, chosen maiden. You, Lelawala,
must ask Heno the thunder god to intercede.
Go and see him in his cave, in the cave behind the roaring
waters; go, find out why our people are dying.

“Don yourself in white doe skin; put soft moccasins
with red-stained porcupine bristles on your feet, place
a wreath of flowers upon your hair, then take heart
and plunge over rushing Falls.”

Where the Upper-Niagara River feeds thunderous
Niagara Falls, the Indian maiden stepped into a canoe
made of birch bark and undertook the journey,
but Heno’s two sons caught her up in their arms
and saved the maid from certain death.
Both desired to marry her, but she would pledge
herself only to the one who could reveal this riddle:
What causes our people’s death?

One son said, “It is the giant snake that lives
at the bottom of Niagara River. It poisons drinking
water, then devours the dead.”
He set out to kill the monster snake. In its death throes
the snake sank long fangs into one river bank and fastened
its rattle tail to the other side, and crooked as the snake was,
it shaped the Horseshoe Falls.

Lelawala still lives in the cave behind the thundering
waters that forever cascade overhead. On a sunny day
her spirit glows in rainbow colors, and over the voice
of the thunder god, some tourists say they hear her whisper.