In The Song of Hiawatha, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's popular epic poem published in 1855, Hiawatha appears at the wigwam of Minnehaha and offers a deer as a token in marriage. Lewis appreciated Longfellow's sympathetic treatment of American Indians during a period when such sentiments were unusual. His poem had particular relevance for the artist because Hiawatha was a member of the Ojibwa (Chippewa) tribe, as was Lewis's mother. Her admiration for the poet resulted in a portrait bust of him, for which he sat just once while in Rome during the winter of 1868 and 1869.