Reading an article in the paper about growing wild rice in the Willamette Valley. The article said "wild grain (whose name in Ojibwe means "good berry") never gave the Ojibwe word. I had to know. The word for the good berry wild rice is Manoonin and there is a website with great information about the major roll wild rice played in the lives of the Ojibwe peoples. More than I wanted to know.
The serendipity that is the internet I found the Native American Words in Longfellow's Hiawatha The original word was "Hayowent'ha which meant "He Who Combs". Henry was singing his own Song with his story of Hiawatha who accepts the Christan message and then pushes off for the sunset and disappears forever. I'm thinking, if he were writing today Henry's Song might have a different ending, or maybe not.
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