Minnehaha, << `mihn` ee HAH hah, >> Falls is a waterfall on Minnehaha Creek in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Minnehaha means laughing waters in the Sioux Indian language. The falls are 53 feet (16 meters) high. Over thousands of years, they have cut a deep gorge in the surrounding sandstone and limestone cliffs. Minnehaha Falls is part of a city park and appears on the seal of the city. The American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow made the falls famous in The Song of Hiawatha (1855), a poem based on Indian legend. A statue of the Indian leader Hiawatha and his wife stands at the top of the waterfall.
