The braves of her tribe had a great battle with the Ojibways. Her husband was like two men; he helped drive the Ojibways back to their own fishing grounds. There was a great feast after the battle; the warriors sang and told how brave they had been. Her husband sang a long song and made a great speech.
After this he told her that he was a great warrior now and must have two wives; he was going to marry the chief’s daughter. Ampata mourned, but he forgot her.
Ampata fled to her father’s tent and took her two children with her. She went to the south with her father when winter came; in the spring she came back to the Falls of Minnehaha with her tribe.
Her husband did not come for her, and she was alone with her children. All the warriors went to hunt the buffalo on the prairie.
There had been much rain, and the river was wide and deep. Ampata put her two children into a canoe, and taking the paddle got in herself and pushed far out into the river. The women called to her to come back, but she pushed away faster toward the falls. The canoe leaped over the falls, and Ampata and her [[144]]two children passed to the Happy Hunting Ground of the other world.
Minnehaha Falls in Summer
From a Photograph
Every spring the Indians say that on moonlit nights they can see the shadow canoe of Ampata leaping over the falls. They say white elk and white deer watch it from the shore. [[145]]