Editing Weeping Water, Nebraska (section)

=== Legend ===
Debates over the origin of the name have existed since at least the early twentieth century.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Nebraska Folklore|last=Pound|first=Louise|publisher=Bison Books|year=2006|isbn=978-0-8032-8788-4|location=Lincoln, Nebraska}}</ref> Regardless of whether the legend originates from Native American sources or was simply created to explain the mistranslation of the Native American name for the stream, the legend has become an important piece of Nebraska folklore.

According to American folklorist [[Louise Pound]], the first written reference to the legend of Weeping Water is found in the 800-line poem "The Weeping Water" by Orsamus Charles Dake, published in a book of poetry called ''Nebraska Legends and Other Poems'' in 1871.<ref name=":0" /> Dake's poem is prefaced with a disclaimer that "The Weeping Water" was one of two poems that Dake "developed."<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=Nebraska Legends and Poems|last=Dake|first=O. Charles|publisher=Pott & Amery|year=1871|location=New York|pages=11–52}}</ref>

Dake's poem is also preceded by a paragraph summarizing the legend which reads:<blockquote>The [[Omaha people|Omaha]] and [[Otoe]] Indians, being at war, chanced to meet on their common hunting ground south of the [[Platte River]] in Nebraska. A fierce battle ensued, in which all the male warriors of both tribes being slain, the women and children came upon the battle-field and sat down and wept. From the fountain of their tears arose and ever flows the little stream known as the Ne-hawka or the Weeping Water.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /></blockquote>The poem includes details and dialogue that Dake likely invented, such as the main narrative thrust of the poem, a story of forbidden love between an Otoe man and the daughter of the Omaha chief.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> According to Pound, the words spoken by the characters in the poem are not so much dialogue but rather "[l]ofty speeches of the [[Homer]]ic and [[Virgil]]ian type" which Pound attributes to Dake's classical training and tenure as an English professor.<ref name=":0" /> Pound suggests that it is most likely, based on the preface and summary he provides with the poem, that Dake took inspiration from a preexisting [[Folklore|folktale]], though whether the legend was genuinely of Native American origin remains undetermined.<ref name=":0" />