The "Indian girl" associated with Niagara Falls is a legendary figure known as the Maid of the Mist, often identified by the name Lelawala. According to the most common version of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) legend, Lelawala was a young woman who, overcome by grief after the death of her husband, paddled her canoe into the rapids above the falls. As she plunged over the edge, she was caught by Heno, the God of Thunder, who lived in a cave behind the sheet of water. He and his sons nursed her back to health, and she eventually married Heno's youngest son. In the story, Lelawala later saves her people by warning them of a giant serpent poisoning their waters. While the legend is a cornerstone of Niagara folklore and gave the famous tour boat its name in 1846, many modern Indigenous historians point out that the "human sacrifice" versions of the story often told to tourists were actually 19th-century European inventions designed to add "romance" and drama to the falls. The authentic Haudenosaunee oral traditions focus more on themes of resilience, divine intervention, and the spiritual power of the thundering waters.