As a free African American living only miles from the Confederate border, Duncanson surely felt the mounting tension of the Civil War by 1862. In the fall, he left town on a sketching trip to the Upper Mississippi through Minnesota, perhaps for this reason. While there he captured this beautiful view of the falls on the Minnesota River near Mankato. The Dakota word Minneopa, meaning “water falling twice,” refers to the twin waterfalls. A traditionally dressed Native American at the foot of the foreground waterfall is perhaps a reference to Longfellow’s Hiawatha, a popular poem set in the area. On the surface the poem is about the vanishing Native American race, but it was also embraced by abolitionists as a symbol of the plight of African Americans, as both races suffered under the control of the European American.