Nokomis is the name of Nanabozho's grandmother in the Ojibwe traditional stories and was the name of Hiawatha's grandmother in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, The Song of Hiawatha, which is a re-telling of the Nanabozho stories. Nokomis is an important character in the poem, mentioned in the familiar lines:

By the shores of Gitche Gumee,

By the shining Big-Seawater

Stood the wigwam of Nokomis

Daughter of the moon Nokomis.

Dark behind it rose the forest

Rose the black and gloomy pine-trees

Rose the firs with cones upon them

Bright before it beat the water

Beat the clear and sunny water

Beat the shining Big-Sea-Water.

According to the poem, From the full moon fell Nokomis/Fell the beautiful Nokomis. She bears a daughter, Wenonah. Despite Nokomis' warnings, Wenonah allows herself to be seduced by the West-Wind, Mudjekeewis, Till she bore a son in sorrow/Bore a son of love and sorrow/Thus was born my Hiawatha.

Abandoned by the heartless Mudjekeewis, Wenonah dies in childbirth, leaving Hiawatha to be raised by Nokomis. The wrinkled old Nokomis/Nursed the little Hiawatha and educates him.

In the Ojibwe language, nookomis means "my grandmother,"^[1] thus portraying Nokomis of the poem and the aadizookaan (Ojibwe traditional stories) from a more personal point of view, akin to the traditional Ojibwa narrative styles.

United States

• Nokomis Avenue, a broad road in Chicago and Lincolnwood, Illinois.
• Nokomis Avenue, a street in Minneapolis.
• Camp Nokomis, all girls sleepaway camp run by the Merrimack Valley YMCA. Camp Lawrence is the boys camp that is on the same island and run by the same YMCA.
• Nokomis, Alabama, a community in Escambia County, Alabama which was a railroad stop
• Nokomis, Escambia County, Florida, a community in northwest Florida adjoining Nokomis, Escambia County, Alabama. While not a census designated place, the name reference is in local use.
• Nokomis, Sarasota County, Florida, a census-designated place.
• Nokomis Township, Buena Vista County, Iowa
• Nokomis, Illinois, a city
• Nokomis, Minneapolis, Minnesota, a neighborhood
• Lake Nokomis, part of a chain of lakes connected by Minnehaha Creek in Minneapolis, Minnesota
• Nokomis Regional High School, in Newport, Maine
• The Nokomis Native American Cultural Learning Center in Okemos, Michigan
• Nokomis Elementary School, in Ukiah, California
• Nokomis Park in Cheektowaga (town), New York
• Nokomis Groves, a landmark.
• Nokomis Pond, town reservoir of Newport, Maine^[2]
• Lake Nokomis, created in 1911 by a dam that is now called Harry Reasoner dam in Humboldt, Iowa.
• Lake Nokomis, in Oneida and Lincoln counties, Wisconsin
• Lake Nokomis, a reservoir in the vicinity of Red Feather Lakes Village in Larimer County, Colorado
• Nokomis Township, Oneida County, Wisconsin
• Lake Nokomis (Rice Reservoir on Tomahawk River) in Lincoln/Oneida counties in Wisconsin
• Nokomis Inc. Small privately owned business located in Charleroi, Pennsylvania.
• Nokomis Elementary School, Sachem CSD, Ronkonkoma, New York. (Sachem also includes a Hiawatha & Wenonah elementary schools).
• Nokomis Road, Sudbury, Massachusetts.
• Nokomis Road, Wilbraham, Massachusetts.
• Nokomis Road, Apple Valley, California.
• Nokomis Way, Natick, Massachusetts.
• Nokomis Elementary, Medford Lakes, New Jersey

Canada

• Nokomis, Saskatchewan
• Nokomis Trail, part of Lake Superior Provincial Park, Ontario^[3]
• Nokomis Park, part of Larose Forest in Limoges, Ontario, Limoges Village, Prescott-Russell counties, Ontario

Nokomis is also a character in Richard Adams' fantasy novel Maia. She has a son called Anda Nokomis.

• USS Nokomis (YT-142) was a fleet tug that was in the Yard Craft Dock of the Navy Yard at the beginning of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. She provided assistance to other ships and survived the attack.

• SS Delphine (1921) was originally named Nomokis.

Red Wing Potteries Inc. produced Nokomis glazed pottery from 1929 to 1934.^[4]