Indigenous peoples’ lore, tradition live on in maple syrup season
ONEIDA - An Oneida legend tells that the finished syrup used to flow freely from the maple tree, but as the people lacked appreciation for the gift the Creator made, the big winds arrived and turned the syrup into water.
“We lost our way,” said Artley Skenandore, principal of the Oneida Nation High School. “We can still have wáhta’ óshes (maple syrup), we just have to work for it now.”
A group of Potawatomi people from the Mishicot area had resisted forced relocation to Oklahoma in the 1800s because there were no maple trees there and instead found a place to settle in what is now Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, according to local historians.
Today, another group, the Forest County Potawatomi Community in northeast Wisconsin, has established a large farm to practice food sovereignty for the Indigenous nation and plans to produce about 500 gallons of maple syrup a year from its maple sugar bush section.
A new video game developed in northern Wisconsin called “Growing Up Ojibwe” that celebrates Indigenous sovereignty, history and culture in that region has players collect firewood throughout the game to use in the process of making maple sugar.
The Indigenous people of North America, or Turtle Island, had taught the first European settlers how to tap the maple tree and make syrup, according to historians.
A Wisconsin specialty
As more days are above freezing temperatures and nights are below freezing, causing the sap to move through the maple tree, tapping season is well underway throughout Wisconsin.
With about 250,000 gallons of maple syrup produced every year, according to the Wisconsin Maple Syrup Producers Association, the state is the fourth-largest producer in the United States behind Vermont, New York and Maine.
But Theresa Baroun, director of the organization, thinks a lot more is being produced in the state, especially by hobbyists during this pandemic year because more people are trying outdoor activities.
Four types of maple trees can be tapped for their sap to make syrup: sugar, silver, red and black. But black maple is much less prevalent in Wisconsin, and sugar maple produces the highest sugar content.
In Wisconsin, there are more than 2.2 billion maple trees that are at least 41⁄2 feet tall, according to the Department of Natural Resources, with more than 863 million sugar maples.
A tree must be at least 10 inches in diameter before considering tapping because the sap runs through its third layer. Tapping does not cause harm to the tree, as it can respond by sealing the hole and be ready for tapping again
the next year in a different area.
A harvester then taps a hole between 11⁄2 and 2 inches deep and must be sure there’s no bark in the hole.
A spigot is attached and a bucket is used to collect the sap.
Baroun said the sap runs best during sunny days.
The process of boiling the sap varies by method and efficiency and can include gas burners or firewood.
Forty gallons of sap makes about 1 gallon of maple syrup, which is a healthier sugar alternative that is full of vitamins and nutrients.
Skenandore said people historically would use flint knives to tap the tree and collect the sap in birch bark buckets.
He said there are up to eight camps on the Oneida reservation today run by extended families with about 100 trees on each site.
Before anyone can do anything to tap a tree, they must perform a thanksgiving ceremony by offering burning tobacco, Skenandore said.
Every family produces up to 15 gallons of maple syrup each season, which they use for themselves, give as gifts or barter for items, such as wild rice or cultural crafts.
The maple syrup also can be made into a ceremonial, sweet, uplifting and medicinal drink used to celebrate the arrival of spring.
“The elders say ‘don’t forget about me in the springtime,’ ” Skenandore said, referring to their request for maple syrup.
Frank Vaisvilas is a Report For America corps member based at the Green Bay Press-Gazette covering Native American issues in Wisconsin. He can be reached at 920-228-0437 or fvaisvilas@gannett.com, or on Twitter at @vaisvilas_frank. Please consider supporting journalism that informs our democracy with a tax-deductible gift to this reporting effort at GreenBayPressGazette.com/RFA.