CULTURE KEEPERS
Black, red and silver maple trees as
The Indigenous Origins of Maple Syrup
BY TONY TEKARONIAKE EVANS
well as box elder trees can be tapped for syrup, but the sugar maple (Acer saccha- rum) produces the largest amounts of sap with the greatest concentration of sugar. The tree is found in a region that is today known as the “Maple Belt,” hardwood deciduous forest that stretches from the Midwest through the Northeast United States and from the southeast corner of Manitoba to Nova Scotia in Canada. Maple syrups are classified according to their color, with the lightest syrups having a delicate taste and darker colors having a stronger flavor. To be “Grade A,” a syrup must reach from 66 to 68.9 on the Brix scale of sugar content. Traditionally, Indigenous people have
T
he gathering of syrup from maple trees in the woodlands of Canada
and the northeastern United States is an ancient practice that had helped sus- tain Indigenous peoples for thousands of years. Yet during the colonial era, some lost their connection to the tree and its ceremonies. Only recently have many started to reclaim it. Among these are members of the
six Indigenous nations in the Haude- nosaunee Confederacy, including the Kanien’keha:ka (Mohawk), whose terri- tory stretches from the upper half of New York state into Quebec. A Faithkeeper with the Haudenosaunee Ronatháte ne Kanien’kehá:ka Kanonhsésne (Mohawk Trail Longhouse) near Montreal is Otsi’tsaken:ra (Charlie) Patton. He prac- tices and shares his peoples’ traditional teachings of tribal traditions at the com- munity longhouse, a gathering place for traditional meetings and ceremonies. “We call Wahta [maple] the leader of the trees because it is always the first tree to wake up in the spring, even when there is still two feet of snow on the ground,” Otsi’tsaken:ra said. “We have a ceremony of Enhatihsestáta to put the sap back in the tree, but only Creation has the power to do this. We burn tobacco to encourage the trees to fulfill their responsibility in the cycle of life.”
10 WINTER 2022 AMERICAN INDIAN
used maple syrup to cure meats, as a sweetener for bitter medicines and as an anesthetic. Maple sugar also contains nutritious minerals, including phospho- rous, magnesium, potassium, iron and calcium. Maple syrup was also used as a trade item in the form of dried, portable sugar slabs. After Europeans arrived in the 1600s,
Traditionally, the process of making maple syrup begins with drilling a piece of wood into the tree, from which the clear sap can drip (above) and be collected into a wood basket.
they learned from Indigenous people how to turn the sap into sweet and medicinal products. Otsi’tsaken:ra’s Kanien’kehá:ka community of Kahnawá:ke had been pre- dominantly a Catholic settlement for gen- erations until the longhouse traditions were restored in the 1920s. He said the connection with Wahta had been dimin- ished to the point that some Kahnawa:ke people had to rely on French neighbors to provide enough maple sap to revive age- old ceremonies. They went to the Onon- daga Nation (also within the Haudeno- saunee Confederacy) and to Ohswékon (Six Nations Reserve) in Ontario to recall maple syrup songs and dances. “The young people went out to learn even more about our ceremonies,” Otsi’tsak- en:ra said, and now, “It’s like someone has turned a switch.” Maple sap (which is called “orontákeri”
in the Mohawk language of Kanienʼkéha) only runs when the temperature rises above freezing in early spring, during what some tribes call the “sugar moon.” However, this is a potentially dangerous time to go into the woods. High winds can snap branches overhead, and people can become stranded in sudden snowstorms.
“Spring is a time when everything is upside down and trying to find balance, so we ask
TOP: KANERAHTAKWAS DEOM/IORÌ:WASE; BOTTOM: BRADY CROSS/IORÌ:WASE/CROSS THE RIVER CREATIVE
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