Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants

According to Anishinaabe legend, maple sap was made thin and watery by Nanabozho, the Original Man. One day Nanabozho found a village where the people had become lazy. Instead of harvesting and storing the Earth’s gifts, they sat under the maple trees with their mouths open, drinking the thick syrup the maples provided. Nanabozho poured river water into the trees, turning the syrup into thin, watery sap to remind the people of their responsibility. Today, 40 gallons of sap are needed to make one gallon of maple syrup.

Maples begin to produce sap in late winter when light-measuring sensors on the tree’s sprouting buds signal the first thaw. After collection, the sap becomes syrup through a long process of boiling. In the past, Indigenous people created syrup by collecting sap into long troughs made from tree trunks. The liquid froze overnight, and in the morning the people would remove the layer of ice from a more concentrated sugar solution. After several rounds, only syrup remained. Tradition holds that the people learned this method from squirrels, who chew bark to release sap, then eat the sweet crust that remains after the sap ices over.

The sugars that become maple sap originate in the roots of the tree.