Gathering
Above: Sugar Camp. Painting by Seth Eastman in Mary H. Eastman, The American Aboriginal Portfolio (Newberry Library, Ayer 250.45 .E2 1853). View catalog record
Native people used their extensive knowledge of the forest to obtain food, such as berries, roots, nuts, and leaves for tea. And the sap they obtained from maple trees was made into granulated sugar, syrup, and gum sugar. It was used as a condiment on fish and other foods.
How did they obtain maple sugar?
Sugar Camp
Families and communities went to their sugar camps each spring and made bark coverings for the house frames. They refurbished their equipment, which lasted 5 to 10 years with good care. The women marked their family's trees with an axe and made a cut in the tree where they inserted wooden spiles. As Eastman's painting shows, containers were placed under the spiles to catch the sap. Then women poured it into pails and carried it to barrels. The sap was strained through mats then boiled. Some women kept the fire going and others stirred the sap with ladles like those in the painting. When the sap granulated, the sugar was stored in birchbark boxes and used throughout the year. Painting by Seth Eastman in Mary H. Eastman, The American Aboriginal Portfolio (Newberry Library, Ayer 250.45 .E2 1853).
Making Sugar, 1895
These Menominees continued to rely on maple sugar and other plants in the forest to sustain themselves during the difficult reservation conditions in the late 19th century. Painting by Mary I. Wright, 1895. Photo courtesy of National Anthropological Archives, (INV. 06158500).
Boiling the Sap from the Maple Trees
Photo courtesy of Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission (GLIFWC).
Maple sugar cakes
The sap was boiled down to make cakes and sugar. Photo courtesy of Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission (GLIFWC).
Gathering maple sap at White Earth
Maple trees are tapped every year. Photo courtesy of White Earth Tribal and Community College.
Many plants in the forest had medicinal properties. Specialists in Native communities viewed these plants as gifts from spirit beings. For this reason, healers left offerings to the spirits of the plants when they collected them. This knowledge of the use of plants in healing had been developed through generations of experimentation and study. Non-native settlers made use of some of the Native treatments. There were hundreds of remedies applied as salves and incense or taken orally. Today plants still are collected for medicinal purposes.
Do You Want to Learn About Some Medicinal Plants?
Witchhazel
A salve and a rubbing oil were made from this plant to soothe muscle ache. Franz Eugen Köhler, Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen, 1887.
Slippery Elm
The inner bark of this tree helped to heal a wound and a tea made from its leaves soothed a cough and diarrhea. Fiber made from the bark was used for mats, nets, twine, and baskets. Courtesy of Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
Hazelnut
The bark of the hazelnut bush was boiled and used as a poultice on cuts. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, user MPF.
Nannyberry
The bark from this plant was made into a tea that was used as a diuretic, and the berries were eaten. Photo courtesy of United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service North Dakota (USDA NRCS ND) State Soil Conservation Committee.
Bloodroot
Juice from this plant soothed a sore throat and, when boiled, it produced an orange-red dye. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia Commons, user wadester16.
Wild strawberry
A tea used to treat a stomach ache was made from the root of the plant, and the berries were eaten. Photo by Dr. Kim Hummer, courtesy of United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Trees like the birch and the cedar were considered sacred because in origin stories they were gifts from spirit being protectors. Until the early to mid-twentieth century, Native peoples’ technology was based largely on wood, bark and plant fiber. With these materials they made houses or wigwams, canoes and dugout boats, containers, bags, twine, and mats, among other things. Today, this woodcraft still is practiced and is considered by many Native peoples as an expression and manifestation of identity.
Listen to a tribal elder from the Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa explain how to strip bark from the birch tree
Identifying Plants
Larry Baker identifies culturally significant plants on Lac Courte Oreilles Reservation. Tribes try to incorporate both knowledge of elders and scientific information to protect plants and harvest areas. Tribes also have negotiated with the U.S. Forestry Service to allow tribal gathering of wild plants in national forests. Members get tribally-issued permits to harvest wild plants for both commercial and non-commercial purposes. Photo by Shanna Clark, courtesy of Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College, Wisconsin.
Preparing Cattail Roots
These tribal college students are learning how to process and use plants for woodcraft and basketry. Photo courtesy of White Earth Tribal and Community College, Minnesota.
Stripping Bark from the Birch Tree
In June, the bark of the birch begins to loosen so that it can be easily removed. Here a Mille Lacs tribal member gathers birchbark in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, Wisconsin. The bark from the birch tree is stripped and the strips sewn together to make a covering for a wigwam or the strips can be used to make containers. Photo courtesy of Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission (GLIFWC).
