Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-04-03
INDIAN MAPLE SUGAR.
The Red Man Taught the White Man
to Make the Dainty.

to Make the Dainty.
From Forest and Stream.
Very few of the people to whom maple
sugar is an entirely familiar and common
place thing are aware Of the fact that the
method Of making sugar was taught to the
white people by the Indians, and that they
made sugar long before the discovery of
America. This is only one of the many
things that the white people learned from
the Indians. Others were the weaving of
cotton, the cultivation Of Indian corn and
the use Of tobacco.
Some of the early writers tell us that
the French were the first to make this
sugar, and that they learned how to make
1t from the Indian women. The sap was
collected In a rude way. a cash being cut
in the tree and into this a stick was
thrust, down which the freely flowing sap
drfpped into a vessel of birch bark or a
gcurd or into wooden troughs followed out
by fire or the AK. Then into larger wooden
troughs full Of the sap red hot stones were
thrown-just as in old times they used to
be thrown into the water in which food
was boiled-and by constantly throwing in
hot stones and taking out those that had
become cool the sap was boiled and evap-
GRATED, and at length syrup was made
which later became sugar.
This manufacture of the sugar was not
confined to any one tribe, but was prac-
ticed by all northern Indians and was
known to those living as far south as
Florida and Texas. Among the sugar-mak
Ing tribes special festival was held, which
was called the maple dance, which was un-
doubleday religious festival in the nature
of prayer or propitiatory ceremony, ask
ing for an abundant flow of sap and for
good fortune in collecting it.
Among many il not all the Indians in
habltfng the northern United States mapIe
sugar was not merely a luxury-something
eaten because 1t was toothsome-but was
actually an important part Of their sup
port. Mixed with pounded, parched corn
it was put up in small quantities and was
concentrated form of nutriment not
much less valuable in respect to its quail
1ty OF support than the pemmican which
was used almost down to our own times
Among all the older writer's who had
much familiarity with the customs of the
Indians accounts are given Of the manu-
facture of sugar, and this custom was so
general that among many tribes the month
in which the sap ran best was called the
sugar month. By the Iroquois the name
Ratirontaks, meaning tree eaters. was ap-
Piled to the Algonquin tribes, and an emil
nent authority, DR.. Brinton, has suggested
that they were probably 80 called from
their love of the product of the sugar
maple" On the other hand, A. F. Cham
berlain has very plausibly said that it is
hardly likely that the Iroquois distinguish
ed other tribes by this term, il its origin
be as suggested, since they themselves
were sugar makers and eaters" A more
probable origin Of the word is that given
by Schoolcraft, in substance as follows:
"Ratfrontaks, whence Adfrondacks, was
applied chiefly to the Montagnafs tribes.
north OF the st. Lawrence, and was a de-
rlsive term indicating a well-known habit
OF these tribes OF eating the inner bark
OF trees in winter when food was scarce,
or when on war excursions" This habit
OF eating the inner bark OF trees was, as
IS well Known common to many tribes of
Indians, both those who inhabited the coun-
try where the sugar maple grows and also
those in other parts of the country where
the maple Is unknown.
On the western prairies sugar was made
also from the box elder. which trees were
down for sugar, and today the Cheyenne
Indians tell US that it was from this tree
that they derived all the sugar that they
had until the arrival of the white man on
the plains, something more than fifty years
ago.
1t is interesting to observe that in many
tribes today the word for sugar is pre-
cisely the word which they applied to tie
product Of the maple tree before they
knew the white mans sugar. 1t is inter-
esting, also, to see that among many tribes
the general term for sugar means wood or
tree water-that is to say, tree sap. This
is true of the Omahas and Poncas ac-
cording to ]. o. Dorsey and also of the
Kansas, Usage and Iowa, Winnebago, Tus-
carora and Pawnee. The Cheyennes. on
A. F. Chamberlain, who has gone with
great care into the question of the mean
ing of the words which designate the
maple tree and it's product. is disposed
to believe that the name of the maple
means the tree-in other words the real or
actual tree, or the tree which stands above
all othere