Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1901-05-03
INDIAN MAPLE SUGAR.
Man Taught the White Man.
Many Years Ago.

4efhod Of Making Which the Red
| Man Taught the White Man.
Many Years Ago.
| Very few of the people to whom
maple sugar is an entirely familiar
snd commonplace thing are aware of
he fact that the method of making
stugar was taught to the white peo-
,les by the Indians, and that they
made sugar dong before the discovery
IF America. This is only one of the
many things that the white people
learned from the Indians. Others
we're the weaving of cotton, the cul-
ivation Of Indian corn and the use
II tobacco, says Forest and Stream. 'l
| Some of the early writers tell us
hat the French we're the first to
make this sugar, and that they
earned how to make it from the In
liam women. The sap was collected
n rude way, a cash being cut in the
tree, and into this stick was thrust,
Town which the freely, flowing sap
| 1ripped into a vessel Of birch bark
Or gourd or into wooden troughs
followed out by fire orthe AK. Then
INTO larger wooden troughs full of
lust as in old times they used to be
Was boiled-and by constantly throw
ng in hot stones and taking out
| those that had become cool the sap
vas boiled and evaporated, and at
ength strip was. made, which later
| became sugar. =
| This manufacture of the sugar was
~ = l.,
practiced by all northern Indians, and
was known to those living as far
south as Florida and Texas. Among
the sugar making tribes a special fes-
| tival was held, which was called the
maple dance, which was undoubted-
~ a religious festival in the nature
Or a prayer or propitiatory ceremony.
asking for an abundant flow of sap
and for good fortune in collecting it.
Among many if not all the, Indians
| mia biting the northern United States
maple sugar was not merely a luxury
something eaten because it was
toothsome-but it was actually an inn
portant part of their support. Mixed
with pounded, parched corn, it was
put up in small quantities and was
a concentrated form of nutriment,
not much less valuable in respect to
its quality of support than the penn
mican which was used almost down
to our own times.
Among all the older writer's who
had much familiarity with the Gus
toms of the Indians, accounts are
given of the manufacture 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-eat-
ers, was applied to the Algonquin
tribes, and an eminent authority. DR..
Brinton, has suggested that they
were probably $50 called from their
love of the product of the sugar
maple" On the other hand, A.. F.
Chamberlain has very plausibly said
shat it is hardly likely that the Iro-'
quois distinguished other tribes by
this term, if its origin be as suggest
ed, since they themselves were sugar
makers, and eaters" A more proba-
BILE origin of the word is that given
by Schoolcraft, in substance as fol.
lows: sRatirontaks, whence Adiron-
dacks, was applied chiefly to the Mon
tagnais tribes. north of the St. Law
renee, and was a derisive term indi-
eating 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 inhabit the country 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 tapped by the Indians and
the sap boiled down for sugar, and
to-day 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
80 years ago. 'si
It is interesting to observe that in
many tribes to-day the word for
sugar is precisely the word which
they applied to the product of the
maple tree before they knew the
white mans sugar. It is interesting
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, according to j. o. Dor.
sey, and also of the Kansas, Usage
and Iowa, Winnebago, Tuscarora and
Pawnee- The Cheyennes, on the
other hand, call it box elder water
A. F. Chamberlain,w who has gone with
great care into the question Of the
meaning of the words which desig-
nate the maple tree and it's product.
is disposed to mean that the name OF
the maple means the tree-in other