Big Horn Lenape Nation/ Tribe

If you are of Native Ancestry, and not a member of any other Native Nation; and your ancestors are of mixed blood and cannot meet the criteria for Federal Recognition; you may seek membership with us. Applications can be received by request at : [email protected] .

Post 14 of 14 - Maple Sugaring Basics: So what's in maple syrup/sugar? Although many may state "sugar is just sugar," there is difference between maple syrup ...and corn syrup, and maple sugar and white sugar. In way of sugars, maple syrup is mostly sucrose, with some glucose and fructose (and levels of each can vary slightly depending on grade, or possibly method of processing or sugarbush locations). One difference can be the carbohydrate content, which is less in maple syrup versus corn syrup (you know, corn syrup... the stuff they use to make fake maple syrup from). And due to the nutrients found naturally occurring in the tree sap, maple syrup/sugar boasts a large serving of manganese, fair amounts of calcium and potassium, along with magnesium and small amounts of iron, phosphorus, zinc, and copper. Indeed, unlike white sugar and traditional baker’s brown sugar, maple sugar is not stripped (highly processed) of its naturally occurring minerals and vitamins. Some vitamins found in maple syrup/sugar include niacin, riboflavin, and trace amounts of folic acid, with higher amounts of amino acids and antioxidant content than white sugar. In fact maple syrup/sugar owes its distinctive flavor to its amino acids (and no, the taste is not "just like brown sugar"). Phony flavored maple syrups fail to taste just like real maple syrup simply because they do not contain the natural ingredients responsible for the distinctive maple taste. And that distinctive maple taste was first harnessed by sugar-producing Native families - a taste originating of and defining Native cuisine of the northern Woodlands. Want to learn more about traditional Native maple sugaring?... Just like us to view these series on posts on your newsfeed: https://www.facebook.com/WoodlandIndianEDU (Photo: WIEP demonstrates historic-style maple sugaring: left - evaporating maple sap over the fire in trade kettles; right padding sugar until it cools and granulates 2010).

Making chewy gum sugar for sugarbush visitors after a fresh snowfall. Gum sugar is not made of hot syrup... Hot syrup is not thick enough and melts through the ...snow, failing to solidify sufficiently into a candy. Tacky gum sugar is instead made of hot sugar just about ready to become dry sugar. Hot sugar will solidify in seconds after being dripped onto the snow... then the tacky sugar is lifted off the snow and chewed on as a treat (or as was traditionally practiced by the Anishinaabe/Ojibwe, wrapped in birchbark envelopes for later enjoyment). Want to learn more? Visit us at https://www.facebook.com/WoodlandIndianEDU to see all the posts we shared on traditional maple sugar-making these last two weeks, and stay tuned for tomorrow’s post... the last in our series. See more

Post 13 of 14 - Maple Sugaring Basics: While maple syrup is a fine a tasty product, it is harder to store than dry sugar. Unlike storing dry sugar, to store sy...rup all containers must be watertight. And syrup is more likely to go bad... that is ferment unintentionally (hence why your maple syrup jugs advise you to refrigerate after opening). Indeed dry sugar was preferred historically by Native Peoples and settlers alike, not that syrup wasn’t made, only limitedly compared to dry sugar (for example, sap collected in the last stretch of the tapping season often would not crystalize, so it was usually kept as syrup). To achieve dry sugar, the maple sap was reduced past the syrup stage. In historic times (and still today), this meant evenly heating the syrup to about 40-50 or so degrees over the boiling point to crystalize (high-heat crystallization). With this the syrup expands 3 to 4 times it’s size in a foamy state. Past sugar-makers, before the use of thermometers (as most candy-makers rely on today), looked for textural changes and color to determine when the hot sugar was ready to finish as granulated sugar or poured into sugar cakes. Dripping hot sugar onto snow, looking for the liquid to turn solid is the most well known Native-style test, but it wasn't the only test. For us (WIEP) we like to look for the sugar foam to separate cleanly from the pot side when we drag our spoon down the edge, for the hot sugar to leave long dry strings as it drips from our ladle, and for a caramel color streak to rise from the bottom of the hot sugar mass to the top. With these signs we know it’s time to take the hot sugar off the fire and finish it. Historically, the Native Peoples made two types of dry maple sugar: hard sugar cakes (candied) and granulated sugar. Sugar cakes were achieved by pouring the hot maple sugar directly into greased molds (molds were often made of wood and smooth bark, however others mentioned included eggs, shells, and duck bills). To make granulated sugar, the hot sugar was often poured into wooden troughs where it was paddled as it dried. The sugar became harder to paddle as it cooled but the paddling had to continue until it was fully cooled or the sugar wouldn’t granulate properly. This job was often a shared one as arm muscles can grow tired paddling (to be continued tomorrow). Want to learn more about traditional Native maple sugaring?... Just like us to view these series on posts on your newsfeed: https://www.facebook.com/WoodlandIndianEDU (Photo: WIEP demonstrates making dry maple sugar by heating sugar over fire and paddling to granulate it traditional Native-style hard sugar products part of WIEP’s display include granulated sugar, sugar cakes small and large in molds of wood, bark cones, shells, and duck bills 2014).

Post 13 of 14 - Maple Sugaring Basics: While maple syrup is a fine a tasty product, it is harder to store than dry sugar. Unlike storing dry sugar, to store sy...rup all containers must be watertight. And syrup is more likely to go bad... that is ferment unintentionally (hence why your maple syrup jugs advise you to refrigerate after opening). Indeed dry sugar was preferred historically by Native Peoples and settlers alike, not that syrup wasn’t made, only limitedly compared to dry sugar (for example, sap collected in the last stretch of the tapping season often would not crystalize, so it was usually kept as syrup). To achieve dry sugar, the maple sap was reduced past the syrup stage. In historic times (and still today), this meant evenly heating the syrup to about 40-50 or so degrees over the boiling point to crystalize (high-heat crystallization). With this the syrup expands 3 to 4 times it’s size in a foamy state. Past sugar-makers, before the use of thermometers (as most candy-makers rely on today), looked for textural changes and color to determine when the hot sugar was ready to finish as granulated sugar or poured into sugar cakes. Dripping hot sugar onto snow, looking for the liquid to turn solid is the most well known Native-style test, but it wasn't the only test. For us (WIEP) we like to look for the sugar foam to separate cleanly from the pot side when we drag our spoon down the edge, for the hot sugar to leave long dry strings as it drips from our ladle, and for a caramel color streak to rise from the bottom of the hot sugar mass to the top. With these signs we know it’s time to take the hot sugar off the fire and finish it. Historically, the Native Peoples made two types of dry maple sugar: hard sugar cakes (candied) and granulated sugar. Sugar cakes were achieved by pouring the hot maple sugar directly into greased molds (molds were often made of wood and smooth bark, however others mentioned included eggs, shells, and duck bills). To make granulated sugar, the hot sugar was often poured into wooden troughs where it was paddled as it dried. The sugar became harder to paddle as it cooled but the paddling had to continue until it was fully cooled or the sugar wouldn’t granulate properly. This job was often a shared one as arm muscles can grow tired paddling (to be continued tomorrow). Want to learn more about traditional Native maple sugaring?... Just like us to view these series on posts on your newsfeed: https://www.facebook.com/WoodlandIndianEDU (Photo: WIEP demonstrates making dry maple sugar by heating sugar over fire and paddling to granulate it traditional Native-style hard sugar products part of WIEP’s display include granulated sugar, sugar cakes small and large in molds of wood, bark cones, shells, and duck bills 2014).

Post 12 of 14 - Maple Sugaring Basics: To reduce the sap's water content, Native Peoples historically employed trade metal kettles to heat the sap in over the f...ire. Before such kettles were available, they most likely used their earthenware clay pots for such a task. Indeed the very pots they cooked their daily meals in had the capability to evaporate sap, even down to dry sugar (as been proven in recent years - see comments below for video), and most pre-contact Native folks in the Northeast had pottery. Archaeologically speaking, this clay pot culture extends north through Ontario, from Maine west to the northern Plains. The Iroquoian-speaking Peoples of the eastern Great Lakes were depicted (by Europeans) boiling down maple sap in their earthenware pots. Early 20th century Ojibwe (quite known for their sugaring activities) speak of a time when their ancestors utilized clay pots, and indeed, their pre-contact homelands are littered with pottery fragments. Clearly we have no reason to dismiss earthenware pottery as an obvious tool in evaporation, and possibly even used in dry sugar-making. With the adoption of brass, copper, and cast iron kettles in place of daily clay cooking pots, maple sugaring activities increased tremendously,... and so did demand! Not only was maple sugar made for Native foodways use, it was a prize commodity among their Anglo neighbors. By the 19th century, tens of thousands of pounds of maple sugar were being traded to Anglo consumers every year in the western Great Lakes area alone. But pottery wasn’t the only vessel type used for heating foods and liquids... Sap could also be heated over the fire in bark containers, as well as boiled in troughs of wood and bark using hot stones from the fire (done cleanly). Although hot-stone boiling can evaporate and condense maple sap to a more syrupy-like state, it does not appear to have the capability to create dry sugar as pottery or metal kettles could with more ease... The hot sugar would stick to stones resulting in too high a loss of product or an extra step in retrieving it. And the transfer of ash through repeatedly dropping hot stones into the same batch of sap/syrup (even if stones were kept as clean as possible) could easy build up, rendering the product inedible, thus making stone-boiling less likely the whole process of taking sap to sugar but just one step paired with one or more clean methods of sap processing (like the freeze method and direct over-the-fire cooking).* (*Educational venues that teach, as a matter of fact, Native Peoples just stone-boiled sap into dry sugar need to reevaluate their interpretation. They must stop ignoring the plausibility of pottery use in processing sap, and censoring pottery-use in general where there is clear evidence of pottery-use as an everyday technology. Though this information has been known and circulated for some time, there are still too many informational outlets ignoring science (not addressing the limitations of stone-boiling sap/syrup/sugar) and archaeological evidence (pottery use) in favor of popular portrayals, curbing Native histories/technologies to fit the dominant society's narrative of what we want Native Americans (past and present) to be or represent... far from appreciating actual Indigenous histories) Not all condensing required the use of heat sap was also purposely left out overnight to freeze. In doing this the top layer froze - this frozen layer contained mostly water (note: only a light freeze will do this... if the freeze was too long, the sap would freeze in its entirety). This frozen layer was then discarded leaving a more concentrated sap behind. This step did condense the sap in general, which was important as pot space over the fire was very limited. It is very likely that most historic Native sugar-makers utilized a combination of methods to achieve the final product of their choosing, whether sugar in liquid or dry form (to be continued tomorrow). Want to learn more about traditional Native maple sugaring?... Just like us to view these series on posts on your newsfeed: https://www.facebook.com/WoodlandIndianEDU (Photo: WIEP evaporates maple sap over the fire in trade-style brass and iron kettles, 2014... note the wood/branch hooks).

Maple syrup had to be further cooked and heated to about 40-50 degrees over the boiling point to finish into dry maple sugar (high-heat crystallization). While ...modern confectioners may use candy thermometers to know when hot sugar has reached optimum temperature, Native sugar-makers of the past relied mostly on sight to read the sugar They looked for the color, texture, and density to know when the sugar had reached the necessary temperature to solidify. One way to read sugar was through drip tests, looking at the sheeting on the paddle and drips that solidify (maple sugar "icicles as pictured here), or looking for long hair-like strands of sugar trailing the drips that fall. Want to learn more about making dry maple sugar? Stay tuned! We have a few more posts to share on the subject. https://www.facebook.com/WoodlandIndianEDU See more

Post 11 of 14 - Maple Sugaring Basics: Maple sap is clear and only assumes its rich auburn color as it condenses during the evaporation process. From the tree ...it tastes generally like water, with just a hint of sweetness. Why so coy sap? Why not so rich and sugary as most would expect you to be? Because even the Sugar Maple’s sap, with the highest content of sugar of any Maple sap at usually around 1.5 3%, still mostly contains water (along with other minerals and vitamins). Generally it takes 40 gallons of sap to produce one gallon of syrup (some seasons in some regions the ratio can be as high as 55 to 1). And according to Anishinaabe tradition, it wasn’t always this way there was a time when pure syrupy goodness dripped freely from the trees during any time of year. As you can imagine this created a major distraction from other daily duties, and made for some lazy folks who spent all their days just laying on their backs, catching with their open mouths all the syrup that poured from the broken branches and limbs. Wenabozho (Manabozho/Nanabozho/Nanabush), a teacher (trickster and hero) sent to the Anishinaabe by Gichi-Manidoo/Great Spirit, witnessed The People taking advantage of the limitless syrup and feared the ramifications of the human’s lethargic state. Such a lack of appreciation of the sugary juice Gichi-Manidoo/Great Spirit provided would not be tolerated, and so Wenabozho took a large bark bucket full of water and poured it all into the tops of the trees, effectively diluting the syrup into the watery sap we know today. From then on, The People had to work to evaporate so much sap to even make a small quantity of syrup and sugar. And for good measure, to make certain humans didn’t take the maple syrup/sugar Gichi-Manidoo/Great Spirit provided for granted again, there was only now one short annual season The People could collect sufficient amounts of sap to make their syrup/sugar. And to this day we still feel the lesson as sugar-makers work hard to collect and isolate the sugar content in sap (to be continued tomorrow). Want to learn more about traditional Native maple sugaring?... Just like us to view these series on posts on your newsfeed: https://www.facebook.com/WoodlandIndianEDU (Photo: WIEP stone-boiling maple sap in wooden trough gaining it’s rich color as it condenses 2014).

Post 10 of 14 - Maple Sugaring Basics: Condensing maple sap into syrup and dry sugar is a traditional food process of many Native Peoples of the Northeastern Wo...odlands region. Syrup and sugar was and still is often made from the sap of Sugar Maples (although other types of trees can be tapped for their sap as well, like Red Maples and Birches). The time to tap is when the deep freeze of winter gives way to days above freezing. It is this cycle of freezing and thawing that creates a proper sap flow in the tree. As the temperature rises, the sap in the tree and the sapwood itself expands. It’s during this time that cell activity in the sap and sapwood produce carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is thus released into the cells and around the cells producing positive pressure. This pressure forces the sap out of the taps, or any wounded section of the tree’s bark that exposes the sapwood. During cold nights, or times of freezing temperatures, the carbon dioxide cools and constricts causing negative pressure. This creates a suction in the tree, drawing water from the soil into it’s roots and up into the sapwood. As the day (or thawing period) begins again, so does the positive pressure. Thus this period of freezing and thawing weather is necessary to have a decent sap flow. This weather pattern can last six weeks in the New England and Great Lakes region (and adjacent areas of Canada). Tapping starts typically as early as late January in the southern regions (such as the Ohio River Valley and some areas of high elevation in the Southern Appalachians), and as late as the end of March in Canada and Northern New England. The sap flow can end as early as the first days of March for the southern syrup/sugar makers, but extend right through April for northern tappers. What causes the sap flow to stop? It’s a combination of the freezing-thawing weather pattern to give way to warmer weather, as well as the daylight hours becoming more extended. Increasing daylight signals the trees to start the budding process which puts an end to the productive sap flow season... (to be continued tomorrow). Want to learn more about traditional Native maple sugaring?... Just like us to view these series on posts on your newsfeed: https://www.facebook.com/WoodlandIndianEDU (Photo: WIEP taps Maple trees for sap in both traditional and modern ways 2008, 09, 14 Ojibwe woman tends to her tapped tree 1908).

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If you are of Native Ancestry, but don't know your ancestral tribe, or haven't got the necessary blood quantum to be eligible to gain membership into a Federally recognized Tribe; you can contact us for an application for membership. Requirements are that you have Native Ancestry. Contact: [email protected]/ or [email protected] We are mainly looking for those of Lenape/Delaware, Mohican, Nanticoke or Algonquin ancestry.

Post 9 of 14: 18th Century Maple Sugaring Among the Lenape/Delaware (part 2)... Boiling sap and making sugar was mostly the task of Lenape women, although men a...ssisted their female kin when needed, when they weren’t outside the sugarbush hunting (bears were especially sought after during this season). Women, being the expert sugar-makers, boiled the sap down to syrup, and further heated it to crystalize it into dry sugar, whether it be in the form of granulated sugar or molded sugar cakes. To make granulated sugar, they stirred it while it cooled until the crystals separated. However the Lenape were particularly more interested in making sugar cakes, which was accomplished by pouring the hot sugar into greased molds, molds usually carved out of wood (it was said that sometimes stone was also used to cool sugar on). Such sugar cakes were easily stored in baskets. But not all of the sap was turned into dry sugar as the last sap run of the season usually failed to crystalize. This was instead boiled to the thickness of molasses and kept as such. If a sugar-maker owned at least one 10-12 gallon kettle, and a few smaller ones, it was then possible for her to make hundreds of pounds of maple sugar in one season. Although most of the season’s product would go to the food stores of her family, the surplus was also used in trade, and presumably in gifting and feast victuals. The maple sugar was enjoyed in daily dishes and drinks, or on its own as a treat. (Terms in Unami-Lenape language: xinkwekathus - large kettle; sëpi shukël - syrup, maple sugar; from The Lenape Talking Dictionary)(Illustration from WIEP produced classroom educational resources) ---Continuing Tomorrow with posts focusing on Maple Sugaring Basics--- https://www.facebook.com/WoodlandIndianEDU/ See more

Eastern Delaware Nations Winter Social 2020, Wilmot township, Pa/ outside of Dushore. We gave Wampum to reaffirm joining together in Oneness of purpose, one in heart & mind.

Gnadenhutten Memorial

Medaaw Spiritual Sweatlodge, almost finished.

Medicine - Medaaw/Sweat Lodge, being built by me & an Elder, Sam Savon. We've been at it a couple of weeks now. Need to finish up with circular stringers and cedar shakes & glyphs.

Back of the cabin, the Big Loyalsock/ the lxauhunay , forks in the stream, near Forksville PA. Ground zero for rattlesnakes. weeshalowaawuk, but we didn't see any.

View from High Knob. Near Eagle's Mere Lake, Ganega.

Chief Gene Hodge/Tamakwanaxk, my wife Carol, & the Chiefs' wife Rainy, at cabin we provided to stay in.

Forksville Pow Wow 2019/ 29th year. Flags up after grand entry.