Post by Okwes on Jul 24, 2007 11:28:45 GMT -5
WENDJIDU ZINZIBAHKWUD -- Real Sugar (Maple)
MAPLE (Ininatig-- the tree) SUGAR/SYRUP (Zinzibahkwud)
Sugar Making -- Ishkwaamizige in Anishinaabemowin -- happened for several weeks during zhwigun, spring. Sugar was a basic seasoning for grains and breads, stews, teas, berries, vegetables. Large amounts were made during the few weeks each spring when the maple sap ran. Maple sugar was so important that it gave its name to the month (late March-April, in northern Minnesota) when sugaring took place: Izhkigamisegi Geezis, the Moon (month) of boiling.
Nodinens (Little Wind), a Mille Lacs Band Ojibwe from central Minnesota, was 74 in 1910 when she told Frances Densmore about sugaring in the old days. She describes going to and building the winter hunting camp for 6 families. The wigwams would be insulated with evergreen boughs, dirt, and snow shoveled onto a framework of logs, covered with birch bark and woven mats. The men would leave for deep woods hunting and trapping. During the winter, women dried meat the men brought in.
"Toward the last of winter, my father would say, "One month after another has gone by. Spring is near. We must get back to our other work." So the women wrapped the dried meat tightly in tanned deerskins and the men packed their furs on sleds or toboggans. Once there was a fearful snowstorm when we were starting. My father quickly made snowshoes from branches for all the older people.
MAPLE (Ininatig-- the tree) SUGAR/SYRUP (Zinzibahkwud)
Sugar Making -- Ishkwaamizige in Anishinaabemowin -- happened for several weeks during zhwigun, spring. Sugar was a basic seasoning for grains and breads, stews, teas, berries, vegetables. Large amounts were made during the few weeks each spring when the maple sap ran. Maple sugar was so important that it gave its name to the month (late March-April, in northern Minnesota) when sugaring took place: Izhkigamisegi Geezis, the Moon (month) of boiling.
Nodinens (Little Wind), a Mille Lacs Band Ojibwe from central Minnesota, was 74 in 1910 when she told Frances Densmore about sugaring in the old days. She describes going to and building the winter hunting camp for 6 families. The wigwams would be insulated with evergreen boughs, dirt, and snow shoveled onto a framework of logs, covered with birch bark and woven mats. The men would leave for deep woods hunting and trapping. During the winter, women dried meat the men brought in.
"Toward the last of winter, my father would say, "One month after another has gone by. Spring is near. We must get back to our other work." So the women wrapped the dried meat tightly in tanned deerskins and the men packed their furs on sleds or toboggans. Once there was a fearful snowstorm when we were starting. My father quickly made snowshoes from branches for all the older people.