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Brenda Boyd describing the sugarbush

The Mille Lacs Ojibwe Social Oral History Project documented various aspects of the history of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Indians in Minnesota. Interviews were done by Dr. Anthony Godfrey.
Springtime activities, I think, was more the sugarbush, gathering of maple syrup, making sugar, cakes, the taffy. We used to have a sugarbush across the road from us on this lady's private land, and we'd go and gather the wood. That was my job--going to gather the wood, and bring it back to the area where they had the big kettles that were boiling the sap. We used to have to keep the fire going, so we'd gather wood, and we'd have to go farther and farther out to get the wood. By the time we were done, the whole area was--there was no dry wood left. Of course, then they'd go and gather the sap. They'd boil that down, and that was an all day job. I like the smell of wood.
from
Brenda Boyd, Oral History Interviews of the Mille Lacs Social History Project. Minnesota Historical Society, 1992, written transcript 31.

The Ojibwe People's Dictionary is developed and maintained by:
Nora Livesay, Editor
John D. Nichols, Founder and Linguistic Editor

with support and collaboration from the University of Minnesota's Department of American Indian Studies and University Libraries.

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