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Jim Wipson on the sugar bush

This project chronicles the lives of Minnesota Native Americans who lived during World War II and are part of "Minnesota’s Greatest Generation." Some of the subjects discussed include growing up on a reservation; attending government run boarding schools; powwows; the Civilian Conservation Corps [CCC]; the Works Progress Administration [WPA]; enlisting in the armed forces; past and present life at the Red Lake Indian Reservation; the Great Depression; combat experiences during World War II; life after the war; the dropping of the atomic bombs; American Indian cultural identity and traditions; the American Indian Movement; and views on the Cold War and Iraq War.
About the only thing she [my grandmother] took me up in the woods was sugar bush. When we made syrup and taffy and candy. I used to love that when I was a little boy. I'd eat that taffy. Another thing I remember about sugar bush, it brings back great memories to me, I used to love sugar bush. We had a tipi, birchbark tipi, then they make a fire in the middle of it to keep warm at night and it was nice and cozy in that tipi. I used to lay there and watch the fire and then my grandmother would make bannock. They call it bannock...I used to help get syrup. They had little birchbark containers I'd carry around as a little boy. Then down below they had birchbark...like troughs where the sap dipped into, went into. And I used to tip it in that little bucket like. Homemade bucket. Carry it back to her. She put it in a big cast iron and boil it until it got to a certain temperature. When it got a certain temperature it was hard candy. Then it got to a certain temperature it was taffy and then the syrup. I used to love that syrup.
from
James Wipson (Grand Portage), Oral History Interviews of the Minnesota's Greatest Generation Oral History Project: Native American interviews. Minnesota Historical Society, 2006, written transcript 13-14.

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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