Native communities keep maple syrup traditions going, even in urban areas

In south Minneapolis, the sound of cars driving by is like white noise. Blue bags hang from maple trees that line the sides of city streets.  

The Native American Community Development Institute, or NACDI, has been busy collecting sap from neighborhood trees in recent weeks for the purpose of sugar bushing.

Sugar bushing is the process of collecting and boiling down sap into syrup or even pure sugar. 

Gloria Iacono works with NACDI as the Four Sisters Urban Farm manager. She is leading the project this spring.  

“You go into hibernation in the winter and then you get that nice, like, first spring day, and it’s just something that you can gather around. It’s a practice that you can build community around,” Iacono said.

She has had the support of the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, since it’s the first time NACDI is leading an urban sugar bush.  

Forest Hunt is a plant scientist with the East Phillips Neighborhood Institute and is a direct descendent of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians in North Dakota. They say sugar bushing is a springtime tradition in Native communities. 

“It has been happening in Woodland Native tribes for over a millennium,” Hunt said.  

NACDI has been collecting sap from Center School, Bii Di Gain elder housing, and South High School, where a demonstration was held. Hunt showed students how to properly identify when a tree can be tapped and how to tap a tree.  

“You can always tell that it’s time to tap when the snow starts to melt and when you start to see little patches of dirt or dead grass. That's around when you should start tapping your maples,” Hunt explained. 

Hunt then drilled a small hole into the tree before using a hammer to lightly tap a metal spile, like a spout, in the rest of the way until water-like sap began to drip out. 

Several stepped up to try the sap straight from the source after being invited by Hunt. The taste? They say it was sweet.  

Iacono has been boiling the sap into syrup right at the organization’s urban farm in East Phillips. Community members were invited to watch the process of how sap turns into syrup. 

 “We have a steel drum, with the top cut off, that fits pans in the top. And you build a fire within the drum, and then that boils the sap,” Iacono said. She says five gallons of sap will boil down to about a mason jar’s worth of syrup.  

At one community boil, Turtle Mountain Band member Tyra Payer demonstrated how to turn maple syrup into candies. They say although they tap trees outside of the metro, there is cultural value to be had in urban sugar bushing. 

“There are teachings that only happen at this time of year,” they said. “The teachings that we have around maple, and making maple sugar and what our community looks like and how we support each other.”  

Hunt says maple syrup has been a significant food historically alongside wild rice.  

“It’s really important for us to continue practicing these traditions, because it allows us to continue to have that, that sense of self, that sovereignty that we really need,” Hunt said.  

With the amount of sap that the community has collected over the course of a few weeks, Iacono says they will produce about one gallon of pure maple syrup. The syrup will be distributed to those who helped collect the sap.

Correction (March 20, 2025):  A previous version of this story incorrectly identified Forest Hunt's affiliation. The story has been updated.

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