Sugarbush Outing

On March 3, 2025, AIS/HIst 474 went to University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Field Station- Cedarburg Bog and started iskigamizigan, sugarbush. The students each found an ininatig, sugar maple, that they would tap to obtain the gift of the sweet sap from the ininatigoog, sugar maples plural. In all we tapped 25 ininatigoog and collected around 150 gallons of sap in a two-week period. We had two boils, the first was on March 12. We boiled around 100 gallons of sap to make roughly 5 quarts of syrup. The staff from Electa Quinney Institute brought in buffalo, venison, and a variety of vegetables to make a soup for the boil. Sap was also added to the broth, while the students stirred and filtered the sap. When the soup was done everyone who was there feasted while we continued to boil the sap into syrup. The second boil took place on March 20. We boiled the last of the sap collected, another 50 gallons which boiled down to roughly 3 quarts of syrup. All syrup is used for the Honor for All breakfast for the Indigenous graduates, everyone is invited to celebrate and enjoy the syrup. April 26 at OHOW at 9 am.

UWM Land Acknowledgement: We acknowledge in Milwaukee that we are on traditional Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk and Menominee homeland along the southwest shores of Michigami, North America’s largest system of freshwater lakes, where the Milwaukee, Menominee and Kinnickinnic rivers meet and the people of Wisconsin’s sovereign Anishinaabe, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Oneida and Mohican nations remain present.   |   To learn more, visit the Electa Quinney Institute website.