Entry Detail


sugar maple tree


Entry Type:  
Species
Scientific Name:  
Common Name:  
sugar maple tree
Myaamia Name:  
ahsenaamiši
Habitats:  
Dry Prairie grasslands, Wet Prairie grasslands with flooding, Conifer Shrubland and Forest

Media 
Media not available.
Myaamia Archival Sources  
Reference Source Reference Type Archival Data Comments
Hockett, C.F. 1985 Use - Food

Maple tree sap, ahsenaamišipowi, is made into maple syrup.

Draper, L.C 1815-1891 Use - Food

Sugar camps were inhabited in the spring: "In the spring of the year 1790 or 91, a party of Indians crossed the Ohio (it was at the time the people were attending their sugar camps) and the write of this note, on hearing that they had crossed the river raised a party of volunteers for the purpose of interupting them on their reutrn".

Olds, J., Olds, D. and D. Tippman 1999 Use - Food

". . . my uncle John lived in Huntington [Indiana]. He would tap those trees and so then we had a long sled . . .and we had a big black kettle. They'd cook that down and when it got down so far, why we'd take sticks and we'd put it in there you known and whirl it and keep a little on there. Then we'd take it out when it would get cold or put it in the snow, because sometimes there would be snow [done during the Fall]. And then we'd put it back. Sometimes we'd get a big sucker with that. That was fun. We liked that".

Tippman, D. 1999 Use - Food

Sugar maple trees were tapped for obtaining "sugar water" which was used to make maple syrup.

Tippman, D. 1999 Use - Medicinal

"Uncooked "sugar water" tapped from sugar maples used for cuts, scratches and inflammation. "Sugar water" used in combination with epsom salts and applied as a poultice, which was tied to the area with a bandage and left on overnight, drawing out the 'poison' or slivers. This process was not used on animals".

Gatschet, A.S. ca. 1895 Use - Food

"These Indians prefer hard maple to soft maple sugar and manufacture it themselves, they also say that box elder makes poor sugar".

"sanamizhi pangosakan [literally "boiled and left to dry"], maple sugar; it is collected in buckets or troughs to solidfy, made of box-elder wood, cicikwa'ksi".

Botanical Sources  
Reference Source Reference Type Data Comments
Gleason, H.A. and Cronquist, A. 1991 Habitat 

Occurs in rich to dry woods and uplands in eastern and western Myaamia lands.

Related Sources  
Reference Source Reference Type Data Comments
McPherson, A. and S. McPherson. 1977  

"It was a festive time for the Miami Indians when they returned from their winter hunting grounds with furs and maple syrup and sugar. Not only did they relish this natural sweet but it was also an important item of barter for them. Hoosier pioneers quickly learned from the Indians how to tap the sugar maple (Acer saccharum) and make the delicious "tree molasses." In 1900, Indiana ranked third in the nation for production of maple syrup".

Hockett, C.F. 1985  

Another Myaamisaword for the sugar maple is "šεnαmižαhkwα".

Rafert, S. 1989  

"maple tree"

Kerr, J. 1835  

Another representation of a Miami-Illinois terms for the sugar maple tree is "fanυmejυqe".

Dunn, J.P. ca. 1900  

"sugar maple tree, si-no-min-dji"

Anonymous 1837  

"sugar tree"