288 THE MENOMINI INDIANS [eth.ann.14 



their skins, etc., are nearly all sold for whisky, at an immense sacrifice. It is a 

 common practice with these Canadians to sow their garden seeds late in the fall, 

 which, from experience, has heen found preferable to the usual method elsewhere of 

 sowing them in the spring.' 



According to the report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 

 1859, there were made in that year over 200,(100 pounds of maple 

 sugar, and in 1S63 40 tons were made by these people. While at Leech 

 lake, Minnesota, in July, 1892, 1 was informed that the Ojibwa of that 

 locality, who number less than 1,500, had during the preceding spring 

 made almost 90 tons of sugar. When it is taken in consideration that 

 nearly all of this sugar was consumed by the Iudiaus themselves, it 

 shows an almost abnormal fondness for sweets. It virtually forms a 

 substitute for salt; much of it is used with coffee and tea, while the 

 greater portion is eaten either in the granular form, in cakes, or as 

 "sugar wax," which is merely a plastic form of sugar, made by throw- 

 ing the boiling sirup on the snow to cool. Maple sirup also is made to 

 some extent, but the Indians prefer to dissolve the sugar in water when 

 sirup is desired, instead of retaining it in vessels, which, among tliem, 

 are always scarce, or else perhaps not to be had at all. 



The season for sugar-making came when the first crow appeared. 

 This happened about the beginning or middle of March, while there 

 was yet snow on the ground. This period of the season was looked 

 forward to with great interest, and, as among the Minnesota Ojibwa 

 today, became a holiday for everybody. Each female head of a house- 

 hold had her own sugar hut, built in a locality abounding in maple 

 trees — the Acer saccharinum — which might or might not have been con- 

 venient to her camp, but which was the place always resorted to by her, 

 and claimed by right of descent through her mother's family and totem. 



During the early spring, when the birchbark is in prime condition 

 for peeling, pieces were cut and folded into sap dishes or pans, each 

 measuring from 7 to 10 inches in width, about 20 inches in length 

 and 8 inches in depth. The ends were carefully folded and stitched 

 along the edge with thin fibers of basswood bark or spruce root, in order 

 that it might retain the shape as represented in figure 55. A woman 

 in good circumstances would jjossess as many as from 1,200 to 1,500 

 birchbark vessels, all of which would be in constant use during the 

 season of sugar-making. 



The next articles to be made were sap buckets, which also were 

 fashioned from birchbark, cut and folded at the corners so as to avoid 

 breaking and consequent leakage. The folds were also seamed with 

 pine resin. The buckets were of various sizes, though usually they 

 held from 1 to 2 gallons. 



The example of sirup bucket represented in plate xxxn, b, c, measures 

 6 inches across the top, which is round, and 7 by 8 inches across the 

 bottom, which is rectangular; the depth is 8 inches. 



1 Report to tin- Secretary of War, Now Haven, 1822, p. 50. 



