Maple tapping in the sugarbush: Indigenous ties and community building with Black to the Land

Mid-February through March can be an exciting time across southeast Michigan. With spring being around the corner, people are looking to get out once again and connect with nature. One place to do that is the sugarbush. 

The sugarbush is a grove of sugar maples, and the name for an Indigenous practice of harvesting and cooking down sap to make syrup.

For years Indigenous people have used sugarbush as an opportunity gather, practice fellowship, and give back to the land by cleaning the area, removing debris and evasive plants. They utilize the trees for their sap and return the land to the state in which they found it.

A conversation with Rosebud Schneider, a member of the Anishinaabe people, shed light on the community aspect around sugarbush. 

“We have a responsibility to protect this land, protect each other. This is one way to do that,” said Schneider. She added that people coming together for sugarbush gives the older generations a chance to teach the younger generations what they know.

Black to the Land echoes Indigenous ethos

Organizations such as Black to The Land and Friends of Rouge Park keep the spirit of this practice going. Antonio Cosome, Black to The Land co-founder, and lead volunteer and organizer Isra Daraiseh, take volunteers through the process of sap collection, boiling and giving back to the land.

Utilizing the teachings of Indigenous elders, they’ve cultivated a sense of community by bringing people out and sharing the practice with them.

Each year they gather to tap maple trees, collect sap, and boil the sap down to produce maple sugar, maple vinegar, and, of course, syrup. Even the runoff during the boil itself gets reused to top deserts such as ice cream. Though it’s labor intensive, there’s a sense of transformation or enlightenment that comes from the practice.  

And, the products from the boil-down give meetings a sweet touch in the months to come.