Sugaring in Wabanahkik: An Abenaki History of Maple

An article at Vermont Audubon, by Alexander Cotnoir - Nulhegan Abenaki member
Published online March 22, 2021

Maple sugaring had been practiced by many Indigenous communities across North America before the arrival of Europeans, including the Abenaki people of Vermont, who have resided in the northeast since the glaciers receded an estimated 11,000 - 10,000 years ago at the end of the last Ice Age. Long before the arrival of European explorers and French missionaries, Abenaki peoples followed a multi-step process for collecting and condensing sugar maple sap into sweeteners; a process refined and passed down orally from one generation to the next.

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