Anishinabe Maple Syrup Legend

• Anishibabe (“The People”)
   

• Anishinabe lived in the Great Lakes area including Minnesota
   

• Legend that the Great Spirit, Gitchee Manitou, made life easy for “The People” by providing abundant game and crops
   

• Gitchee Manitou filled the maple tree with thick sweet syrup
   

• One could break off a branch and let the sweet syrup drip into your mouth
   

• Manabohzo, the hero and trickster of Algonquians, saw that “The People” were ignoring their work and getting fat and lazy from drinking too much syrup
   

• Manabohzo collected water from the river in a birch bark basket and poured it in the top of the maple tree to thin out the syrup
   

• Manabohzo also ordered that the trees only flow for a short time in the spring