Nanabush and the Maple Trees

When the world was new, Gitchi Manitou made life easy for the people. There was always plenty of game and the weather was always good. Whenever people wanted to get maple syrup from the trees, they only had to break off a twig and collect the syrup that dripped out.

Nanabush looked high and low and found the people in the woods. They were lying on their backs letting the maple syrup drip into their mouths. “My people will grow fat and lazy if this continues,” said Nanabush.

Nanabush climbed the maple trees and poured water into their tops to make the syrup thin. This new, thinner maple syrup was very watery and hardly sweet at all.

“No longer will syrup drip from the trees,” Nanabush told the people. “This watery sap will have to be boiled for a long time to make a little syrup. Now you will learn to appreciate this maple syrup the Gitchee Manitou has given you. The sap will only drip from the trees at a certain time of the year and will not keep people from hunting, fishing, gathering and tending the fields.”

“This is how it will be,” said Nanabush. And that is how it is even today.