- On this "Native Report," we highlight Zhaa Zhaa Greensky as she makes traditional sugar cakes from maple syrup.

We learn how a university in New York is working to protect vital plant life as it aims to pass down wisdom from both Indigenous and scientific knowledge to the next generation.

We also learn what we can do to lead healthier lives, and hear from our elders.

(bright instrumental music) - [Narrator] Production for "Native Report" is made possible by grants from the Blandin Foundation, Anishinabe Fund, and Alexandra Smith Fund, In Support of Native American Treaty Rights administered through the Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation, (bright instrumental music continues) a generous support from viewers like Jack and Sharon Kemp, DSGW Architects, personalizing architecture, online at dsgw.com, and viewers like you.

(bright instrumental music continues) (upbeat instrumental music) (upbeat instrumental music continues) - Welcome to "Native Report," and thanks for tuning in.

I'm Rita Karppinen.

In this episode, we are exploring how Zhaa Zhaa Greensky makes sugar cakes out of maple syrup collected during the family sugarbush.

(upbeat instrumental music) - So today we are going to make sugar cakes.

Sugar cakes are like hard candies made out of maple syrup sap, and the Ojibwe word for making sugar cakes is ziiga'igan, Ziiga'igan, so if you wanna make sugar cakes, you would say... "Or we are making sugar cakes," you would say... (Zhaa Zhaa speaking foreign language) A lot of my information and knowledge comes from my dad, and a lot of his information comes from the Sawyer community here on Fond du Lac.

We're probably gonna shoot for three or four.

And the reason for that is, with a smaller batch, it's easier to explain, and, like, it's what my father would recommend for beginners, is to start out small, because, two, you don't wanna waste a huge jar of maple syrup.

So this is maple syrup that we harvested last year, and so I'm just gonna put just enough to cover the bottom, and then a tiny bit more.

And we're shooting for, like, three to four.

We'll see if we get it.

So a relatively small pan, and then you're gonna put it in the middle of your burner.

This is an electric stove.

It's easier to do it on a gas.

So what we do is we start it off, like, with hot or high heat, and then wait till it boils.

And then once it starts boiling, it'll start rising, and then you can use the spoon to stir, and then it's just a process of picking that up and down.

Traditionally sugar cakes are the process right before it becomes sugar.

And traditionally the Anishinaabe (laughs) would store sugar, or would store maple syrup as sugar.

So it's that process right before becomes sugar.

And then my dad also talks about how sugar cakes are a really good source of energy.

They're very, like, calorically dense, very sweet, very, very delicious.

So in those times where there was food scarcity, the Anishinaabe would rely on sugar cakes and maple syrup sugar as a form of energy to help get them through those long winter nights.

So this guy's already starting to boil.

I'm gonna wait till it gets pretty, pretty boily.

That's a scientific term, boily.

(Zhaa Zhaa laughs) And then I'm gonna turn it down to, like, medium-high heat.

So, like, right now.

(stove beeps) - [Zhaa Zhaa's Mom] You wanna stir it.

- And then my mom is reminding me to stir, so small circles in the middle, and then you just keep stirring, and then you check it by, like, pushing it up against the sides, and if it starts sticking to the sides, the syrup, without falling down, then that's when you know it's time to take it off.

Also, another big hint for it to be taken off is it starts to smell.

It starts to be very fragrant and it kind of almost smells like it's burning.

My twins, since first time at the sugarbush, we tapped when they were just about to turn 11 months old, so at the end of March.

They'll turn 12 months in May, and, yeah, it was their first time.

Last year when we did the sugarbush, I was pregnant with them, and I remember thinking about, like, the day that I'll be able to take them and go tap trees, and I was really hoping that my pregnancy would be healthy, my children would be healthy, and that my father would still be around to help share those stories and those processes with my kids, and I'm just so overwhelmed that all of my (laughs) dreams, I guess, came true, and I'm very grateful to the creator for that.

So becoming a mother has been one of the greatest blessings I've ever experienced and has helped me become such a better person.

And my kids are my greatest teachers.

And being able to participate in these traditions with my children has been so meaningful, because these are the memories that I remember making with my mom and dad when I was little.

And these activities, these traditional activities allowed me to understand my culture, my ancestors, my place in the world, has been really an anchor through my whole life.

So there's, like, a little residue when you scrape it up against the sides of the pan.

That means we're getting close, but we're not there yet.

And then it's just kind of...

The way we do it is a lot of lifting it on and off the burner when it's starting to overboil.

(syrup sloshing) And I should also preference this, everyone does this differently.

This is just how our family does it and...

I think I'm gonna call it.

And so now you take it off the heat, and then you just stir.

You wanna get all these bubbles out the best you can, and you just stir it for a while, and it'll feel like syrup for a little bit, but then all of a sudden you'll start to feel, like, it crystallizing when you rub it against the sides of the pan.

And then you want to pour it when it is, like, still pourable, but just about when it's about to turn into sugar.

That's like the perfect time.

Okay.

Okay.

I think.. Oh, man.

Oh, we're just gonna go for it.

Okay.

And then you gotta work pretty fast, especially when you're pouring it.

I'm making big beefy ones right now.

That was not the plan initially.

Okay.

(no audio) (no audio) It wasn't until I had children I feel very called to learn more about the language to share it with my children, 'cause they're at such a perfect age to learn the language right now.

Being Anishinaabe, and having these traditions, and practicing them, and having these memories has really anchored me as a person, so I can help them, and help them have something that's as beautiful and meaningful to help, you know, bring them back to center.

- What a sweet tradition to be able to pass onto family.

(upbeat music) - Art helps us experience our emotions and understand the world around us.

It allows us to see life from another's perspective and it makes us feel alive.

Since the beginning, art has been an important part of civilization.

It's been used for education, self-expression, and cultural exchange.

The arts are the library of all the cultures of the world.

When you experience an another's art, you're seeing the world through their eyes.

When you create something, you're letting the world see yours.

Music calms troubled souls.

It gives a voice to our emotions and can help us collectively weather hardships.

It can help us understand joy and sadness.

It can help ease the pain of loss and can help us express love and gratitude.

The possibilities are endless.

Literature allows us to step out of ourselves and learn from those who walked before.

We can gather a better understanding of other cultures and insight into how they fit with ours.

Knowing the history of others will help us avoid the mistakes of the past.

When we were young, we'd look at the stars with wonder, we'd see the rain and the snow, leaves budding, and all the animals, fish, birds, insects, and plants for the miracles they are.

Growing up and buying macaroni and paying for rent and car insurance made those miracles seem less important.

All of us were born singers and dancers and poets and storytellers and artists.

Someone at some point told you you couldn't do something, and that part went silent.

Use your gifts.

Our songs and our stories and our art tells the story of who we are and who we will be.

Don't try to be someone else.

You carry the teaching the rest of us need to learn.

We are a community and we need all of us.

And don't forget to call an elder.

They've been waiting for your call.

I'm Dr. Arne Vainio, and this is "Health Matters."

(upbeat instrumental music) - The Center for Native Peoples and the Environment at the State University of New York is working to protect the Earth's vital plant life.

The Center has welcomed students from across the world to teach traditional ecological knowledge for the next generation of protectors.

(bright instrumental music) (bright music) - Like many Indigenous peoples across the planet, the Haudenosaunee people have a seasonal cycle of ceremonies, a cycle of ceremonies based around gratitude for what's happening on the Earth at that moment, and giving thanks for all of the things that have led to that moment.

(bright music continues) And so right now we see the indicators in the birds.

We see the indicators in the flowers, on our trees, to be sorting seeds and to be getting ready to plant.

We provide a way for students, especially who are away from home, to participate in the planting of a Three Sisters garden of corn, beans and squash.

(bright music) My name is Neil Patterson Jr.

I work at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment.

(bright music continues) We do a lot of teaching, a lot of research with our students, and we also are doing this in service to community and to our Haudenosaunee nations here whose land the college sits on.

Just in the last 10 to 12 years since the Center's been in existence, we've attracted a variety of indigenous students from across the world.

It's amazing, the cultural sharing that takes place.

This is one of our plant relatives.

We call it Ruscantina.

Ruscantina in Tuscarora is referring to what's commonly known as dogbane.

The Tuscarora people, my ancestors, had a unique relationship with this plant, because we worked in textiles, we worked in cordage.

It's one of the strongest materials, and it can be woven into a very strong rope.

And for the most part, it's often considered a weed.

And in fact, what we're learning from our western science partners is that it is a really important pollinator plant.

(bright music) I grew up in a community where traditional ecological knowledge is abundant, often a daily part of life.

I was fortunate enough to have parents that let me roam through the woods.

As I grew older, I knew that I just wanted to spend time outside with our plant and our fish relatives, in particular.

And it was my mother who said, well, "You know, Neil, you could actually go to school to learn more about the environment and to work in the environment."

And so I began a journey then in exploring scientific ecological knowledge.

And it's been a great journey to be able to meet and talk and gather and harvest with traditional knowledge holders from across the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, from the Senecas, all the way through to the Mohawks.

This is our most important plant here as far as the berries go.

This is is wild strawberry.

Traditional ecological knowledge is sort of the twin, if you will, to scientific ecological knowledge.

They can work together and we can accomplish great things when there's cooperation.

(bright music) Traditional knowledge holders, in many cases, have provided very accurate, very specific, and very insightful pieces of wisdom as to the numbers, to the distribution, to the range, to the sex of caribou, of humpback whales, of seals, of maple trees, of traditional corn varieties.

(bright music) I often say this knowledge is possible to talk about in English, but it's a lot harder.

We say (speaking foreign language), and we're all going to plant now.

(bright music) And so the corn we're providing and growing at the plot is an old variety that you will not find in the grocery stores, you will not find it in any seed catalogs.

It is an heirloom, open pollinated type of corn, that my family has kept, and other families have kept in all of our communities now for thousands of years.

(bright music continues) And we also plant traditional varieties of beans to grow along with that corn, to climb the corn, and, of course, our heirloom squashes to provide shade.

And the Three Sisters that we grow, they do not deplete the ground of resources.

They work in cooperation with our soils and our mother, dear Earth.

(soft music) Indigenous peoples have a very acute awareness of climate change, facing relocation, the reduction of food sovereignty, ability to feed themselves, and quickly becoming climate refugees.

And so indigenous peoples across the planet are very concerned about the placement of new energy sources, of photovoltaic fields, of wind turbines, of frack gas, of pipelines, that, in many ways, those are simply business as usual.

(soft music continues) There are decisions that are made based on the rate of return, based on profit.

And time and time again, Indigenous peoples are left with the waste and the disproportionate impact.

(soft music continues) Across the world, Indigenous peoples, though they control less than half of the land, are protecting 80% of the world's biodiversity.

(soft music continues) And so the Center has been organizing what we would call indigenous BioBlitzes, where a team of both traditional knowledge holders and western scientists try to understand what's at stake when these projects are being built.

(soft music continues) People tend to think this knowledge is stuck in the past, but I think Indigenous people recognize that traditional ecological knowledge is actively growing in our communities, and it's being restored, it's being recovered, it's being reinvented, and it's being generated.

(soft music continues) - The mission of the University's Center for Native Peoples and the Environment is to create programs that draw in the wisdom of both indigenous and scientific knowledge in support of our shared goals of environmental sustainability.

(relaxing instrumental music) - I do tell these guys all kinds of stories on the changes and the people that I knew, some of 'em are maybe 15 years younger than me.

You know, those are the ones that are the closest to my age, but, I mean, I tell 'em stories on the people, the interesting people that I knew.

I'm one of the last people that have seen a lot of changes.

I'm one of the last people... My grandparents on my mother's side, they were born in tipis and the whole nine yards, so yeah, I mean, I'm one of the last people to know those kinds of people.

Take care of your body.

I mean, you know, don't abuse your body.

You don't wanna get hurt, you know?

You don't wanna get hurt messing around, and then hurt your ankle.

Stuff like that can, you know... You can't work if you don't have that.

Say no to drugs.

That's kind of becoming a big problem... Or not becoming, is a big problem around here.

But other than that, yeah, just take care of yourself.

Work hard, education.

I mean, even with this week, we put on trainings, but we encourage education.

The more education a person has, you know, is fine with us, and we would like to push people into it, 'cause they say, you know, "Well, I'd rather work while I get my job back in the spring."

Absolutely, go to school.

You've got your job back in the spring.

My grandfather on my mom's side, he hardly spoke any English, so yeah, we used to get him to say English words so we could laugh, 'cause, like, "What's for breakfast?

And he'd say, "Scram egg and doast."

You know, that's how he said scrambled eggs and toast.

And really interesting folk.

My mother and my aunt, they still speak Blackfeet, and I can only catch, maybe, basically, what the conversation is about, but not the entire conversation, because, you know, they didn't wanna teach it to us, because they were punished for speaking their language back then, my parents and my grandparents.

- Where?

- They didn't teach it to... At the different boarding schools here.

They had the mission, they had the government boarding schools.

They're trying to bring it back now.

The younger generation, they're trying to get it back now, but my generation, yeah, the elders didn't wanna teach us, 'cause they didn't want us to go through what they went through.

(relaxing instrumental music) (bright instrumental music) - Hi, my name is Bethy Albert-Peacock, and I'm an author.

I've written two books, "Hummingbird and the Little People," and "Firefly and the Boarding School."

(soft music) Well, we started a publishing company, and I've been editing Tom's books for years.

And one day the kids came to visit, and my son says, "Tell the grandkids about grandpa and boarding school," and so I did, 'cause my dad was taken when he was six.

After they left, Tom says, "You should really write a book about that for kids, because, you know, kids are hearing all about it, and they need some answers."

And so I did, and it's a... You know, what I wrote is true about what really happened, (soft music) but it has a happy ending, so it's a nice balanced book.

Hummingbird is a little girl that... She's a good little girl.

She goes to her mom and says, you know, "What do you need help with?"

Her mom says, "Go play today.

You've been so good, go play."

And the little brother says, "I wanna come with," and she says, "Not today."

So she follows a squirrel in the woods and she gets lost.

And when she's trying to figure out where she's at, she hears the singing, and she recognizes the Ojibwe language, you know?

So she starts singing along, and she sees the Little People.

They're dancing and just having a good time.

But when she starts singing along, they run.

They're afraid of humans.

She says, "I just wanna go home."

I'm lost.

I don't know how to get home."

We have Anna Granholm, and since then Anna's illustrated about eight more books for us.

We absolutely love her illustrations.

(soft music continues) There are a lot of Ojibwe words in these books, and we're hoping that, you know, with the language coming back, that more and more people are gonna read and learn and understand, and we want them to know how to say the words and what they mean.

We have several books that had both English and Ojibwe throughout, and now we have another one coming out that's gonna be straight Ojibwe, because there are a lot of immersion schools.

They don't want English in their books, they just want the Ojibwe.

I think kids care and see a lot more than we give them credit for, and I think they have a lot of questions.

We're a nonprofit, Native-owned, we've just published Native books by Native writers, and that's our niche.

We found our niche.

2019, we were gonna publish two books a year, and we published five books the first year, I think 12 the second year.

So now from 2019 to now, we've published 29 books and we have eight more in the making.

So from our little...

Doing little children's books, we've just grown and grown and grown, and, you know, we said we're gonna do two books a year, we would've done eight by now, and we've done 29 with eight coming.

(no audio) (no audio) (upbeat instrumental music) (upbeat instrumental music continues) (upbeat instrumental music continues) (bright instrumental music) - [Narrator] Production for "Native Report" is made possible by grants from the Blandin Foundation, Anishinabe Fund, and Alexandra Smith Fund, In Support of Native American Treaty Rights, administered through the Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation, a generous support from viewers like Jack and Sharon Kemp, (bright instrumental music continues) DSGW Architects, personalizing architecture, online at dsgw.com, and viewers like you.

(bright instrumental music continues) (bright music)