MAPLE NATION In Mohawk, sugar maples (Acer saccharum) are known as wahta. They command a significant place in Indigenous traditions. There are more sugar maples than humans in the region known to native people as “Maple Nation,” which stretches from from west of Lake Superior to the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. Sugar maples are a common link among everything living here: They provide food and shelter for animals and people, nutrients for soil and plants, filtration for water. Countless generations of Algonquian, Haudenosaunee and Wabanaki peoples, among others, have gathered maple sap in the Adirondacks using various techniques, some depicted here by artist John Fadden. But climate change threatens to upend that tradition. Warming winters harm sugar maples, and shift their habitats northward. And as the maples are threatened, so is the ecosystem that relies on these towering giants. In spring 2022, a new exhibit will give you the opportunity to explore Maple Nation, learn about the scientific and cultural importance of maples, and find ways that you might act in deeper harmony with maple forests. Maple Nation is part of our ongoing Ways of Knowing partnership with the Akwesasne Cultural Center, the Six Nations Iroquois Cultural Center, the Native North American Travelling College, and the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment.
illustration: John Fadden
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