Spring 2026

Baamaapii! Aanii! Boojim! Yahkwa?

We’re excited to share stories, resources, and traditions, guided by tribal partners in Wisconsin, highlighting the knowledge, practices, and histories of tribal communities.

Food is more than just nourishment—it’s a way to connect with history, culture, and resilience. In this issue, you’ll find features on tribal food traditions, from crispy fry bread and hearty ancestral grains to pantry staples and sweet, seasonal maple syrup, along with recipes, local markets, and cultural events to help families and caregivers explore these practices in fun and meaningful ways.

With the peak of maple tapping season upon us, we’re also diving into the legends, stories, and seasonal practices surrounding maple sap. These traditions connect communities to spiritual teachings, cultural history, and the land, showing the deep meaning behind this sweet spring harvest.

You’ll also discover training and educational resources designed to help caregivers learn more about tribal cultures, traditions, and practices. Whether you’re exploring heritage foods, celebrating seasonal traditions, or connecting with local events, this newsletter offers stories, tools, and inspiration to help you engage with and honor the wisdom shared by tribal communities in Wisconsin.

So grab a little maple sweetness, enjoy the season, and hop into reading---spring has officially arrived!

Rooted in Tribal Traditions:

Embracing Tribal Food Sovereignty

Food is much more than just fuel. For tribal communities, it is a vital link to history, health, and spiritual identity. Today, a powerful movement called Food Sovereignty is flourishing. It represents the right of a community to define its own food systems, moving away from processed industrial foods and returning to ancestral or heritage diets.

Cultural Awareness: The Story of Fry Bread

Resilience & Survival

While many recognize fry bread as a beloved staple at modern powwows, its origins are rooted in a difficult period of displacement. In the mid-1800s, as Tribal Nations were forced onto reservations and away from their traditional hunting grounds, they faced starvation.

The U.S. government provided meager rations: white flour, processed lard, sugar, and salt. From these limited, unfamiliar ingredients, tribal people demonstrated incredible resilience by creating fry bread—a food born of necessity. Today, the Food Sovereignty movement honors fry bread as a symbol of survival. It encourages a return to nutrient-dense heritage grains, such as flint corn and wild rice, to address health disparities introduced during the reservation era.

Traditional Comparisons: A Tale of Two Breads

Feature	Fry Bread	Journey Cakes (Johnnycakes)
Origin	Post-Colonial (Reservation rations)	Ancestral (Pre-Contact)
Primary Base	Wheat Flour (Government-issued)	Flint Cornmeal (Indigenous grain)
Significance	Survival & Resilience	Heritage & Sovereignty
Cooking Temp	375*F (Deep fry in oil)	375*F (Pan-sear in light oil)

Recipes for Your Kitchen

Fry Bread (The Symbol of Survival)

Ingredients: 2 cups all-purpose flour, ½ tsp salt, 2 tsp baking powder, ¾ cup warm water.
Method: Mix into a soft dough. Let it rest for 30 minutes. Shape into flat discs.
Cooking: Carefully drop into 1 inch of vegetable oil heated to 375°F. Fry for 1–2 minutes per side until golden brown and puffed.

Brothertown Journey Cakes (The Ancestral Alternative)

Ingredients: 1 cup white cornmeal (Oneida or heritage flint corn), 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp maple syrup, 1 cup boiling water.
Method: Mix into a thick, gritty batter. Let it sit for 5 minutes.
Cooking: Drop spoonfuls onto a skillet lightly oiled with sunflower oil heated to 375°F. Flatten slightly and fry until golden and crisp on both sides (about 3–4 minutes per side).

Why Traditional Foods Matter

Returning to heritage diets offers a roadmap for wellness and cultural preservation:

Nutritional Resilience: Traditional meals are naturally high in complex carbs (beans, squash), lean proteins (bison, fish), and fiber. They help combat health disparities like heart disease and Type 2 diabetes.
Cultural Identity: Many ingredients are tied to "Creation Stories." For example, the Three Sisters (corn, beans, and squash) teach us how different beings can support and protect one another in a garden and a community.
Environmental Stewardship: Traditional harvesting—like gathering wild rice (manoomin) or using controlled burns for berry patches—respects the natural cycles of the land and promotes biodiversity.
Intergenerational Connection: When elders teach youth how to prepare these meals, they aren't just passing down recipes—they are preserving tribal languages and ecological knowledge.

The Wisconsin Tribal Pantry: 5 Essential Staples

For non-tribal foster parents, keeping these items in your pantry allows you to prepare a wide variety of meals for all 11 federally recognized Tribal Nations and the Brothertown Indian Nation.

Manoomin (Wild Rice): Sacred to the Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) nations. Use for savory stews or breakfast porridge.
The Three Sisters: Corn, Beans, and Squash. Individually, keep dried Red Kidney Beans and White Corn (Hominy) on hand.
Maple Syrup & Sugar: The primary traditional sweetener. Used to season meat, glaze fish, or sweeten corn mush.
Traditional Proteins: Bison and venison are lean, nutrient-dense alternatives to beef. Ground bison is an easy swap for tacos or stews.
Native Berries: Blueberries, Cranberries, and Strawberries. Known as "Heart Berries," used in Wojapi (a thick berry sauce) or refreshing "Strawberry Water."

Where to Shop and Eat Locally

(Not a full listing of resources)

Nation	Resource	Location
Oneida	Oneida Market	Green Bay, WI
Ho-Chunk	SweetGrass Trading Co.	Online/Native-Owned
Lac du Flambeau	Ojibwe Market	Lac du Flambeau, WI
Red Cliff	Red Cliff Fish Co.	Bayfield, WI

Visit Native American Businesses & Attractions | Travel Wisconsin for additional options.

Resources

2026 Community Gatherings

Ho-Chunk Nation Memorial Day Pow Wow: Black River Falls (May 23–25).
Oneida Big Applefest: Green Bay area (Late September)
Bad River Manoomin Celebration: Odanah (August 14–16).
Full Calendar: Native American Tourism of Wisconsin

Tapping Into Native American History:

Maple Tapping

Maple tapping has been an important part of Native American culture for generations. Since there was no written record, Native American communities passed on their knowledge through oral stories, legends, and traditions. Although the stories vary across tribes, it is generally believed that Native Americans were the first to discover and use maple sap.

Maple tapping season usually starts in late winter or early spring, often from late February through early April. For some tribes, a natural signal for beginning is the first thundershower, also often referred to as Thundersnow. For tribes like the Oneida, Chippewa, Menominee, and Ho-Chunk in Wisconsin, this event is spiritually significant. It represents the return of the sacred Thunderbirds, who awaken the earth, bring rain, and signal seasonal shifts. Traditional practices include offering prayers and tobacco to the Thunderbirds to show respect and gratitude, and to ask for protection.

The first thundershower often leads to a strong flow of sap, sometimes called the “sugar run.” The combination of warm days and cold nights helps the sap rise, so people harvest and boil it quickly to make syrup.

Native Stories, Legends, and Folklore Related to Maple Tapping

Listen to Oneida Tribal member Randy Cornelius share a short clip about maple tapping. He explains the first Thundersnow and its importance to his tribe’s maple tapping traditions. Recorded for WisconsinLife.org on April 15, 2011, Cornelius also talks about maple tapping in his family. He highlights the sacred practice of asking the tree’s spirit for permission and giving thanks before and after tapping.
Wisconsin Archeological Artifacts shares a post about the history and cultural significance of maple syrup production in southern Wisconsin. It highlights the significant role of maple tapping in Ojibwe/Chippewa communities.
Wiske and Maple Syrup is a traditional Potawatomi tale that explains why maple syrup must be made with effort. In the story, Wiske turns the sweet syrup into thin sap to teach people the value of hard work and respect for nature’s gifts.
Manabozho (or Nanabozho) and the Maple Trees, a traditional Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) legend, explains why maple trees no longer naturally provide thick, sweet syrup and why people must work for maple syrup.
The Legend of Chief Woksis is an Iroquois story about how maple syrup was discovered when sap from a maple tree was accidentally used in cooking. The sap boiled and turned into a sweet syrup, creating a tradition enjoyed for generations.

Recorded Tribal Trainings

Click on the links below to visit the Champion Classrooms and access recorded tribal trainings and/or to register for an upcoming webinars.

The Wisconsin Family Connections Center website has a calendar of training opportunities, conferences, family fun events, and more.

If you need technical assistance navigating the website and would like to connect directly with a member of our Resource Team to ask questions or to learn about additional resources, e-mail us or call our toll-free number at 1-800-762-8063.

We Value Your Input!

While we continue to collaborate with various partners in tribal communities to gather their insights for these newsletters, your feedback remains crucial in shaping their future direction. We warmly invite you to share your thoughts and suggestions on the topics, stories, or features you’d like to see in upcoming issues. Together, we can create a newsletter that genuinely reflects the interests and needs of tribal communities in Wisconsin, ensuring caregivers of Native children and the general public stay informed.

Please send your feedback to the Wisconsin Family Connections Center at info@wisconsinfamilyconnectionscenter.org or call us at 1-800-762-8063.

Thank you!