An Iroquois legend tells of Woksis, a tribal chief, pulling his tomahawk from a maple tree and going off on a hunt. The weather was warm and the gash dripped sap into a bark vessel under the tree. The chief's wife needed water to cook their evening meal, and she used the water from the tree to save a trip to the spring. When the chief neared home, he smelled the odor of the sweet syrup, and when he ate his meal he found the meat very tasty.
All accounts indicate that the Native Americans of the Lake States, southeastern Canada, New England, the Appalachian Mountains knew and used maple syrup a long time before the first European explorers and colonists came to America.
SOURCE: Lewis County Maple Syrup Producers Association
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