Pokagon Band hosts annual sugar season kickoff breakfast
Published 8:45 am Monday, January 27, 2020
Cusi Gibbons-Ballew and Nicole Holloway presented at the Pokagon Band sugar season kickoff breakfast. (Leader photo/SARAH CULTON)
Brandon Sugars prepares pancakes to serve to attendees of the annual sugar season kickoff. (Leader photo/SARAH CULTON)
Ballew shares maple sugar with breakfast attendees. (Leader photo/SARAH CULTON)
Roger Williams said he enjoyed his breakfast Saturday. (Leader photo/SARAH CULTON)
Karl and Ruth Hewitt share breakfast Saturday at the sugar season kickoff event. (Leader photo/SARAH CULTON)
Haley Holloway ate pancakes and bacon at the event. (Leader photo/SARAH CULTON)
Lyssah Adams, Mikayla Lamance, Benjamin Jackson, Abby Shanahan and Eli Briscoe fill a table at the event. (Leader photo/SARAH CULTON)
DOWAGIAC — A room inside the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi’s Language and Culture Center was packed Saturday morning as the smell of fresh maple syrup and buttery pancakes filled the air. Every chair in the room was taken, leading some to search for chairs in other rooms or to eat their fill of pancakes, bacon and sausage standing up.
“We have a full house,” said Nicole Holloway, cultural activities coordinator.
The Pokagon Band hosted its sugar season kick off breakfast Saturday morning at its Language and Culture building, 59291 Indian Lake Road, Dowagiac. At the event, not only could visitors taste pancakes with maple syrup that was harvested and made on Pokagon property, they could also find out ways they could get involved.
Soon, the Band will begin harvesting sap to make maple sugar and syrup, and at the event, both Holloway and sugar lead Cusi Gibbons-Ballew shared with event attendees how the sugar season and harvesting works. They also presented a signup sheet for attendees to volunteer to help with the process, with Holloway saying that it takes a lot of help to make the sugar season successful.
“[Maple sap] is the first gift of the year,” Ballew said during his presentation. “The gift is not only in the sugar, the sap and the maple syrup. The gift is the making. The gift is all of us coming together, working hard and keeping our culture alive and bringing each other’s spirits up.”
