Thursday Doors: Sweet Water Festival

It’s spring, which in this part of the world means maple syrup season. The sap starts running, the maple trees are tapped, and a sweet treat is produced.

This year, maple syrup season also came with a history lesson.

One of the excursions I had on the weekend with Deb from the Widow Badass was to the Crawford Lake Conservation Area for the “Sweet Water Festival“.

We were attending a special presentation by an Indigenous chef about traditional Indigenous foods, including some sampling of these foods featuring the use of the ‘sweet water’.

Maple Salmon, Wild Rice with Blueberries and Maple Syrup, Freshly baked Bannock with Maple Butter – YUM!!

Chef Johl Whiteduck Ringuette related fascinating stories about his culture, the food was outstanding, and the ambiance of the venue really sealed this as a truly special event.

It was raining. It was wet and muddy. We didn’t care.

Crawford Lake was “the first prehistoric village in the eastern woodland area of North America to be accurately dated” (as per one of the many historical plaques) and archaeological analysis of their agricultural practices can be dated back to the mid-1400s.

It is not known exactly which peoples lived here, except that they were part of the Iroquois Nation. Evidence exists that there were once 11 Longhouses in this area.

Three have since been reconstructed.

This is the Dancing Deer Longhouse (notice illustration over the doorway)

Obviously some liberties were taken in the reconstruction – like door handles, push bars, and electric lighting. In fact the doorways of the original Longhouses were likely not protected by doors at all – but only animal skins.

In spite of its metal push bar, this door has a certain ‘rustic’ charm.

The sign says ‘Closed for Special Function’ … that referred to our food tasting event.

Although I had hiked through the Crawford Lake area on the Bruce Trail a few times, I had never seen the Longhouses. To say I was in awe of them would be an understatement and no single photo I took that gray wet day could do justice to their impressive size.

The lower level was for sleeping, the upper level was used for storage, and in the centre of the Longhouse were fire pits. Holes in the roof allowed the smoke to escape.

Inside these Longhouses, multiple families would live. This society was matrilineal in that the families living together in a single Longhouse were normally related through the maternal line. In other words, a man would join the Longhouse of his wife – not the other way around – and a woman could easily live her entire life in the same Longhouse.

Turtle Lodge

In the few short hours we spent at Crawford Lake, I learned how little I really knew about the First Nations People. I’m embarrassed by my ignorance.

**********************************************************************************

Thursday Doors is a weekly photo feature hosted by Norm Frampton at Norm 2.0.