PRENTISS TOWNSHIP, Maine (AP) — The members of the
Passamaquoddy tribe have looked under their feet for a bottled water
plant and have turned to the sky for a wind farm. But it’s the forest
that will be the first to deliver as the impoverished tribe seeks to
become one of the biggest maple syrup operations in Maine.
The
tribe, which owns 60,000 acres of land near the Canadian border in
western Maine, has big plans for the syrup operation deep in the woods.
Operating this season with nearly 3,000 taps, the tribe plans to expand
over the next three years to 60,000.
The goal isn’t to create a
maple syrup empire, but rather to bring hope and stability to a tribe
with soaring joblessness and poverty, said Indian Township Chief Joseph
Socobasin.
"It creates an opportunity that we’ve never had,"
Socobasin said of the operation, one of several economic development
projects underway for a tribe with unemployment topping 60 percent.
The
project falls in line with a tribal movement nationwide to get beyond
casinos and federal dollars to create self-sustaining operations that
can create spinoff jobs, said Carl Artman, a Milwaukee-based lawyer who
advises tribes on economic development. Across the country, tribes are
getting into oil and gas operations and real estate development. In
Florida, for instance, the Seminoles own the popular Hard Rock brand.
For
the Passamaquoddies, the syrup project is appealing because of tribal
roots. Native Americans were making maple syrup long before the first
European settlers arrived. It’s also attractive because it’s a renewable
resource and allows tribal members to spend time with nature.
The
land is true wilderness, covered in 3 feet of snowpack even in April
and teeming with moose, deer and lynx. There’s even a bear den among the
tapped trees.
"It goes back to our ancestors. Our ancestors did
this," said Marie Harnois, who’s in charge of the operation. "It will
create employment year after year and hopefully make a profit for our
tribe."
On a recent day, 5 miles of bright green tubes running
from tree to tree stood out against a white backdrop of snowy forest.
The tubes collect sap from several thousand maple trees, transporting
clear liquid that will eventually be transformed into sweet amber syrup.
It’s
a modern operation with a generator and pump to keep sap flowing and
reverse-osmosis equipment to create concentrated sap, which is certified
as organic, Harnois said.
This season, the sap is being boiled
down to syrup by a third party. Next year, the tribe will have its own
equipment to make and bottle the syrup, she said. The tribe is working
on a name for the syrup, which will be distributed globally. Wholesale
rates were roughly $35 to $40 a gallon in recent years.
Eventually,
the operation will support a dozen jobs. Coupled with its other
projects, the tribe hopes the jobs will add up and the operations will
contribute revenue to tribal operations.
Larry Libby, one of the crew members, said work is hard to come by back home in Indian Township, and he’s
happy to have a job.
"I can see this job going a lot further than where we are now," said Libby, 24. "So
there’s a lot of room for building."
The
tribe is also in the final stage of negotiations with investors to
build a bottled water plant 200 miles from the syrup operation, and it’s
reviving plans for a wind power project. The tribe also has a blueberry
operation, and it hasn’t given up the dream of operating a casino,
either.
For the Passamaquoddies, it’s all about creating jobs to
keep tribal members from having to leave Indian Township and Pleasant
Point, the ancestral homeland in eastern Maine where more than 2,000
tribal members live.
For the maple syrup project, the tribe tapped
a $1.5 million federal grant to get the operation started. The first of
three installments came through in December.
"With all of those
pieces coming together, I think we could have a significant impact on
the number of people who are unemployed," Socobasin said. "It gives our
members some options."
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