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Return to the Detroit Sugarbush

Alexis Chingman-Tijerina and Antonio Cosme watch Jefferson Ballew perform an Indigenous welcome song in Rouge Park.
Russ McNamara
Alexis Chingman-Tijerina and Antonio Cosme watch Jefferson Ballew perform an Indigenous welcome song in Rouge Park.

A fire burned again in the sugarbush and with it came calls for healing and understanding.

On February 18th, people with the Detroit Sugarbush Project, many of them Indigenous, gathered in Rouge Park for a ritual to mark the start of the annual Maple Syrup harvest.

The burning of a sacred fire drew the attention of law enforcement.

Soon more than a dozen Detroit Police officers arrived and ordered the ceremony to end.