Why did Janis keep running away from kindergarten? She wanted to go home—not to the noisy Duluth house, but to the log cabin among wildflowers on the Leech Lake Reservation. When her parents settled in the city, they offered a compromise: summers with Grandma on the Fond du Lac Reservation, where Janis listened to stories, learned Ojibwe, and found her place in the world. In Sugar Bush Babies, FDL elder Janis A. Fairbanks revisits her childhood during Indian Relocation, moving between Ojibwe villages and white communities shaped by Hollywood myths. Through Grandma’s teachings and vivid memories—boarding school tales, powwows, Girl Scout camp, and selling lilacs—Fairbanks shares a lyrical memoir of love, tradition, and the enduring power of women’s wisdom.