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Tracing the Indigenous roots of lacrosse

Northwestern scholars help develop a Field Museum exhibit on one of today’s most popular sports
September 23, 2024 | By Stephanie Kulke
Adults and children play lacrosse outside
With insight from CNAIR scholars, an exhibit at Chicago’s Field Museum seeks to raise awareness of the history and meaning of lacrosse to Native Americans. Above, Native kids in Chicago learn to play lacrosse as part of Indigenous STEAM, an education collaborative led by Megan Bang and co-developed by scholars from Northwestern, the University of Washington and Western Washington University.

Lacrosse is one of the fastest-growing sports in the U.S. today, but few people realize its Indigenous origins.

“The city of Chicago was essentially a great lacrosse field where Indigenous tribes of the region played against each other in games that lasted for days and included hundreds of players on a team,” said emeritus professor of journalism Patty Loew.

Loew is a citizen of Mashkiiziibii, the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe, and inaugural director of the Center for Native American and Indigenous Research (CNAIR) at Northwestern.

The roots of lacrosse were obscured when European settlers outlawed Native Americans from playing it. Paradoxically, the settlers had embraced the sport and formed their own lacrosse clubs.

An exhibit at Chicago’s Field Museum, “The Creator’s Game,” seeks to raise awareness of the history and meaning of lacrosse to Native Americans. The exhibit is co-curated by Loew, who co-produced the 2013 PBS documentary “Sacred Stick.” Additional curators include Scott Shoemaker, Miami Tribe of Oklahoma and Josie Lee, Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin.

Also part of the exhibit team is CNAIR scholar, Eli Suzukovich III, descendent of the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa/Cree and an assistant professor of instruction in the Program for Environmental Policy and Culture at Weinberg.

Loew and Suzukovich discuss CNAIR’s efforts to teach lacrosse to Chicago youth and share some little-known facts about lacrosse.

Sacred sticks and stories

Suzukovich said there is an element of the sacred in lacrosse. For some tribes, such as the Menominee, the game was given to them by Thunder, or in the case of the Muskogee Nation, it was the Creator who gave them the game. The exhibit displays handcrafted wooden sticks once used to play lacrosse. They are often highly personalized with symbols carved into them to reflect family lineage.

Stickmaker Randall Blackdeer is on a mission to revitalize the traditional sport of lacrosse using his skills as a woodworker to create lacrosse sticks in the traditional Ho-Chunk manner.

Native communities follow their own cultural and spiritual protocols in preparation for a game. Each has an origin story for the game as well, that is shared among members and passed down to the next generation.

> Related video: A woodworker’s effort to revitalize lacrosse in his community

Some communities have variations on the game for women. For example, Ho-Chunk and Arikara women players use a double ball linked with rope that is associated with fertility and womanhood, and sometimes a shorter hooped stick, or longer straight stick are used. While different, double ball lacrosse is equally if not more challenging to play.

A game of war

In some tribes, the name for lacrosse can be translated as “Little Brother of War.” The game could get violent and dangerous, and broken arms and legs were commonplace, yet tribes saw lacrosse as a useful way of solving disputes without all-out warfare.

Baaga’adowe, the Ojibwe version of lacrosse, was central to Pontiac’s Rebellion at Fort Michilimackinac. Loew said while Ojibwe women did not play baaga’adowe, they played a crucial role in the battle.

When the French and Indian War was lost to the British, a string of forts from the Great Lakes area were to be turned over to the conquerors. Because Native Americans had forged strong trade relations with the French, they formed an alliance with them against the British.

As part of the overall rebellion on the 14 forts masterminded by Odawa leader Pontiac, Ojibwe and Sauk leaders planned a siege on Fort Michilimackinac that would utilize a game of baaga’adowe to distract British soldiers from the attack.

In the days leading up to the match, Sauk and Ojibwe women drew the attention of soldiers in Fort Michilimackinac by buying inexpensive trade items for betting on the game.

On the day of the siege, the women lined up near the fort for shade, with weapons hidden under their blankets. As the excitement around the game built, crowds of soldiers came out of the fort to watch and place bets. When the score was tied up at 3 to 3, some of the women moved inside the fort. When a ball was thrown into the fort to signal the attack, the players rushed into the fort where the women passed weapons to them. The siege ended in victory for the rebellion in just 12 minutes.

Return of the game  

When Indigenous people were outlawed from playing lacrosse, many switched to baseball. “The Creator’s Game” exhibit features the Ho-Chunk baseball team of Wisconsin.

According to Suzukovich, in the mid-20th century, Ho-Chunk men in Wisconsin, who participated in baseball leagues, would help restore the game of lacrosse to their tribe and helped foster the resurgence of lacrosse among other Native peoples in Wisconsin.

An initiative led by CNAIR Director Megan Bang, who is of Ojibwe and Italian descent and a professor in SESP, is helping to bring the game back to Illinois as part of a long running program called Indigenous STEAM, an education models based in and with lands and waters. Educators offer Native American students a place-based lacrosse unit taught in the Cook County Forest Preserves.
“I think it is important Indigenous youth have an opportunity to learn the game,” said former Northwestern lacrosse star Selena Lasota ’19.

“To see community members teaching our kids to carve sticks and play the game is gratifying,” Loew said. “They have a long-awaited opportunity to learn sportsmanship, history and Native values.”

“I think it is important Indigenous youth have an opportunity to learn the game,” said Wildcat women’s lacrosse star Selena Lasota ’19. A member of Katzie First Nation in British Columbia, Canada. Lasota was exposed to the game at age 7, when she went to lacrosse practice with her brothers.

Lasota believes lacrosse represents personal growth, respect and accountability and offers Native youth an immediate connection to their culture regardless of any other connection they might have.

“The Creator’s Game” opened in Spring of 2024 for an open-ended run as part of the Field Museum’s permanent exhibition “Native Truths.”

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