The Creator's Game
Captured in the oral traditions of the Haudenosaunee (Hodinöhsö:ni’) and Anishinaabeg peoples, Baaga’adowe (commonly Baggataway) was a game that was played for and by the Indigenous communities across North America. Variations of the game were played throughout the continent and each community had its own set of strict standards. Players were not allowed to touch the ball with their hands, so they used sticks with pockets to hold and pass it. Deeply rooted in the Haudenosaunee creation story of Turtle Island, lacrosse is used to tell the battle of good vs. evil between the Creator and his brother. Haudenosaunee saw lacrosse as a gift from the Creator; they played and continue to do so for the enjoyment of the Creator and as a tool to settle disputes and heal the community.4 An individual could request a game, that could take place over several days and involve the entire community, and at the end would receive the ball as a call to the game's curative powers.5 In 1636 Jean de Brébeuf coined the sport ‘la crosse’ after the resemblance between the lacrosse racquet and the crosier of a bishop.6 Colonizers continued to be fascinated and even participated in the sport but condemned its ritualistic ways.
In 1859 Dr. William George Beers sought to reform the game to promote a new Canadian nationalism. Beers rejected cricket as “Canada’s game” because it was imported from England, and he sought a sport from home. He wrote a new set of lacrosse rules and attempted to ‘civilize’ the game by removing its “radical rudeness” (associations to Indigenous styles of play like physicality and negotiation of the rules).7 This attempt to remove any Indigenous connection and forge a new ‘Canadian Identity’, led lacrosse clubs under Beers’ reforms to outright ban Indigenous players from Canadian competition in 1867. The National Lacrosse Association, the first sports body of the new dominion, was inaugurated with the slogan ‘Our Country and Our Game’. Indigenous players would remain banned from the highest level of the sport until the introduction of box lacrosse in 1931, and not participate in Canadian and international field lacrosse until 1990.8