The Roots of Lacrosse

Me in goal, in another lifetime, junior year high school National Schoolgirl tournament.

I grew up playing lacrosse. I learned the sport from family, and found my community on the field. I was a youth referee in high school, I worked at my cousins lacrosse store as my first job, and I've coached on and off for over 15 years. I played year round through high school and college, often for multiple teams at a time; not many others were crazy enough to be goalies, so I'd often play on teams that were 2 or 3 years older than myself, in addition to teams my own age. I went to the schoolgirls national tournament twice during high school. Then, during my freshman fall abroad in London, I coached the Clapham Ladies Lacrosse Club to an undefeated season. I started three seasons on my college team, and was tenth in the country for save percentage when a series of concussions sidelined me and altered the trajectory of my life.

My best friends in the world are teammates from my class, still friends, and some are even neighbors. I am who I am because of the path lacrosse lead me down, for better or for worse.

And yet I know very little about the cultural history of the sport and it's native roots. I can't remember how I learned that the sport was originally a Native American tradition, going back many generations, but I always had a vague understanding that growing up in central new jersey meant that I was living in Lenni Lenape land.

When I was growing up, the lacrosse community was low on diversity in general, but I didn't meet a native player until well into my twenties. I began to think about my relationship to the sport, the modern sport's relationship to it's origins, and my communities lack of any kind of relationship with the Indigenous culture around the sport.

It doesn't sit right.

It didn't sit right when the Haudenosaunee Mens National team was denied entry to the World Cup in 2010 because of a passport issue.

And it's an understantement to say that it won't sit right in 2028 if the men and women of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy are not allowed to compete in the Olympics.

So I'm setting out to learn more about the history and culture of the Creators Game, and to learn how one game has spawned so many variations and such vastly different communities. The Mens' and Womens' games have different rules, lines and equipment, as do field, box, and sixes. Canadians have a different style of play and than Americans, and Haudenosaunee, as one announcer put it in the last mens World Cup, play like they are "playing in cursive".

How have these cultures evolved? And how can these cultures honor the history of the sport as we take take big leaps into the future of the sport? I have no answers, but I'm looking for them.

I want to talk to people about their lived experience with the sport and the communities around the sport. Not sure where to go from here or how to get there, but stick around with me and find out. And if you want to chat more or have ideas as to who I could speak with, comment below or shoot me a message!