The Origins of Lacrosse

I know this isn't a topic that we have or will talk about in this class, but after wondering and searching up where Lacrosse originated. I found that it actually originated right here in the US.

This doesn't pertain to women's lacrosse, which more so started in Scotland, but it does to men's lacrosse.

Lacrosse began as stickball, a native American Indian contest played by tribal warriors for training, recreation, and religious reasons. It was initially played in the St. Lawrence Valley area by the Algonquian tribe and then followed by other tribes in the eastern half of North America and around the western Great Lakes.

The rules back then were more simple, the ball was not to be touched by a player's hands and there were no boundaries. The ball was tossed in the air at the beginning of the game and it was a race to see who would be the first to catch it. The first lacrosse balls were wooden balls and then replaced by deerskin balls filled with fur. The sticks developed over time, but the meeting was made from deer sinews.

The Indians had some spirit as well! They used paint and charcoal before games to decorate their faces and bodies.

Lacrosse or stickball was played to toughen up young warriors for war, but also played for recreation and religious reasons.

Now you wonder, how did this small sport start spreading? French Jesuit missionaries working in the St. Lawrence Valley in the 1630s were the first Europeans to see lacrosse being played by the Indians. Jean de Brebeuf was one of those missionaries and he wrote about the game and was the one who ended up naming it lacrosse. The Caughnawaga Indians performed a demonstration in Montreal in 1834 and after that, the game of lacrosse started to develop in Canada.

Here is a picture of Lacrosse back then...

Here are the lacrosse balls...