How The Iroquois Tribe Created The Game Of Lacrosse

For decades the sport of lacrosse has been played around the world. Originating in North America, lacrosse was played by the Native Americans for a variety of reasons. Known as “The Creators Game”, Lacrosse was used as a substitute for war and in spiritual practices as well. Lacrosse began with simple and elegant sticks, but with the use of technology has being adopted lacrosse now uses pads such as helmets and gloves as well as sticks that are made from metal. Throughout the Native Americans history the game was originally played by men and with the same rules, in the current era this has all changed. Throughout its existence, lacrosse was perceived as a brutal and violent sport that was played by savages, but it actually has a expansive history and meaning.

Before the arrival of Europeans in the 1600’s, the Five Nations of the Iroquois lived under a constitution that had three main principles, peace, justice, and the health of mind and body. The Constitution of the Iroquois Confederacy offered compelling evidence of Native American rich and sophisticated cultures with their well established democratic government with a form of religion and a strong matriarchal system before the advent of Europeans.

Lacrosse is the oldest team sport in North America, having been played by Native American tribes long before any European had even set foot on the continent. A century after European missionaries discovered the game played by Native Americans, they began to play it themselves, starting in the 18th century. From there, it evolved and grew in popularity from a very savage game that resembled war, into what it is today, a recreational sport played widely in America and other countries. As U.S. Lacrosse literature aptly puts it "Lacrosse is a game born of the North American Indian, christened by the French, adopted and raised by the Canadians, and later dominated by the Americans.”

Before 1492, when Columbus sailed the ocean blue, there were many tribes living in North America. Two equally similar and different ones were the Iroquois tribe and the Cherokee tribe. On one hand, they are similar because of their geographies and their economies. On the other hand, they are different because of their cultures and religious beliefs.

A belief is defines a true statement, something that exists, or the trust and faith in someone or something. We all have beliefs and have obtained those believes individually in many different ways and whose to say that belief is right or wrong, or true or false. As with a myth, a traditional story, mostly believed to be a false idea or false believe.

Lacrosse is one of the oldest sports in history, and it is interesting to see how the sport has changed since it was created.

The ball game was played “for many reasons, including entertainment and competition. Because the losers were frequently sacrificed, ball games also served as a way to reenact wars with enemy peoples” (Foster, 2002, p.195). To play, the ball is kept in the air by hitting it with the hips, thighs or upper arms and bouncing it of the side walls. The use of the hands or feet was forbidden. The solid rubber ball was extremely hard and causes serious injuries. The ball game “participants wore padding on their forearms and knees as protection against the hard ball and even harder masonry surfaces of the ball courts” (Foster, 2002, p.195). To protect ribs and the torso players would wear a U-shaped belt or yoke. They were made out of leather or wicker. Hachas “were axlike stone implements shaped like animal, bird, or human heads and worn inserted in the belt” (Foster, 2002, p.195). It’s also said that “the motions of the ball were thought to parallel the motions of the sun, moon, and Venus as they rose through the sky and sank in the Underworld” (Foster, 2002, p.195). There’s a spiritual story associated with the ball game about the Hero Twins from the Popol

Nothing is more fundamental yet so important to the freedoms we enjoy as Americans as the United States Constitution, which guarantee our right to do and say as we please so long as it does no harm to anyone. The Iroquois Nation preamble is placed on perfect peace for the welfare of the people. Their focus was fighting for the liberty of the people. Among the Indian nations whose ancient seats were within the limits of our republic, the Iroquois have long continued to occupy the conspicuous position. Nations they now set forth upon the canvas of the Indian history prominent as for the wisdom of their civil institution of the federations. Only the Iroquois had a system that seemed to meet most of the demands espoused by the

The Iroquois nations, one of the oldest and most prestigious tribes in the history of all Native Americans. In this paper I will be showing why the Iroquois ended up siding with the English through the French and Indian, and Revolutionary wars through factors of colonization. I will also be showing some features of their culture, considering the iroquois are not well known in the western United States, and discussing the fall of the once great tribes. The main reason I 've chosen the Iroquois is because of my own prior knowledge of the Iroquois, and their relationship to lacrosse. I started playing lacrosse my freshman year of highschool. The very first thing I learned, before any stick skills or any basics of the game, was the history of it. Our coach insisted that we knew the history and the culture of the game, and that we respected it. I was intrigued by how interesting the game was. The game was made as a form of war. Lacrosse was sometimes even referred to as “Little brother of war”. It would be called this because injury, even death were common during a lacrosse game. When two tribes had a disagreement, but didn 't feel the need to have a legitimate war, the opposing tribes would send their best warriors to the battlefield and play a lacrosse game. Games would be played to a score of 5-7, but considering how long the fields could be, these games could take hours, days even, however long it took for one of the tribes to win,

Sports, especially ones that involve a ball, are modern America’s favorite pastimes. Well, this was also true for the Mesoamerican people of the ninth century. While the event does not have a specific name, it is referred to as the Mesoamerican ballgame. Like basketball, this game was played on a long, rectangular court (Stokstad 405). The ball itself is said to be pretty heavy and rubber. Unlike basketball, the players wore protective gear because the actual sport of the game was to use everything but your hands to hit the ball. The object was to make it into the protruding stone goal, in which the ball would enter horizontally and not longitudinally. Some scholars suggest that perhaps the Mesoamerican ballgame was used in times of warfare,

During this period of growth and modernization, Native tribes continued to play lacrosse as they always had. The Natives' game was modernized in that it was not played so savagely (Source A). However, it had not modernized as much as the game played by whites. In the early 20th Century, the Great Lakes and Southeastern variations of lacrosse were very rare, but the Northeastern version of the game was still played. The Six Nations of Iroquois played the game competitively against other countries, including Canada, and once toured Europe (Source A). However, American Indian lacrosse in all areas but the northeast was experiencing demise because the games had become too violent and too many people were gambling on them, thus impoverishing and damaging the Native way of life. In 1900, lacrosse was banned

Jim Thorpe was a Native American. He won a pentathlon and decathlon in the olympics in 1912. He was soon stripped of his gold medals for violating some rules. He was born on May 28, 1887 close to Prague, Oklahoma. Thorpe played baseball and football before pursuing an acting career. The day he died on was March 28, 1953 in the city Lomita, California. The school he went to is The Carlisle School for All Native Americans. Jim Thorpe played for 12 seasons and had 52 career games that were played. Jim Thorpe had 8 children he had 3 daughters named Grace Thorpe, Gale Thorpe, and Charlotte Thorpe. He also had 5 sons named John Thorpe, Richard Thorpe, Carl Thorpe, William Thorpe, and Jim Thorpe Jr. Thorpe’s real name is Wa Tho Huk which means bright

I wake up grab my lacrosse stick, ball and head outside. Grab the net and started to shoot. I play of my state lacrosse team we have our first tournament this weekend and I don’t wanna be the reason that we lose. I was originally a D-pole for my city team but my coach for state thought otherwise. I could run the field in 20 seconds flat. At least that is what my coach said. I started out the day with a couple fakes and spin moves nothing hard just the kind of stuff you need to know when you want to start. My sister decides to come and play me in a 1v1 (me and my sister are competitive) I accept so we go to the plains across the street I bring the net along with us. I just school her badly 10:0 she challenged me at my own game 1st mistake.

1). The reason for the construction of the Iroquois confederacy, or the league of the Iroquois, (Haudenosaunee) was the impeding factor of disunity between the tribes. Hienwatha, a Mohawk Iroquois, lived in Ontario and observed the disunity between the Iroquois tribes. In an attempt to unify the nations, he approached rival tribes and argued the benefits of unification. Initially, his idea is shut down by the elders of each tribe. The changing climate that started to occur, however, increased confrontations between tribes. Hienwatha yet again tries to explain to the Iroquois people about the possibility of peace and is rejected again. He then alludes the nations to a weaved belt of wampum shells which supposedly illustrated the connectedness of the five Iroquois nations. He traveled among the nations, of which all then supported the idea of unity, and was able to form a seemingly impenetrable force.

The sport that Native Americans are most famous for is Lacrosse. It was widely, and still is, commonly known throughout the Americas. While mostly found played near the Atlantic Seaboard and around the Great Lakes area, it was also played in the South, on the grasslands and plains in California, and in the Pacific Northwest. There were three different forms of Lacrosse based on the equipment that was used, the type of goal used, and stick handling techniques. These different forms could be found throughout many different tribes and tribal groups. The materials used in this sport were curved rackets, one ball, goal posts, and the players. The ball was generally made of either wood or buckskin. The rackets had a net on the end to hold the ball in place when running to score at the end of the field. Hundreds of players participated in this sport and often prizes were given out to the winners. “J.G Kohl declared Lacrosse to be the finest and grandest sport of all” (Native American Sports 1800-1860).