  American Indian Heritage Night Friday January 22 @ 7:35 p.m. The Swarm welcomes the American Indian community to celebrate the origins of the game as Minnesota takes on the Colorado Mammoth at Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul. Halftime will feature a demonstration of the "creator's game" on the turf. Twenty players from the Oneida and Menominee tribes of Green Bay, WI will play with traditional native poles (sticks) and two posts at the ends of the field (goals). Originally, the game was played to honor someone in the community. If you want to know more about the traditional game being played at halftime, contact Killebrew Van Dyke at 920-562-2164. For tickets, contact Tom Nemo at 651-312-3461 or Brett Miller at 651-312-3494.  History of Lacrose From Thomas Vennum Jr. - Author of American Indian Lacrosse: Little Brother of War Lacrosse was one of many indigenous stickball games played by American Indians at the time of European contact. Almost exclusively a male team sport, it is distinguished from the others, such as field hockey and shinny, by the use of a netted racquet to pick up the ball, throw, catch and shoot it into a goal to score a point. The cardinal rule in all varieties of lacrosse was that the ball, with few exceptions, must not be touched with the hands.  Based on the type of goal and stick-handling techniques, it is possible to discern three basic forms of lacrosse - Southeastern, Great Lakes, and Northeastern. Among Southeastern tribes (Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, Seminole and Yuchi), a double-stick version is still practiced. A two-and-a half foot stick is held in each hand and the soft, small deerskin ball is retrieved and cupped between them. Great Lakes tribes (Ojibwe, Menominee, Potawatomi, Sauk, Fox, Miami, Winnebago and Santee Dakota) used a single three-foot stick. This type of stick terminates in a round, closed pocket about three to four inches in diameter, scarcely larger than the ball, which was usually made of wood, charred and scraped to shape. The Northeastern stick, used among Iroquoian and New England tribes, is the progenitor of all present-day sticks, both in box as well as field lacrosse. |
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