The Creator's Game

In order to fully understand lacrosse, you must know how and when it was all created. Long before Christopher Columbus arrived on American shores, Native Americans were playing lacrosse. M.B. Roberts states in his book Lacrosse: The Player's Handbook that Native Americans have been playing since the 1400s. They called lacrosse The Creator's Game. Native Americans believed that the Creator gave them lacrosse for his own amusement. Players honored the Great Spirit at the beginning of every match, raising their sticks high before the face-off and yelling the spirit's name as they initiated play. They played lacrosse during religious ceremonies and holidays and even when the seasons began to change. Early Native American lacrosse games were often massive events with hundreds of players.

Their sticks were a lot different than the sticks you see today. Native Americans built their own sticks out of wood and string was used for the net. The head of the stick were also larger than modern lacrosse sticks. They also used wooden balls. Today, lacrosse players use a dense rubber ball.