Lacrosse History and the Haudenosaunee Roots of the Game

Most people who watch a college lacrosse game have no idea the sport was played on this continent for centuries before any European saw it. School textbooks and team websites usually start the story in 1860s Montreal, which skips almost everything that matters. Lacrosse history begins with Indigenous nations, especially the Haudenosaunee, for whom the game was and still is a gift from the Creator. This guide walks through where the game came from, how it was taken over, and why its original keepers are still fighting to play it under their own flag.

Where lacrosse history really begins

Stick and ball games were played across much of eastern North America long before contact. Nations around the Great Lakes, along the St. Lawrence and through the Southeast each had their own forms. The Cherokee and Choctaw played with two short sticks. Peoples around the Great Lakes used a single stick with a small round pocket. The Haudenosaunee, the six nations of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora, played with a longer stick and a wider netted head that is the ancestor of today's equipment.

Games could be enormous. Accounts describe hundreds of players on a side, goals set far apart and matches that ran from morning to dusk or across several days. Some contests settled disputes between communities, which is why the Cherokee name for their stickball game is often translated as "little brother of war."

The European name came later. In the 1630s, French Jesuit missionaries described the game played by the Wendat and thought the curved stick resembled a bishop's crozier, in French "la crosse." The label stuck, and with it a habit of describing the game from the outside.

The Creator's Game and what it means

For the Haudenosaunee, lacrosse is not simply a sport. In Mohawk the game is called tewaarathon, and it is often called the Creator's Game or the medicine game in English. Traditional teachings hold that it was given to the people for the Creator's enjoyment and as a source of healing.

That shapes how it is played in many communities today:

• Medicine games may be held when someone is ill, with the outcome less important than the act of playing.
• Wooden sticks are carved from hickory, steamed and bent into shape, and some are buried with their owners.
• Boys are often given a small stick soon after birth, as a sign that the game will be part of their life.

Much of this knowledge has been carried through teaching and story rather than written record, which is one reason our piece on how oral history preserves what written records miss applies so directly here.

How lacrosse was taken over in the 1800s

By the mid 1800s, non-Native clubs in Montreal had started playing lacrosse after watching Mohawk teams from nearby Kahnawake and Akwesasne. In 1867, a Montreal dentist named William George Beers published a set of written rules, standardizing field size, team numbers and equipment. He promoted the sport as a symbol of the new Canadian confederation.

The new rules were not neutral. Native teams had often beaten the Montreal clubs, and organizers soon looked for ways to stop that. By the 1880s, national amateur bodies had moved to bar Native players from amateur competition, often by classing them as professionals. The people who had given the game to the world were shut out of its main championships.

Lacrosse was also suppressed at home. Government agents and church run schools in both Canada and the United States discouraged or banned traditional games as part of broader efforts to erase Indigenous culture, the same pressure that targeted ceremonies, dances and languages. Our article on reclaiming Indigenous language describes how those campaigns worked in the schools.

Why "Beers invented modern lacrosse" is the wrong frame

Many sports histories credit Beers as the father of modern lacrosse, as if he took a loose folk game and made it real. That framing deserves pushback, for a clear reason.

What Beers did was write rules down and adapt them for a club setting. The core of the game, the stick, the passing, the scoring into a goal and the athletic skills, already existed and was being played at a high level by Mohawk teams, who regularly beat the clubs that copied them. Codification is a real contribution, but it is not invention. Treating it as invention erases the people who built the game and makes their later exclusion look like an unfortunate side note rather than the point.

A better way to tell the story: Indigenous nations created and developed lacrosse over centuries; settler clubs adopted it, wrote it into a standard rulebook and then used that rulebook to push Native players out. Both halves are true. Only the second usually gets taught.

The Haudenosaunee Nationals and the fight to play

In 1983, Haudenosaunee leaders organized a national team, the Iroquois Nationals, to compete as a sovereign nation. The international governing body admitted them in the late 1980s, making them one of the only Indigenous nations to compete as full members in an international sport. The team has since won bronze medals at world championships and was renamed the Haudenosaunee Nationals in 2022.

Sovereignty has come with friction. In 2010, the men's team could not travel to the world championship in England because the British government would not accept their Haudenosaunee passports. The team chose to miss the event rather than travel on United States or Canadian documents.

Lacrosse is scheduled to appear at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics in a shortened sixes format. Olympic entry runs through national Olympic committees, which the Haudenosaunee do not have. Supporters have campaigned for an exception so that the nation that gave the game to the world can play it on the biggest stage under its own flag.

How to honor lacrosse history as a fan or coach

You do not need to be Indigenous to respect where the game comes from. Practical steps:

• Teach players the origin of the game at the start of every season, using Haudenosaunee sources where possible.
• Buy a traditional wooden stick from a Native stickmaker for your club's trophy case or a season award.
• Follow the Haudenosaunee Nationals and the women's team, and share their results.
• When local tribes host tournaments or community games, attend respectfully, as you would at other public cultural gatherings described in our guide to how powwows work as celebration and resistance.

Frequently asked questions

Who invented lacrosse?

Lacrosse was created by Indigenous peoples of North America and played for centuries before European contact. Many nations had their own versions, and the Haudenosaunee form is the direct ancestor of the modern field game. French missionaries named it in the 1600s; they did not invent it.

Why is lacrosse called the Creator's Game?

Haudenosaunee teachings hold that the game was a gift from the Creator, played for the Creator's enjoyment and for healing. That is why medicine games are still played for people who are sick and why the stick carries spiritual meaning for many players.

Can the Haudenosaunee play lacrosse in the Olympics?

Olympic teams enter through national Olympic committees, and the Haudenosaunee do not have one. Supporters have pushed for an exception for the 2028 Games in Los Angeles, where lacrosse returns in a sixes format. The issue is tied to wider questions about how sovereign Indigenous nations are recognized in international sport.