Serpents of the Sky

Prior to the arrival of the Europeans a network of Indian trade routes existed along the western coasts of the North American Pacific Northwest and Mexico. Archaeological evidence of their extensiveness can be found on Gabriola Island, in British Columbia, Canada. It is here one finds some of the most extensive examples of ancient petroglyphs in the world. Of particular interest are images of mythical birds, serpents, and the Sun. In addition two images of an anteater have been found. Anteaters are not native to Canada. They are Central American in origin. How these images came to exist on an isolated coastal island in Western Canada can only be explained when placed in context with the ancient trade routes. Partly due to naivety, as well as a lack of understanding of the past, archaeologists have all but ignored these images claiming instead that they represent mythical forms. This inability to recognize the obvious is both a disservice to the historic record as well as an indication of exactly how little modern man understands the cultures and history of the native peoples who once inhabited this region.

The Indians of British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest traded extensively with the tribes of the American Southwest and Northern Mexico. Far from isolated, theirs was a world of economic and cultural interaction over great distances the likes of which were not replicated again in North America until after the completion of the first Continental Railroad. Far from primitive, they were in fact some of the most complex societies to predate modern man.

Additional evidence of a link between the Indians of the Pacific Northwest and those of American Southwest exists. Beaver-teeth dice and beaver-teeth inline staves used in Pueblo Indian games have been found. The beaver teeth have been traced to the Columbia River region well north of the traditional hunting grounds of the Pueblo. It is along this trade route that the ancient cult of the Sun God and the religious sport of ancient hockey spread as it made its way north from the Mexican interior to the northern fringes of the Canadian West Coast.

In the book Ancient American Indians, Paul R. Cheesman describes the Wupatki Ruins, near Flagstaff, Arizona as a place where ancient Indian tribes would come together to share their culture and knowledge. Its rich fertile land served as a natural meeting place for native farmers from the tribes of the Anasazi, the Hohokam, the Mogollon, the Patayan and the Sinagua. Cheesman contends that a melting pot of native culture existed in this one area for over 150 years prior to its abandonment around c.1225 AD. He adds: "The ball court found at Wupatki bears a dramatic resemblance to the famous ancient ball courts found in Mexico and South America."

Wupatki appears to have been a key site for tracing and dating the spread of ancient hockey throughout North America. The tribes that came together here around c.1075 AD were agrarian societies less violent than their Mayan counterparts. These tribes were practitioners of a form of the stick and ball game. The fact they did not adopt the Mayan hoop game indicates that these tribes possessed knowledge of ancient hockey prior to the changes precipitated by the Mayas in c.800 AD. Here too one finds the legends and worship of the Sun God, the serpent as well as tales of a once great flood.

Moving west from Arizona the trade routes crossed into California spreading the game to the Pima-Papago, the Hopi, the Yuma, and over to the California coast regions home of the Sycuan tribes. Here again the Sun God cult and the game of hockey took hold. Once more the story of the flood appears among tribal legends. Northward through California to the coastal areas the Sun God religion and the practice of hockey continued to spread. In the present day Contra Costa country region near San Francisco this religious and sports phenomena found root among the tribes of the Miwoks, the Yokuts, the Pomos and the Ohlone. It is also at this point where significant developmental changes to both the religion and practice of ancient hockey occur. Here again the sport takes on two different styles of play. In the first instance it continues to be a traditional ball and stick game. However, a second version utilizing blocks of wood--tied together with sinew - creating an aerial method of play also emerges. With this change, an object could now be tossed skyward, symbolic of a flying serpent, from player to player to be caught on the curved end of the stick as participants moved quickly up the field. This new twist on the ancient game of hockey would spread and be adopted by other tribes of the region, particularly the Pomos.

Other changes also took place. Though the Sun God myth continued to be symbolized by a mythical bird, more and more the image becomes one of a bird-like creature known as a Thunderbird. As was the case with the ancient Egyptians, the bird-god would be viewed as an all-wise and all-seeing entity one to be worshipped and feared by man on account of it being the ruler of the heavens as well as the purveyor of justice.

. . . the 15-mile stretch of rapids where canoe travel in both directions had to stop. Here lived . . . the Wishram, and every year they held a huge market or fair. The Yakimas held one out on the plains, where 6,000 Indians might camp in a circle six miles around. The people from the wet country met those from the dry country and exchanged goods from as far east as North Dakota and as far north as Alaska.

In Emory Strong's book, Stone Age on the Columbia River, he states an "Indian with his crude instruments could have taken about 100 fish a day, averaging 20 pounds each." He adds:

[For] the interior and coastal groups . . . between California and Canada, the Long Narrows became the great trade mart of the West, and the permanent residents were the middlemen in the traffic. The western Indians traded dried clams, dentalium shell, baskets, wappato, and wooden implements for furs, feather, robes, dried fish, and slaves; all might be sold again further up or down the river. More natives came to the Long Narrows to enjoy the festivities and the gambling than to fish, for the best fishing places were limited and individually owned, and fish could be caught at many other places on the river.

Canadian fur trader and pioneer, Alexander Ross, who traveled on the Astor Expedition of 1811 (the second greatest American overland crossing after Lewis and Clark) wrote in Adventures of the First Settlers on the Oregon or Columbia River, 1810-1813:

The main camp of the Indians is situated at the head of the Narrows and may contain, during the salmon season, 3,000 souls, or more; but the constant inhabitants of the place do not exceed 100 persons, and are called Wyampams [Wishram]. The rest are all foreigners from different tribes throughout the country, who resort hither not for the purpose of catching salmon, but chiefly for gambling and speculation, not in fish, but in other articles.

According to Indian accounts, the different tribes would meet along the long flats next to the Narrows at a point called Colowesh Bottom, named after an Indian Chief, to compete in athletics and games. It was at Colowesh Bottom where groups representing numerous western and mid-west tribes learned the game and its legends. As David Wynecoop describes, the various tribes would come together and play a form of ancient hockey, similar to that of today's Scottish Shinny, "on a mile-long stretch of beach using a wooden ball and long, curved sticks of vine maple."

The tribes of the Columbia were closely aligned with an Interior Salish tribe known later as the Thompson Indians of British Columbia. Great innovators, they would be among the first to transform the curved stick by tying a netting of mesh between the lower part of the stick's shaft and the curved blade. This innovation would allow them to elevate the traditional ball and eliminate the blocks of wood-tied together with sinew. By doing this the two versions of the Pacific Northwest game could be merged. James Teit writes in his 1898 book The Thompson Indians of British Columbia:

These sticks were about three feet long, and had a very crooked head, so that the players could catch the ball with them, and throw it from them towards the goal of the enemy. Many men ran with the ball held in the crook of the stick until stopped by an opponent, when they threw the ball towards the intended goal. Others preferred, if they had the chance, to lift the ball with the toe, and before it fell strike or catch it with their stick. When bending the end of the stick to the desired crook, bark string was used, connecting the latter to the straight part of the stick. Some Indians played with the strings still attached, thinking to get a better hold of the ball, but this was considered unfair. In some games all the players used crooks with nets similar to those of lacrosse sticks. Often a guard-stick was used to protect the ball from the players of the opposite party.

What James Teit had witnessed was not a game similar to lacrosse but rather a game which was the forerunner to lacrosse. Teit's observations are important in terms of both the presentation of a timeline as well as a visual record. For his accounts allows us to glimpse briefly at a lost link in the development of ancient hockey. In addition, Teit shows us the cultural complexity of the native tribes and how they were able to borrow the customs and skills of others in order to serve their own basic requirements and lifestyle needs. Referring again to the Thompsons he wrote:

When analyzing the culture of the Thompson Indians, we find much evidence of a strong influence of eastern culture by way of the Nicola Valley. The style of dress, the use of feather ornaments, the cradle of the Nicola band are decidedly due to contact with the east. The Nicola band have always been in close contact with the Okanagan; and eastern products, such as pipes and painted buffalo-hides, and eastern fashions and customs, such as styles of dress and the method of building round tents instead of square lodges, have been introduced in this manner. Even the first vague traces of Christianity seem to have found their way to the tribe along this route.

In many respects these resemblances between their culture and eastern culture are common to them and to other tribes of the western plateaus. The sinew-lined bow, the occurrence of the tubular pipe, the peculiar woven rabbit-skin blanket, the high development of the coyote myths, and the loose social organization, combined with the lack of elaborate religious ceremonials, characterize them as resembling still more closely the culture of the western highlands . . .

Ornaments made of dentalia and abelone shell must be considered as evidence of trade rather than copies of ornaments worn on the coast. The hand-hammer, harpoon, and fish-knife may also be counted as copies of implements used by the Coast tribes.

One of the elements of their culture that is most difficult to explain is the occurrence of the beautiful basketry made of cedar-bark, and of woven fabrics made of mountain-goat wool, among the Lower Thompsons. Coiled basketry of this type is found in many places along the Pacific coast . . . coiled basketry of the Arctic Athapascans, which belongs to this type, may be related to the coiled basketry of the Apache and Navajo . . . This same type of basketry is found not only among the Athapascan tribe of the Mackenzie Basin . . . but also among the Chilcotin of British Columbia. It occurs all along the Coast Range and the Cascade Range in British Columbia and Washington, and attains its greatest beauty in California.

Teit was not aware of the annual migration of the native tribes to the region of The Long Narrows. He did not understand the significance that the salmon run played on the cultural interaction of the tribes. If he had known he would have been able to answer the mystery of why the Indians all displayed similar styles of basketry. He would have also understood why similarities existed between the Thompson Indian stick game and that of east coast lacrosse. Contrary to beliefs, lacrosse was not an east coast invention. Its origins were found along the Columbia River where the salmon migrated and where the cultures of native America came to exchange knowledge and to play.

There has always been a popular notion that the game today called lacrosse originated in Eastern North America among the native tribes of the Great Lakes. It has been assumed that lacrosse's migration had been both a north-south journey down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico as well as westward migration across the Great American Plains. Such logic seemed correct given the natural development of European colonial history in the New World. The Europeans had come from the east and had moved west. As a result, most histories pertaining to the tribes and peoples of North America have attempted to explain history and developments with east-west logic. We know however that like a compass human history and development often moves in more than one direction. In the case of early hockey the route has been a south-north migration from the farthest corners of South America to the Columbia River and then an eastward journey the Great Lakes moving much in the same direction and shape as a hockey stick. Only when one thinks in terms of a south-north migration do the archaeological dates and timelines of history, like pieces of a puzzle, fall into place.

Historians do not give a date for the first evidence of lacrosse being played in the Great Lakes regions. The popular assumption has always been that the sport first appeared around the 13th-15th centuries (coincidentally the same time as the first European contact with the New World). This assumption seems implausible given the northern migration of hockey and the fact that ruins of fields and ball courts appear in Mexico as early as c.400 AD. Regardless of when hockey first appeared along the Great Lakes region the fact that the religious significance of the game remained consistent throughout can not be ignored. This factor is both a credit to the oral tradition of storytelling of the Ancient Indians as well as an indication of just how little the legends had changed over the centuries.

The Iroquois tribes played lacrosse when celebrating their mid-winter festival, Hodigohsosga. Hodigohsosga, was a festival honoring their supreme deity, Shagodyowehgowah, or Great Protector, which, according to the Seneca Indians, is the author of creation.

The first European references to a lacrosse is recorded in the c.1636 AD accounts of the Jesuit missionary Jean de Brebeuf in The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, Travels and Explorations of the Jesuit Missionaries in New France 1610 - 1791 Vol. X, Huron. Describing a game played by the Huron and other Algonquin tribes of the St. Lawrence, using a ball and a stick reminiscent of a bishop's crosier or la crosse, Brebeuf, who himself was later savagely killed by the Iroquois, wrote:

There is a poor sick man, fevered of body and almost dying, and a miserable Sorcerer will order for him, as a cooling remedy, a game of crosse. Or the sick man himself, sometimes, will have dreamed that he must die unless the whole country shall play crosse for his health; and, no matter how little may be his credit, you will see them in a beautiful field, Village contending against Village, as to who will play crosse the better, and betting against one another Beaver robes and Porcelain collars, so as to excite greater interest . . .

Sometimes, also, one of these jugglers will say that the whole Country is sick, and he asks a game of crosse to heal it; no more needs to be said, it is published immediately everywhere; and all the Captains of each Village give orders that all the young men do their duty in this respect, otherwise some great misfortune would befall the whole Country.

In the Book The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents: Travels and Explorations of the Jesuit Missionaries in New France, 1610-1791: The Original French, Latin, and Italian texts, with English Translations and Notes, it is written:

. . . they had tired themselves to death playing crosse in all the villages around here, because this sorcerer had affirmed that the weather depended only upon a game of crosse . . .

These accounts, though somewhat puzzling to the Jesuits, as they were unfamiliar with native folklore, reflect the widespread belief among many of the regional tribes that the game held magical powers as it was associated with eternal life. It seems rather straight-forward to assume that individuals near death, or tribes suffering from a calamity, would turn to the game as a way of bringing forth good luck and healing. A tribal Shaman (Medicine Man) would declare the whole country was sick and a game of lacrosse was needed to be played for recovery. This belief and practice would be in keeping with the game's original purpose dating back centuries to the time of the Sumerians. The game was also invoked as a preparation and ceremony for war, as the eternal life concept associated with its play would seemingly strengthen the believers and in theory make them impervious to death. In other words, allowing them to be reborn.

Alexander Henry gives one of the earliest accounts of lacrosse in his book, Travels and Adventures in Canada and the Indian Territories between the Years 1760 and 1776. He writes:

A favorite game amongst the Ojibwe is described as The Hurdle [Lacrosse]. When about to play, the men of all ages would strip themselves almost naked, but dress their hair in great style, put ornaments on their arms and belts around their waist, and paint their faces and bodies in the most elaborate style. Each man was provided with a hurdle, an instrument made of a small circle, in which a loose piece of network is fixed, forming a cavity big enough to receive a leather ball about the size of a man's fist. Everything being prepared, a level plain about half a mile long was chosen, with proper barriers or goals at each end. Having previously formed into two equal parts, they are assembled in the very middle of the field, and the game began by throwing up the ball perpendicular in the air, when instantly both parties, painted in different colors, held their rackets elevated in the air to catch the ball. Whoever was so fortunate to catch it in his net ran with it to the barrier with all his might, supported by his party, while the opponents were pursuing and endeavoring to knock the ball out of the net. He who succeeded in doing so ran in the same manner to the opposite barrier, and was of course pursued his turn.

If in danger of being overtaken he might throw it with his hurdle to an associate who happened to be nearer to the barrier. They had a peculiar knack of throwing it a great distance, so that the best runners did not always have the advantage; and by a peculiar way of working their hands and arms while running, the ball never dropped out of their hurdle.

The best of three heats wins the game, and besides the honour acquired on such occasions, a considerable prize is adjudged to the victors. The vanquished, however, generally challenge their adversaries to renew the game the next day, which is seldom refused. The game thus becomes more important, as the honor of the whole village is at stake, and it is carried on with every impetuosity. Every object which might impede them is knocked down and trodden under foot without mercy; and before the game is decided, it is a common thing to see members sprawling on the ground with wounded legs and broken heads - yet this never creates disputes or ill-will after the game is decided.

It is Alexander Henry, who, aside from presenting the reader with the most detailed account of lacrosse prior to the 1800's, is also the source for one of the most amazing episodes in lacrosse history.

Fort Michilimackinac, originally built in c.1715 AD by the French on the south shore of the Straits of Mackinac which links Lake Michigan to Lake Huron, was a strategically located, fortified trading post used by the French to link their trade system. After their loss in the French Indian Wars, the French relinquished control of the outpost to the British in c.1761 AD. The Ottawa and Chippewa tribes from the area found British control to be grave compared to that of the French, and under the coordination and control of Chief Pontiac, they planned a rebellion to take over the fort.

The Chippewas sent word to Captain Etheruyton, who was in charge of the fort, that the Ottawa and Chippewa tribes would hold a lacrosse game to honor King George III's birthday celebration for June 4, 1763. The English, unaware of a newly formed alliance between the two Indian tribes were cautious but never suspected that the Indian intent was to capture the fort from the British. Many men came outside the fort standing along the sidelines placing wagers on which side would achieve victory, leaving the fort gate open. Upon an agreed signal the Indian warriors, aided by native women who had hidden their men's tomahawks under their clothing attacked their unsuspecting British spectators. Before the British could respond, over 400 Indians had penetrated the fort's wall. When the battle ended, 71 British soldiers and civilians were dead. Only three British who were the fort's commanders survived - Captain Etheruyton, L. T. Leslie, and Alexander Henry. Etheruyton and Leslie were later ransomed off and Henry escaped, eventually settling in New York City where he later penned his autobiographical account.

Perhaps, the most ominous story is about the former Erie Indians who lived around the southern shores of Lake Erie stretching from present day Buffalo, New York, to Sandusky, Ohio. According to an 1845 edition of the Buffalo Commercial Newspaper, Seneca Chief Blacksnake was responsible for the slaughter and subsequent demise of the Erie Indians. The incident occurred when the Erie, a traditional enemy of the Seneca, had challenged the Seneca to a ball-game similar to lacrosse. As the Chief explained:

Traditionally the Erie were stronger, wiser and more prosperous than their neighboring tribes. They built wooden dwellings, planted gardens and grew fields of grain. When the soil was spent, they moved to new sites.

In their match against the Seneca, it would be the Seneca who would walk away victorious. The Erie, upset in defeat, proposed several other athletic challenges which included a foot race and wrestling bouts, which they subsequently also lost. They were so humiliated by their defeats that they later formed a war party intent on destroying the opposing Five Nations tribes in which the Seneca were a part of (the League of Five Nations included the Seneca, Mohawk, Oneida, Cayuga, and Onondaga tribes and later expanded to six nations with the inclusion of the Tuscarora). Blacksnake continued:

Erie warriors fought bravely, but had no firearms. The combined alliance forces, wielding muskets and using their canoes as ladders to scale the wall of the Erie stronghold, finally killed most of the defenders. Following the conflict, the Erie lost their identity. Eventually, the few who remained were absorbed by other tribes. Nearly all of the Erie braves were killed.

The game would continue to spread from the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes, into the Mississippi River heartland to the tribes of the Natchez, Choctaw, Creeks and eventually, all the way south to the Seminoles of Florida. It is estimated that a total of forty-eight separate North American tribes played this adaptation of the ancient form of hockey, a game we still refer to today as lacrosse.