ADRIAN FLORIDO, HOST:
The modern sport of lacrosse descends from Native American games that were played for centuries. In some areas, the tradition was nearly stamped out when Indigenous children were taken from their homes and sent to boarding schools to endure forced assimilation. From Minnesota Public Radio, Dan Kraker reports on the growing effort to bring back Native lacrosse.
THOMAS HOWES: You got it? OK. All right, let's circle up real quick.
DAN KRAKER, BYLINE: Thomas Howes gathers a couple dozen young people at the center of a ball field on the reservation of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.
HOWES: I always tell you guys this, but I really love you all for what you're doing for yourselves, for your communities. This is a dream that we had, this would happen again.
KRAKER: That dream was to bring back baaga'adowewin. It's the traditional form of lacrosse that Ojibwe people in the Great Lakes region played for generations.
HOWES: It's more than a game. It's a ceremony, in a way. It's an integral part of our culture. It was historically. Every time we would gather, we would have games.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Non-English language spoken).
(CHEERING)
KRAKER: A player throws the ball in the air, and the match begins.
HOWES: The beginning is important. That's some of that ceremony in a way. We believe that we put a thought or hope in here, in your heart. And we all hold our sticks up. And that's to get the universe's, the spirits' attention. And then when we throw the ball up on four, we war cry because then we send that hope or prayer out, and then we make sure that those spirits hear it.
(CHEERING)
KRAKER: Players pass the ball, sprint with it, cradling it in the baskets at the end of their sticks. The game is physical. They sometimes knock each other over.
HOWES: But that's the whole thing is you're supposed to give it your all because that means you really mean that prayer that you sent out.
KRAKER: Seventeen-year-old Eva Neveaux from the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa in northern Wisconsin says it's a healing game.
EVA NEVEAUX: When we play and you hear those sticks clacking, it's like the medicine going around. And, like, you're playing for your ancestors and the spirits.
KRAKER: About a decade ago, almost no one was playing this traditional form of lacrosse in the region. Howes was introduced to it by a group in the Twin Cities, and he immediately knew he wanted to bring it back to his community.
HOWES: All I know is that this feels right to my heart, to my spirit. I know when I play, I smile. I forget things that are, you know, bothering me maybe. And so, you know, physical health, mental health, spiritual well-being.
KRAKER: But there was one big problem. There weren't any sticks to play with, so Howes learned to make them. Others hand-stitched the balls. And quickly, the game has spread. Teams and spectators are here from the Twin Cities and from Native communities around the region. Twenty-three-year-old Devin Deverney is from the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa in Wisconsin.
DEVIN DEVERNEY: We want it to bring goodness. We want it to bring people together all the time. And that's what we're doing. That's the whole goal. Things that weren't there when I was growing up are now here.
KRAKER: And Howes says he's confident it's here to stay.
HOWES: We lost this because of suppression of anything that was Indigenous. But then, you know, in the era that we're in in Ojibwe Country, people are trying to do things with language and cultural revitalization and reclamation. And this is my part. This is one thing I can give back.
(CROSSTALK)
KRAKER: At the end of each game, players come together in the center of the field.
HOWES: No hard feelings leave this field. So this is where we let them go, right here. We all get together on three, (non-English language spoken).
KRAKER: They hold their sticks high together in a tight circle.
HOWES: (Non-English language spoken).
(CHEERING)
KRAKER: For NPR News, I'm Dan Kraker on the Fond du Lac reservation in northern Minnesota.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.