American lacrosse wasn’t founded by colonist, it was started by native americans! In the late 17th century lacrosse was a way to sort out fights or just a way to settle a score for native americans. Lacrosse wasn't always called “lacrosse” it was called Tewaarathon by the native americans. “It was called this in the native mohawk language and the word lacrosse was spoken differently in many other native american languages” (Claydon, Filalacrosse) . The sport was given its american name by early french settlers, using the generic term for any game played with a curved stick “Lacrosse”. After the french found out about the amazing sport the game quickly grew in popularity in Canada, it began to be shared throughout the people as non-native teams traveled to Europe for scrimmages against native american players. Native americans had to be charged money in order to travel, they were excluded as "professionals" from international competition for more than a century. Only with the formation of the Iroquois Nationals in the 1980s did they successfully break this barrier and become eligible to compete in World …show more content…
In the 17th century native american and europeans only used the traditional lacrosse stick. “The Iroquois and New England tribes used the precursor to the lacrosse sticks used today. These were more than 3 feet long, and the shaft ended in a crook with a large triangular surface of webbing extending as much as two-thirds the length of the stick. The early sticks were made of hickory wood” the balls were made of deerskin and small spruce twigs (Lacrosse—Not All Sticks Come from Trees). There were basically no rules. Anthony Aveni says in his article “There were no defensemen versus attackers, and there were few rules. Basically, anybody could do anything. As one might expect, on-the-field fights common in many of our team sports were rampant in the native version of stickball. Though seemingly counterproductive to the purpose of the game—it is all about winning, isn’t it?—these fisticuffs functioned as a way of toughening a man; they were a part of the individual rite of passage into manhood” (Aveni, Anthony). The rules were so much more simpler back in the 17th century. Now a single flaw or penalty can cause you the game. Now a days you cannot (Check) someone from behind because the person being hit could end up having a concussion or peripheral vision damage. Sportsmanship, is a big roll in lacrosse, Us Lacrosse says “Unsportsmanlike conduct by coaches and/or players