The Creator's Game in the Twin Cities

Reclaiming Health, Culture and Tradition with Lacrosse by Sasha Brown

Over the past year, Indigenous youth and families have been coming together in south Minneapolis to revitalize the traditional game of lacrosse, the original game of North America. 

For our people, lacrosse is much more than a sport. Lacrosse is an integral part of our history. It embodies our value systems, teachings, and Indigenous worldviews. Lacrosse has always been used to heal our people, to settle disputes, and to bring together our families and tribal nations.

Sasha Brown and the Twin Cities Native Lacrosse girls team participate in the 2015 wooden stick tournament. Photo: David Joles. 

My name is Sasha Houston Brown. I am Mdewakanton Dakota from the Santee Sioux Nation of Nebraska and I have the honor of working as a coach with Twin Cities Native Lacrosse. Twin Cities Native Lacrosse is dedicated to empowering Indigenous youth to reclaim their cultural, physical and spiritual strength as community leaders and athletes. We work to create safe environment where youth can build positive self-identification and self-esteem rooted in our Indigenous cultural values. In bringing back lacrosse, we are bringing back the practices our peoples used for millennia to promote optimal health.

The girls and boys I work with truly embody the vision of Well For Culture. Both on and off the field, they are learning to live by our ancestral teachings and re-indigenizing their physical, spiritual and emotional health. The Creator’s Game is in their blood, their ancestry, their genetic memory.  You can see it from the very first time our youth pick up a stick.

When we step out on the field to play Thakâpsičapi (Dakota)/Baaga’adowewin (Ojibwemowin) our youth are playing for their ancestors, the sick, those in need of healing, and future generations. Even when competition gets fierce, we remind each other that we are relatives and that this game isn’t about winning, it’s a medicine game given to us by the Creator to ensure the well-being and survival of our peoples.

Image Gallery: Twin Cities Native Lacrosse

Players in the league use the Western Great Lakes style sticks, traditional to tribes in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the Great Lakes region. Photo: David Joles. 

Twin Cities Native Lacrosse girls team members Stella Hunter and Riley Taylor. Photo: David Joles. 

Twin Cities Native Lacrosse boys team at weekly practice. Photo: David Joles. 

Chaske and Cuahtli Stately, brothers, giving thanks to creator and our ancestors before the 2015 wooden stick tournament. Photo: David Joles. 

Delia Dockry Paredes, Stella Hunter and Wicahpi Thompson play both the modern game and the traditional game. Photo: Sasha Lee Brown. 

Twin Cities Native Lacrosse boys team with coach John Hunter at a scrimmage. Photo: Sasha Lee Brown. 

Mato Thompson, Wicahpi Thompson, Dalaney Villebrun and Ocean Walker representing Twin Cities Native Lacrosse at the Minneapolis American Indian College Fair. Photo: Sasha Lee Brown. 

Eighth grader Nina Polk competes in the 215 wooden stick tournament. Nina and her mother, Dyani Whitehawk, are members of the adult women's team. 

Modern lacrosse sticks on a traditional Creator's pole. Twin Cities Native Lacrosse provides Indigenous youth the opportunity to learn both the modern and traditional game. Photo: Sasha Lee Brown. 

Respect, honor and connection to one another as relatives are core values both on and off the field for the Twin Cities Native Lacrosse players. Photo: David Joles. 

Creator’s Game. Thakâpsičapi (Dakota) Baaga’adowewin (Ojibwemowin) Pākahatwan (Menominee) Caabnaikisik (Ho-Chunk). 

Twin Cities Native Lacrosse boys reclaiming culture, health and tradition. Photo: David Joles. 

Bronson and Quinlan Grant, brothers, are members of the Twin Cities Native Lacrosse boys team. Youth teams play both the modern game and the traditional Creator's game.