Following British Columbia’s entry into the Confederation in 1871 and even more so with the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1885, the province attracted droves of settlers from Eastern Canada. Arriving in B.C. these young transplants were eager to continue to play the sport of lacrosse in their new province. Despite their efforts, lacrosse had a slow start in British Columbia, as the cultural influence in the province came mostly from Britain and the American West Coast. Due to these affiliations, lacrosse faced stiff competition from sports that had already become entrenched in the region, such as cricket, horse-racing, and baseball. Undeterred, lacrosse enthusiasts promoted the sport rabidly, and by the mid-1880s lacrosse had risen dramatically in popularity within the province.

(Lacrosse players relax in front of Al Larwill’s shack on the Cambie Street Grounds, 1896, Courtesy of the City of Vancouver Archives)

Predictably, it was in the large coastal cities that lacrosse would gain the most traction. Major coastal cities such as Vancouver and Victoria were hubs for immigration and had the largest populations in the province. With relatively large populations of newly arrived settlers introducing local populations to the sport, lacrosse began to flourish along the coast. The first recorded intercity match plated in British Columbia took place in 1886 at Vancouver’s Beacon Hill Park between teams representing Vancouver and Victoria. By 1888, both cities had formed organized lacrosse clubs. New Westminster, another coastal city with large amounts of immigrants from Eastern Canada, followed suit by organizing a competitive team by 1890. In 1890, the British Columbia Amateur Lacrosse Association was founded with representatives from Vancouver, Victoria, and New Westminster. Notably, to preserve the performance of whiteness and nationalism that lacrosse had come to represent, Indigenous peoples and other peoples of colour were barred from membership in the BCALA.

(New Westminster vs. Vancouver, c. 1915, Vancouver, B.C., Courtesy of the City of Vancouver Archives)

Despite this racialized discrimination, it would not be long before “modern” lacrosse sticks made their way into the hands of the local Indigenous peoples. Here, it is important to re-iterate that Coast Salish peoples had played stick and ball games long before the European version of the Haudenosaunee stick made its appearance on the West Coast. While the imported version of lacrosse may have seemed somewhat alien to the Coast Salish peoples due to its standardization and heavy regulation, the sport continued to bear many similarities to their traditional stick and ball games. Thus, lacrosse did not mark the introduction of a completely new game to the Coast Salish, but rather tapped into their pre-existing sporting culture.

While the barring of Indigenous peoples from the BCALA prevented formal competition with non-Indigenous teams, Indigenous participation in lacrosse flourished through exhibition matches with non-Indigenous teams and competition in all-Indigenous leagues. The Sk̲wx̲wú7mesh (Squamish), who lived on the North Shore of Vancouver, were quick to embrace lacrosse and would go on to become renowned both provincially and nationally for the skill, creativity, and physicality they re-injected into the sport. Bearing in mind the traditional importance of intertribal cultural exchange amongst the Coast Salish peoples living in the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley, it was only a matter of time before the sport of lacrosse floated up the Fraser River and into the hands of the Stó꞉lō people.