Stó꞉lō, Lacrosse, and Colonial Ideas at Play

While visiting Coast Salish labourers may have introduced the modern sport of lacrosse to the Stó꞉lō people, they were no strangers to stick and ball games. Shinny, a game similar to field hockey, had long been played amongst young Stó꞉lō men. The game involved hitting a tennis-sized ball (usually made of hardwood) with a vine-maple stick about 4 feet long with a crook at the end. Another stick and ball gamed played by the Stó꞉lō was double-ball (sometimes called “knobbies”). Though very similar in nature to shinny, double-ball was played with slightly different equipment, particularly the titular double-ball, which consisted of two tennis-sized balls (usually made of hardwood) tied together with string or leather lace. The stick used in double-ball were made of similar material to shinny sticks, though they were completely straight and lacked a crook. Unlike in shinny, the stick was not used at the ground level, but was instead carried above the waist in order to carry, catch, and throw the ball. Bearing in mind the similarities between these stick and ball games and “modern” lacrosse, it is easy to see how the sport fit neatly within the Stó꞉lō gaming tradition.

Quick to embrace the sport, it would not be long before young Stó꞉lō men began forming teams and taking part in matches against not only other communities within the nation but also non-Indigenous teams from the city of Chilliwack. Local lacrosse enthusiasts were thrilled that they no longer had to take the steamboat down the river to New Westminster to get their lacrosse fix. From the early 1900s to the 1930s (aside from the First World War), lacrosse flourished in Chilliwack and the surrounding areas. Stó꞉lō and townspeople alike took great interest in the sport, and the local newspaper, The Chilliwack Progress, frequently gave detailed reports on matches. Teams from Sts’ailes (Chehalis), Tzeachten (Tcheacton), and Chilliwack Landing were often mentioned in accounts of local sporting events and competitions. These newspaper articles, written from the perspective of Chilliwack townspeople, provide insight not only into local attitudes towards the Stó꞉lō people, but also as to European settler perceptions and understandings of Indigenous peoples on a cultural level.

The articles reveal that the non-Indigenous townspeople felt pride in the accomplishments of local Stó꞉lō teams against teams from out of town. Matches in which Sts’ailes, Tzeachten, or Chilliwack Landing teams faced off against Indigenous teams from Matsqui and Sumas were advertised heavily and the after-game reports much more detailed than afforded to competition between in-area opponents. Notably, this pride also extended to accomplishments against Indigenous and non-Indigenous opponents. One clipping, relating the defeat of the Chilliwack City team in a baseball match against Sumas City, suggested that “Sumas can show our boys how to play base-ball, but our Indian Lacrosse team can teach Sumas a few tricks in Lacrosse.” This selective claiming of Stó꞉lō athletes on the part of the non-Indigenous townsfolk reflects the nuanced and oftentimes contradictory process of “Othering.” While Stó꞉lō people were typically cast by townsfolk as “Other” due to their race, it appears that in certain cases, proximity could supersede race in determining “Otherness.”

This sentiment of unity through proximity, however, was tempered by racial biases when it came to matches between the non-Indigenous Chilliwack City team and Stó꞉lō teams. This racial bias comes through strongly in the language used about games in which the Chilliwack non-Indigenous team was defeated by one of the Stó꞉lō teams. Of particular note was a Progress article titled “Indian Lacrosse Players Prove Themselves a Match for Chilliwack’s Crack White Twelve,” which then proceeded to describe how the Indigenous Chilliwack Landing team defeated the Chilliwack City squad 6-5. Throughout the article, it is mentioned that while the Chilliwack Landing team thoroughly trounced the Chilliwack team in the first half, they had “set a pace they could not keep” and suggested that it was only due to time limitations that the Chilliwack City team had not bettered their Indigenous rivals. These claims of poor pacing and poor strategy on the part of the Indigenous players reflects Euro-Canadian cultural and racialized understandings of Indigenous athletes as lacking restraint and a rational approach to sport.

The critique of local Indigenous teams for perceived indiscipline and poor strategy was not limited to Indigenous versus non-Indigenous matches. Reporting on a championship game in which the Chilliwack Indians lost to the Brownsville Indians, one Progress article chides the local side for appearing “out of practice” and insinuating that a “little level headed work” on their part may have lead to a better outcome. The Brownsville team, on the other hand, is praised for their “formidable combination” of teamwork and strategy and weeks of “hard drilling.” Once again, we see the imposition of European sporting culture and ideals on Indigenous athletes. By praising the Brownsville team’s emphasis on structure, repetition, and strategy, newspapers simultaneously praised Indigenous players who utilized a “modernized” European approach to the sport of lacrosse while frowning upon those who were perceived as taking a less rigid and more “primitive” approach to the game.

In many cases, racialized understandings of sport were often subtly expressed. In others, it was made more explicit. In one newspaper clipping, a heated match between the non-Indigenous Chilliwack City team and the Chilliwack Landing team was described as a near “race war” after a fight occurred between the two teams and their spectators. Though it is mentioned that the scuffle was quickly ended and peace restored by the expulsion of the instigators from the match, the writer’s racialization of the violent encounter is striking. It suggests that despite many instances of friendly competition between local Stó꞉lō peoples and non-Indigenous townspeople, racialized thinking was ever-present and racial tension often bubbled just below the surface.