A Mutually Comprehensible World?: Native Americans, Europeans, and Play in Eighteenth-Century America

Captain George Etherington awoke to a particularly warm day on 2 June 1763, but the "sultry" conditions hardly dampened the British celebration of their king's birthday. Even at faraway Fort Michilimackinac, on land the French had not yet formally ceded, British traders and soldiers planned festivities. It seemed to Etherington that even the local Natives wanted to participate in the holiday. In the previous months the captain had dismissed as rumor fur traders' descriptions of war belts and malicious plotting among local Ottawa and Chippewa villagers. On 2 June the Chippewa traveled across the eight-mile strait that separated their island home from the fort on the northern tip of the Lower Michigan peninsula. They invited Etherington and his garrison of nearly forty men to watch a match of "baggat'iway" or "le jeu de la crosse" organized in honor of the special day. ¹

The British soldiers and traders at the fort had familiarity with Native American lacrosse. A dispatch from Etherington later that day told Major Robert Rogers in Detroit that "the Indians were playing ball as usual nigh the fort." ² As the British walked out of the fort to observe the match, the game's unruliness would have grabbed their attention. Eighteenth-century Chippewa lacrosse had no time limit, no boundaries, and no rules restricting stick-wielding. Scores of Chippewa players competed at once, brandishing two-foot-long sticks as they either hurled the ball at one of two tall poles in an effort to score, or whacked an opponent's "racket" to dislodge the sphere. Sometimes a swing missed an opponent's stick. Observers noted that "frequently the ball carrier is disabled by being struck across the arm or leg, thus compelling his retirement." A pouch intended to hold the ball lay at the end of each racket, but the pouch measured only slightly wider than the diameter of the ball so players infrequently caught it out of the air. Once the ball hit the ground a vicious melee for control of it could last for minutes. ³

The sport's violence and disorganization might have reminded the soldiers of English football. Most noncommissioned soldiers belonged to the lower sort in British society, whose traditional activities featured physical aggression. As in contemporary English football, tactical passing rarely appeared in eighteenth-century lacrosse. Long throws, individual efforts, and blurry masses of thundering feet comprised the key elements of a match. ⁴

Enticed by viewing such activity close to home, the British soldiers left Fort Michilimackinac to spectate. Chippewa supporters also navigated the straits to watch the game, but they gambled and cheered amongst themselves. ⁵ Shouts and calls from the varied clusters of spectators thus added to the cacophony of the players' voices, sticks, and feet. As spectators conversed and yelled amidst the frenzy of the match, the lacrosse ball suddenly shot skyward and floated over players, spectators, and then the palisade wall. With no boundaries to the field, players rushed past the observers into the fort. Etherington and the soldiery waited, expecting to see the ball launched back over and the herd of players galloping out of the stockade. The next thing the captain and his men saw had nothing to do with a baggat'iway ball.

The chaos of the sport and the celebration of the holiday combined to distract the British soldiers. In a place where rum existed as a vital trade good, the garrison probably drank to celebrate the holiday. The Indians' dedication of the game to the king's birthday fostered British belief in Chippewa goodwill. Inebriation and a sense of trust made the British less cautious, explaining why many soldiers left the fort unarmed. The celebratory atmosphere also kept them from questioning the long overgarments worn by Chippewa spectators despite the heat of the day, and the noise around the playing field prevented them from distinguishing Chippewa calls...