More Than a Game

On a June evening, a field on the Fond du Lac Reservation near Cloquet hums with excitement as Ojibwe players holding handcrafted sticks intently chase a leather-clad ball. With friends and family watching and whooping, the athletes use the sticks to scoop up and throw the ball, trying to score points by hitting a post at either end of the field. The players are engaged in baaga’adowewin, an Ojibwe activity that inspired—and long preceded—the modern sport of lacrosse. It may look like a game, and it is, but to Naawakwe, aka William Howes III, a Fond du Lac community leader who organizes these weekly gatherings, it’s also so much more. “All the values that you learn from engaging in baaga’adowewin you carry around with you, in your mind, in your heart and your body, and you make it a part of who you are,” he says. “It’s a gift that we were given.”

In winter, the events are sometimes held in a gymnasium, sometimes on a snowy field or lake ice. "It just feels very natural to be outside," says Naawakwe. "We were given the gift of baaga'adowewin at a time when we were always outside."

About 20 people usually turn out for the Thursday night baaga'adowewin events. "People have always shown up," Naawakwe says. "It makes me happy to think that's the case, and it says something about the meaning of it to us."