Lacrosse, North America’s oldest sport, goes far beyond the contemporary idea of a team sport. For the Iroquois it was a type of military training, and a way to honour the gods.
Long, long ago, only the quadrupeds played lacrosse, against the birds. The leaders of the first team were the bear, the deer and the turtle; of the second, the owl, the hawk and the eagle. One time, not long after a match, the mouse and the squirrel visited the birds and asked whether they could join their team.
“Why don’t you ask the quadrupeds?” the eagle asked.
“We did. They laughed at us because we’re small,” the mouse and the squirrel replied.
After long deliberations, the birds decided to accept the players, but they had to be equipped with wings. One of the birds suggested finding a drum, taking off the skin and attaching it to the mouse’s legs. And thus was born the
