Decolonize Sports has been an idea long in the making. It was back in 2015 or so when I sat down for lunch with one of my mentors at the University of Louisville, Dr. Ahmad Washington. He is a dope school counseling scholar who does work using hip hop to engage black boys in their adolescence. We started talking about the cultural appropriation of hip hop. To which I responded, “oh, that sounds like lacrosse…” Dr. Washington asked me to explain further. So here goes…

But let me back up real quick…I grew up in Fairbanks, Alaska where most people play hockey. I come from a basketball family. Needless to say, lacrosse was not a part of my Alaska Native upbringing. However, my mother is Mvskoke Creek from Okemah, Oklahoma. She passed away in 1993 when I was just eleven-years-old, which left a profound void in certain aspects of my life as I did not visit Oklahoma nearly as often. However, I came to learn that our people play Anejodi (A-ne-jo-di), or stickball. So, stick and ball games are in my blood. As learning is a lifelong process, I am still examining this component of my DNA. 

I share this background to provide a glimpse of my positionality in the contemporary lacrosse world. During my undergraduate experience at Metro State University-Denver I had the privilege of interning at the University of Denver in the game operations department during the 2011-2012 season. One component of my experience was monitoring the lacrosse field for the men’s and women’s teams, who at that time played in the NCAA Division I Eastern College Athletic Conference. Despite the stickball connection to my Mvskoke Creek culture, this was essentially my introduction to lacrosse. I knew the game existed but had not really watched it or paid much attention to it. Being around the game for the first time in my life, I started researching the game and learned more about the Native roots of The Creator’s Game. This history is an entire series of posts by itself. You can find plenty of stories with a simple google search. 

As I watched from the sidelines of Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium, I was intrigued by the fact that The Creator’s Game from my view was mostly void of Native athletes. Furthermore, the games I watched were between teams consisting of predominantly white athletes. The critical component of my brain began to wonder, how did we get here? If this is our game, why are we as Native people not playing it at the highest levels of collegiate lacrosse? Simply, how did we go from a Native game to a contemporary sport played by about 87% white athletes in the NCAA? I never got my answer during my time in Denver, but the question always stuck with me. I began following the game more closely and paying attention to the Native athletes who did reach the collegiate level of lacrosse. 

Fast Forward to my time at the University of Louisville and the Jimmy John’s on Cardinal Blvd. I had explained to Dr. Washington, the contemporary sport of lacrosse you see on your television, was not the original Creator’s Game. There is a deep rooted history of The Creator’s Game that was co-opted, and essentially stolen, by white European settlers. Fascinated, he pushed me, “you need to go write about that.” So I went back to my office and wrote about the intersection of settler colonialism, Native identity, education, and lacrosse. His basic response was, this should be your dissertation! You could write a book! 

Well, Allan Downey beat me to the book with his amazing work, The Creator’s Game: Lacrosse, Identity, and Indigenous Nationhood. This book is foundational to ALL of my work. Anybody interested or invested in Native lacrosse should read this book. Anyways, I ended up writing my dissertation on the experiences of NCAA Division I Native lacrosse athletes. I wanted to know what their experience was like playing their game in college, yet mostly void of their Native identity in their athletic programs and college environments. If you have nothing else to do with your life, you can read that here (The Journey Towards Critical Self-Authorship for Native Lacrosse Athletes at NCAA Division I Institutions). The rest is history. As I am now on this journey of exploring and sharing stories of Native identity and lacrosse. 

Not always sure of how or why I got here given my background in basketball rather than lacrosse, I have learned to not worry about it. Instead, I am embracing this space and putting my efforts into telling Native stories from a Native lens with integrity and honor for the seven generations - our ancestors who come before us, those who walk with us today, and those who will come after us. We plan to cover Native stories and athletes in different ways than mainstream media. All with the goal of shining light on our people and our culture. 

In addition to my exploration of lacrosse, I began to wonder what other sports are rooted in Native culture? There has to be more Native origins to the history of sport that most people do not know. So that’s where the concept of Decolonize Sports arrived. Let’s unpack the mainstream and tell the truths of our Native people and communities. I just wasn’t sure how to deliver such content. But witnessing the ever growing space of content creation provided hope and opportunity that one day I could create my own space to research and share these stories. I grew tired of the academic process of submitting to journals only to have Reviewer 2, who is most certainly non-Native, giving me feedback on how to write about Native identity and culture. Similarly, my wife probably got tired of me talking about a desire to become a “content creator”, whatever that may be. And so I want our work to go beyond the walls of academia and be more accessible to our people and our communities. Which is why I am finally taking this leap of faith and we have created Decolonize Sports. 

The beginning will focus on lacrosse as we look to expand on my dissertation and create original content celebrating Native identity and the Native roots of the game. Although you can find such content out there now, we believe there are opportunities to differentiate our multimedia to add and grow this conversation. There will be more to come in the very near future as we head to Limerick, Ireland next week to cover the 2022 World Lacrosse Men’s U21 World Championships. Our desire is to follow closely the journey of the Haudenosaunee Nationals. We have plenty of ideas and only time will tell which one’s we are able to execute.

As is common in Native country, this has become a bit of a family affair. Shoutout to our cousin Cassandra Thompson for the initial graphic. And welcome to my cousin David Tiger-Cortes, who is surely going to enhance our content with his experience in the entertainment industry and passion for videography and photography. Be gentle as this is a work in progress. We look forward to learning and growing with you. Nonetheless, we are excited for this opportunity and cannot wait to share more from Ireland. 

We hope you join us! Welcome to Decolonize Sports! 

P.S. I really did used to read WordUp! Magazine…R.I.P. to Biggie ♥