The rules and forms of the near-universally-distributed and enjoyed game of stickball differed as they evolved within different regions and over time with different eras but it is pretty well recognized how ubiquitous the game was in both post-Columbian but especially pre-Columbian Western Hemisphere. It is believed that the game originated among the Mississippian and Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River native populations before the arrival of the first European explorers and that it was used for entertainment, as a vehicle of celebration, as a means for settling disputes (between towns), as well as a method of getting (and keeping) warriors in shape for real war. Stickball, or lacrosse, as we white usurpers have come to know it, was called "The Little Brother of War" by a majority of the peoples living in North America's Eastern Woodlands and rose to particular prominence and importance within the Mvskoke, Algonquian, and Iroquoian peoples. The game did not really look like the game we now call lacrosse as it was usually very loosely boundaried (it could, in fact, be played over miles of surface area), often untimed (having the end goal of death or fatigue "death" being the determiner of its end), and involved not only ball-carrying sticks but, in some versions (in some stages of its evolution or stages of its intent of purpose) sword-like striking sticks (which were usually borne by women and children and used to impede or distract the ball carriers). The game could go on for days (without breaks!) and was often used as a means to settle serious disputes between towns, regular trading partners, clans, families, or even neighboring or newcomer tribes. (Native groups or bands were quite often forced to move into areas that were not among their usual or ancestral seasonal patterns of hunting and fishing grounds due to shifting patterns of weather or changes in the migratory patterns or population numbers of other animal and human populations. The stickball game could be used to familiarize the two groups to one another as well as to earn one's respect and, with it, their "right" to share local [or regional] resources and information.)
As indicated in the common vernacular term for the game, a literal result could also be derived from the employment of the activity a slightly less (though not always!) violent and lethal way of settling disputes other than outright war. (It should also be noted that "war" and "war parties" were rarely meant to encompass the large scale affairs that we associate with the terms in present day language; though "war" between neighboring (or far distant) bands (or "tribes") could last years, even generations, it was a rare thing and "battles" were more typically one-shot raids that whose duration numbered in the minutes or hours, not days or weeks. "Bad blood" might be felt and carried forward in oral tradition, but the ubiquitous tradition of purging, forgiveness, and rebirth and fresh starts enacted with the deepest commitment and sincerity with the annual summer "Busk" served to virtually wash these perpetual conflicts into the rivers (under the rug), however, this does not account for individual personality, idiosyncacy, and eccentricities. That is where the Little Brother of War conflicts could also come in handy in order to expend and expel internal festerings (which lingered and affected a person or band in more of a psycho-spiritual way). The whole game of stickball was conceived and shaped to give recourse--to provide checks and balances--to these behaviors. A problem and build up of a grudge could escalate over time due to imbalance: as one town, group, or raiding party proved to be far more successful in the frequency of their victories over extended periods of time, this could sometimes provoke or result in the relocation of the weaker "losers."
The game was typically quite brutal, quite exhausting, and every bit a gladiatorial event for and to the vast majority of the local population. Pain, suffering, and brutality were worked into the lives of the native peoples: both as an expectation and as a hurdle or obstacle to learn to overcome and even control. Thus, within the "fun" of a game (which all of life could be construed as anyway), the pain and suffering incurred during and from the game of stickball was merely an entertaining reflection of the everyday process of survival in an otherwise equally-brutal world.
As indicated in the common vernacular term for the game, a literal result could also be derived from the employment of the activity a slightly less (though not always!) violent and lethal way of settling disputes other than outright war. (It should also be noted that "war" and "war parties" were rarely meant to encompass the large scale affairs that we associate with the terms in present day language; though "war" between neighboring (or far distant) bands (or "tribes") could last years, even generations, it was a rare thing and "battles" were more typically one-shot raids that whose duration numbered in the minutes or hours, not days or weeks. "Bad blood" might be felt and carried forward in oral tradition, but the ubiquitous tradition of purging, forgiveness, and rebirth and fresh starts enacted with the deepest commitment and sincerity with the annual summer "Busk" served to virtually wash these perpetual conflicts into the rivers (under the rug), however, this does not account for individual personality, idiosyncacy, and eccentricities. That is where the Little Brother of War conflicts could also come in handy in order to expend and expel internal festerings (which lingered and affected a person or band in more of a psycho-spiritual way). The whole game of stickball was conceived and shaped to give recourse--to provide checks and balances--to these behaviors. A problem and build up of a grudge could escalate over time due to imbalance: as one town, group, or raiding party proved to be far more successful in the frequency of their victories over extended periods of time, this could sometimes provoke or result in the relocation of the weaker "losers."
The game was typically quite brutal, quite exhausting, and every bit a gladiatorial event for and to the vast majority of the local population. Pain, suffering, and brutality were worked into the lives of the native peoples: both as an expectation and as a hurdle or obstacle to learn to overcome and even control. Thus, within the "fun" of a game (which all of life could be construed as anyway), the pain and suffering incurred during and from the game of stickball was merely an entertaining reflection of the everyday process of survival in an otherwise equally-brutal world.
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