From Library Journal
Lacrosse is recognized as the oldest of North American sports, its roots running deep into Native American history. In tracing its origins, Vennum relates how the game frequently rose above recreational status, functioning as a substitute for warfare between tribes as well as a curative for a variety of ailments. It also afforded the tribes an opportunity "to express social alliances, at the kinship, village, reservation, and national levels." Detailed explanations of the rules, techniques, equipment, and playing fields are accompanied by numerous illustrations depicting the game's development. This exhaustive, well-documented work serves as a definitive study of the sport in its traditional form. A worthy addition to core subject and Native American collections.- William H. Hoffman, Ft. Myers-Lee Cty. P.L., Fla.Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Father Le Mercier, one of the "Black Robe" missionaries of the 1630s, set down an early written account of lacrosse (a negative one, disparaging the custom as heathen), just one of many accounts and legends that Vennum recasts. An ethnographer, he shifts between tales to the sport's cultural expressions within the eastern woodland Indian tribes and its centuries-long development toward its current form and popularity among Native Americans, and as a springtime college sport. Before the NCAA's play-offs, there were even bigger big-time contests: Vennum regales readers with the play-by-play, replete with pregame invocations of the Great Spirit and post-game recriminations about the result, of a Seneca-Mohawk match in 1794. When not retelling other notable encounters, Vennum describes the equipage, variant rules, and, in an interlude, the paintings of George Catlin. His images are among a trove of illustrations on this unique contact sport, all of which blend into the enthusiastic, if idiosyncratic, text. In places where lacrosse lives (along the Mississippi and eastward), patrons will be pleased to see this. Gilbert Taylor


From Book News, Inc.
Often viewed as a gift from the spirits and as far more than recreation alone, lacrosse has functioned in Indian life as a surrogate or "little brother" of war, as a healing ritual, and as a memorial celebration. Featuring archival illustrations, this book presents a rare account of the rules, equipment, techniques, regional differences, and legendary underpinnings of the game among tribes of the Northeast, Southeast, and Great Lakes regions, including the spiritual components of the game, with interesting sections on lacrosse legends and Indian stick making. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In American Indian Lacrosse, Thomas Vennum, Jr., presents for the first time the Native American history of a game with worldwide popularity and more than 300,000 non-Indian players in the United States and Canada alone. Featuring rare archival illustrations, this book presents the richest available account of the rules, equipment, techniques, regional differences, and legendary underpinnings of the game among tribes of the Northeast, Southeast, and Great Lakes regions. Vivid fictional narratives interspersed through the book describe important Indian games of the past, such as the 1763 Ojibwe/Sauk game that included a preplanned surprise attack - and capture - of Fort Michilimackinac on Lake Michigan.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal