As National Indigenous History Month comes to a close, the Niagara Regional Native Centre is giving residents of Niagara-on-the-Lake and beyond something big to look forward to: A huge traditional lacrosse tournament with hundreds of players at Butler’s Barracks this fall.
A traditional powwow, with drumming, dancing and celebration, will take place alongside it.
Both the annual powwow and the centre’s first-ever lacrosse tournament will take place on Saturday, Sept. 13 from noon to 5 p.m. and are free and open to the public.
“We’re hoping for 400 people,” said director of programming Michael Buck about the tournament. He grew up playing lacrosse in Niagara.
“It’ll just be one really great, big festival-style day.”
The Dewa’ë:ö’ Charity Tournament, named after the Seneca word for lacrosse, will open with a traditional-format game on a 500-metre field, featuring wooden sticks, no nets or boundaries, just posts, and no set number of players, although each team is expected to have about 150.
“Just a really good, wide open, fun game for anyone to join,” said Buck.
Halley Irwin, the centre’s director of development and community engagement, said the style of play reflects historic games once held on the same grounds.
In the 1800s, she said, the Indian Council House on the Niagara Commons was where thousands of Indigenous people came annually to negotiate treaties with the British Crown — gatherings which often included traditional games like lacrosse.
The last recorded match there was in 1860, she said, between the Mohawk and Seneca nations. Seneca won.
To honour this return, Seneca elders in Irving, N.Y., gifted the tournament a traditional name: “Ëshënötganye’ hëöweh tënötganye:ak onëhjih – ‘They’ll play again where they used to play a long time ago,’” Irwin said in an email.
Modern-format games will also take place to show lacrosse’s evolution and Indigenous roots, she said.
The centre hopes to draw lacrosse communities from across Ontario and New York and even tourists passing through Old Town, said Buck, to show lacrosse as a responsibility, a form of medicine and a way of life. “It’s more than just a sport,” he said.
“Being indigenous, I have a deeper connection to lacrosse,” he said, adding that he hopes the tournament helps younger, non-Indigenous players gain a better understanding of what the game means to Indigenous communities.
“I hope it helps them relate to Indigenous teams more and Indigenous players on their teams,” he said.
Buck said both events will give the centre a chance to show it can host large gatherings for both Indigenous and wider Niagara communities.
Powwow coordinator Phil Davis said the powwow will be a place to “come together and give thanks for having the life that we have,” said Davis. “It’s a celebration of life, is what it is.”
After three years at the Meridian Centre in St. Catharines, the powwow is returning to an outdoor setting — this time, at Butler’s Barracks, a site Irwin said is rich with Indigenous history and “provides the perfect backdrop.”
“We’re so excited to be outside again,” said Buck.
“Our community and the public have been asking for it,” added Davis.
The family-friendly, alcohol and drug-free day will also feature traditional-style food, Indigenous craft, demonstrations of traditional games and more opportunities for cultural learning, Irwin said.
Pow wows were once banned under the Indian Act in 1876 and it wasn’t until 1951 that those prohibitions were lifted, said Irwin.
“Today, powwows serve as powerful expressions of cultural resilience, pride and community connection,” she said.
