Anishinabek lacrosse corporation featured at Premier Lacrosse League weekend in Minnesota

For the second year in a row Anishinabe Baagaadowewin has been invited to take part in Premier Lacrosse League festivities at a tour stop in Minnesota. – Photo courtesy Anishinabe Baagaadowewin

By Sam Laskaris

OSHWEKEN – Isaiah Kicknosway is thrilled that his lacrosse corporation will once again be part of some festivities associated with a professional league.

Kicknosway is the founder and organizer of Anishinabe Baagaadowewin, which he launched in December of 2019.

Kicknosway is a member of Bkejwanong Territory, which is also known as Walpole Island First Nation, but lives in the Six Nations community of Ohsweken.

He founded Anishinabe Baagaadowewin, which in English means Anishinabe Lacrosse, to provide camps and clinics primarily in Anishinabek communities.

The corporation is also keen to field elite Anishinabek squads at various tournaments.

Kicknosway will be in Eagan, Minnesota from Friday through Sunday this week.

The American city will be a stop this week for the Premier Lacrosse League (PLL), a pro field lacrosse circuit which stages various games in different American cities.

On Friday and Saturday, Kicknosway will be joined by John Hunter, a Minnesota-based board member of Anishinabe Baagaadowewin, to showcase wooden sticks used by those from his corporation.

Fans will have an opportunity to learn about the history of wooden sticks and also try them out, including having games of catch with others.

“There’s not much for fans to do between games,” Kicknosway said.

All eight PLL entrants will be playing a game in Minneapolis this week. There are two league games on Friday and two more on Saturday.

All matches will be held at the TCO Stadium in Eagan, a city located about 25 kilometres southeast of Minneapolis.

PLL squads, who do not represent specific cities, have only one name each and feature many of the world’s top field lacrosse players.

Clubs taking part in the 2022 PLL campaign are called Archers, Redwoods, Atlas, Chrome, Chaos, Cannons, Whipsnakes, and Waterdogs.

Anishinabe Baagaadowewin had also been showcased during a PLL weekend in Minnesota in 2021.

“For some of them it was the very first time they had held a wooden stick,” Kicknosway said.

Kicknosway also said that he is thrilled his group was invited back by the PLL to take part in weekend festivities once again.

“It’s awesome,” he said. “They’re one of the two professional leagues [in North America]. It’s great to get that recognition. In a lot of spaces, Indigenous people are getting left behind.”

The other professional lacrosse circuit in North America is the National Lacrosse League, a box lacrosse loops that includes squads in Canada and the United States.

This past April Anishinabee Baagaadowewin had been included in the Indigenous Heritage Night that was hosted by the Toronto Rock, an NLL squad that actually plays in home games in Hamilton.

Anishinabee Baagaadowewin had some of its members take part in a Wooden Stick Game, during the halftime of the Rock contest.

Meanwhile, Anishinabee Baagaadowewin will also be running an Indigenous youth lacrosse camp on Sunday in Eagan. That event will include a maximum of 100 participants.

“Most of them will be from Minnesota,” Kicknosway said. “But there will be some kids coming from Iowa, Wisconsin, North Dakota, and other Midwest states.”

The camp will be a co-ed event for those aged 7-16. All levels of players are welcome to attend the camp.