Game of lacrosse being played by members of the Choctaw tribe. (color lithograph by George Catlin, 1844)

[B]efore they set out for the chase the men play at lacrosse, a few women mingling with them. They make the racket of a stick of walnut about three feet long, which they bend half way . . . [and] . . . lace the interior with . . . buffalo sinew so that the ball, which is a knot of wood the size of a tennis ball, cannot pass through. (Pierre Delliette, 1702)

Lacrosse was an athletic game played on an open prairie by two opposing teams. Each team was composed of men and women from different Illinois villages or tribes. The object of the game was to advance a wooden ball down the field and score goals by carrying, throwing, and catching the ball with sinew-laced wooden rackets. The goal consisted of a single pair of upright poles placed 10 paces apart in the middle of the field. To score, a team had to move the ball to one end of the field and, upon returning, pass it through the goal. The Illinois version of this game was similar to the game of lacrosse played by the Choctaw, a tribe native to southern Mississippi, although the Choctaw used two goals rather than one.