Matthew Tibbs-Shilling
Where did the game of hockey begin? That is a question that may never have an answer. What we do know for sure is that Aboriginal people have been playing hockey for almost as long as there has been ice to play on. It might have started as a winter version of a lacrosse game invented by the First Nations hundreds of years ago. In the late 1600’s, Europeans observed a Mic-Mac Indian tribe in Nova Scotia playing ice hockey for the first time. At the time, the Indian tribe called this game ‘ricket’. It was first played with sticks and using a frozen road apple or whatever puck-like object they could find at the time as a puck. Over the years the puck soon turned to wood then eventually rubber which are still used today. Now hockey has evolved drastically over the years with feather light sticks, more efficient skates to make players more agile, and equipment that offers players full protection yet light weight and flexible so they won’t restrict the player’s.
At first hockey was only played in native communities when children were sent to residential schools. Children would play during the winter, this eventually lead to schools in competition with hockey teams from various schools. Today hockey is played across Canada by First Nations who have teams at the midget and Junior A levels. Many annual tournaments are played all over Canada, some native-only teams and others mixed teams. Some tournaments offer cash prizes up to $25,000 for the first place team, which attract the most elite native players and teams to attend. Because of this development over the years, native hockey players are becoming more recognized in major leagues around North America and in the NHL.
Reference Naive Hockey - www.nativehockey.com