Beginnings / Skating & Games on-ice as played by Native North Americans

[James Laverance]

This was written in 1876...

"Over three hundred years ago, and for ages immemorial before the white man had ever set his fatal foot in this country, all the inland region.from what is now Canada to North Carolina, and westward from Central Pennsylvania to Michigan, was peopled by the Iroquois nation."

"Together they traversed the dense forest covering all the western or Canadian banks of the Thunder Water, hunting the elk, the bear, and the bison, the roe and the reindeer ; together they trapped the fox, the rabbit, and the beaver ; together they fished in the sah- sah-je-wun or rapids, or the great lakes Erie and Ontario ; Side by side they lay, in winter, on the frozen surface of the water, their heads covered with skins,spearing the salmon through the airholes with*their*barbed aishkuns. And together -they bound snowshoes on their feet, and danced or ran races, emulating the flight of the shaw-shaw, or swallow, in swiftness, or engaged in ball -play on the ice."
https://books.google.ca/books?id=65...AEILTAD#v=onepage&q=ball ice Iroquois&f=false

Click to read more...

 

[James Laverance]

Skating References

This is the oldest reference I could find so far as to native skating from 1785...

"During the winter the wolves become very troublesome, they traveled the country in packs, seeking food, and tore a chippewa indian and his wife to pieces, not to far from the settlement.One of the Indian Brethren was chased for several miles on the ice by some of the voracious animals but being furnished with skates he got the start of them and escaped."
https://books.google.ca/books?id=BG...wQ6AEIHTAA#v=onepage&q=indians skates&f=false

A couple of other skating references.One from Vermont and one from Massachusetts...
https://books.google.ca/books?id=lN...age&q=indians everest vermont skating&f=false
https://books.google.ca/books?id=gZ...AEITTAJ#v=onepage&q=indians on skates&f=false
https://books.google.ca/books?id=Vj...winter indian several miles on skates&f=false

 

[James Laverance]

Seneca Tribe

The Seneca tribe used to play shinny on skates during the time of the white settlement in Philadelphia...(1600's)
Reading Eagle - Google News Archive Search
https://news.google.com/newspapers?...AIBAJ&sjid=f-EFAAAAIBAJ&pg=6570,5358864&hl=en
http://www.ushistory.org/pennsylvania/pennsylvania.html

 

[Killion]

The Seneca tribe used to play shinny on skates during the time of the white settlement in Philadelphia...(1600's)

As a matter of personal belief James..... Im convinced, certain... native North Americans were in fact playing Shinny for 100's of
years pre-European "discovery"... I mean before Erickson & his voyages to Newfoundland, New England & the Midwest from Iceland.

Old old game.

 

[James Laverance]

Wow! I did not know about this original voyage so I did some research on topic.
It appears that Leif Erickson from Iceland discovered the new world in 1001ad.
http://www.mnc.net/norway/LeifErikson.htm
https://books.google.ca/books?id=rk...AE#v=onepage&q=erickson & his voyages&f=false

 

[Canadiens1958]

Good Work

Keep up the good work.

 

[James Laverance]

This may prove that the Inuit could have been skating in the Pre-Columbian times.

 

[James Laverance]

Did Ice-Hockey Get It's Start in Igloos

Found this interesting article from 1888 on how the Inuit played some sort of Ice-Hockey in Igloos...

"The igloo which is the funny name of tho ice-house of the Eskimo, is the narrow
playground of the children when the snow is deep and the weather is bitter cold."

"The minds of the boys of the polar world run to sports that suits their natures. They are generally found in the open air. no matter how cold it is. At night when the moon is full, and when the snow resembles a vast field of burnished! silver, a company of Eskimo boys will engaged in a game of ball. The ball sometimes is as large as a boy's head., and is covered with a piece of hide sewed with sinews. Each boy carries a crooked stick, which is the rib-bone of some arctic animal;
and thus accounted, the whole company will play ball among the drifts till tired" "Don't they ever lose the ball?" asked Benny."Very seldom. Now and then it is knocked into an opening in the ice,and, if it be a deep one, the little fellows go home sorrowful without their plaything. Then they get together in an ice-hut and make another ball."

Iron County register. (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.), June 14, 1888

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84024283/1888-06-14/ed-1/seq-3/

Below is a link to how the inuit lived in igloos from Sunday, November 05, 1899 Philadelphia.
http://www.hockeyforums.net/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=1964

 

[James Laverance]

Shinney Played Before the Days of Columbus

This was written in 1894 out of the golden days for boy's and girls...

"The boys of far-off Greenland, for instance have games that bear a remarkable resemblance to those enjoyed by young America,
and engage in them with the same snap and pleasure. Moreover, it is certain that their father's and grandfather's and their ancestors
long before the days of Columbus knew of these games and played them as children."

"Next to football, " shinney " is the favorite game, and in this sport the players appear to crack each other over the shins with as much vim
and enjoyment as any civilized boy living.
In this sport the young Eskimos use as a shinney sometimes the rib of the ookrook, or silver seal, and sometimes the rib of a walrus.
The ball is rather larger than a base-ball, and is made of pebbles, wrapped up with sinews and covered with hide."
Golden Days for Boys and Girls - Google Books
https://books.google.ca/books?id=3A...QAhXs6oMKHTE6Dk0Q6AEILzAI#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

[James Laverance]

Iroquois Hockey in 1740

Indeed the name Hockey is derived from an old Native American Iroquois saying meaning "It Hurt's".

"Explorers entering the valley of the St. Lawrence in 1740 saw the Indians playing a form of lacrosse.They heard cries of "Ho-ghee" as sticks lashed across unguarded chins. The pale-face spectators learned that "Ho-ghee" meant it hurts, an apt phrase later recalled when the new game of hockey needed a name. For they could think of nothing which could evoke cries of "It hurts" quite as readily as a vicious body check or a slash of a hockey stick."
Newsweek - Google Books
https://books.google.ca/books?id=xw...ved=0ahUKEwjr_cT_hJrRAhUj7IMKHVKzAZQQ6AEIPTAH

"Early explorers of North America were amazed to see members of the Iroquois nation gliding across frozen lakes and rivers on blades fashioned of bone. This suggests that they had been skating for quite a while, as do the many ancient bone-and-shoe combinations that have been unearthed by archaeologists."
Women of Sports: The best of the best in figure skating - Rachel Rutledge - Google Books
https://books.google.ca/books?id=MB...nearthed&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=unearthed

I guess this is something SIHR should look into seeing as the English most likely borrowed the name to call their sport as in Field Hockey later on.

 

[James Laverance]

This is the earliest reference I found on Ice-Skating in North America which dates back to 1604 on St.Croix Island in Maine.

 

[James Laverance]

Skating sketches of the Native American.