Saginaw Chippewa Tribe blesses Soccer/Lacrosse Complex field before game against Jacksonville
To celebrate the Central Michigan lacrosse team’s inaugural season, the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe performed a traditional blessing of the field at the Soccer/Lacrosse Complex before the Chippewas hosted Jacksonville Friday.
The ceremony started with a drum song and a smudging of the field. Smudging is the burning of sacred herbs such as tobacco, sweet grass, sage and cedar. Ceremonies are performed to dissipate negative past experiences, purify and influence positive beginnings.
After the blessing of the field, tribe members presented Head Coach Sara Tisdale and team captains freshmen Riley Huda, Logan Halvorson and Jocelyn Lemay with two traditional lacrosse sticks decorated with colors to replicate the Ojibwe medicine wheel.
All three scored a goal in CMU's 18-4 loss to Jacksonville.
The colors of the medicine wheel represent growth and the circle of life. The team has the same colors — red, yellow, black and white — woven into the nets of their own sticks.
“Letting (Huda, Halvorson and Lemay) grab the traditional sticks is going to be part of our captain and leadership recognition. That’s something that we’ve taken pretty seriously and it’s pretty sacred,” Tisdale said.
During the fall, the team connected with the tribe and learned about the origins of lacrosse, which was invented and played by Native American groups, including the Ojibwe.
Freshman defender Kelly Spehar said CMU lacrosse has a deeper connection with the Chippewa name because of its affiliation with the tribe.
“Other schools have their mascots, but we something deeper,” Spehar said. “We have the Chippewa tribe name and you definitely feel a stronger connection because you’re representing them and everything they did in their history and believed in.”
