‘MY PEOPLE DO NOT LIKE CHANGE’ Alie Jimerson’s journey to Germany in 2011, her first time traveling internationally, came with trepidation. She worried about being ostracized. “Alie, you are leaving this reservation for two weeks, and when you come back, it will not have changed,” her dad told her. “You could leave this reservation for four years and it still will not change.” To this day, Alie Jimerson will not touch a wooden stick because of the energy it contains and the medicine it represents. Powless’ mom and sister also do not touch wooden sticks, especially his sticks, which have ceremonial ribbons attached. “Lacrosse is still in my blood,” Alie Jimerson wrote, “and I respect the game just as much as a boy or man would.”
The Haudenosaunee finished eighth in the 2011 U19 world championship. While some Cayuga people congratulated Jimerson, others would not speak to her. Her fears before the trip came to fruition, but she had a different perspective. “That’s when I realized what my dad said was right about things not changing,” she wrote. “It was then I realized that my people do not like change.” Powless said only two Iroquois communities truly uphold the traditional view of lacrosse, a conundrum since some girls from those communities want to play. “It’s not that native women can’t be athletes or shouldn’t be allowed to express or exhibit those skills, because they are really quite amazing athletes,” Powless said. “It’s just a matter of principle that opposition continues to be present.”
HOPE FOR THE FUTURE Kathy Smith, chair of the Haudenosaunee
women’s lacrosse board, has developed the program since 2008. Winthrop coach John Sung, a Korean American who coached the Haudenosaunee in the last two World Cups, called Smith a pioneer. “It changes me every time I’m with them,” he said.
Smith teaches the players about energy healing — how energy can affect relationships on and off the field. “She makes us feel like as women, we are very important to the society,” Alie Jimerson said.
Fifth-grader Kimaura Schindler, Tia and Gewas’ daughter, is an up-and- coming lacrosse player. She followed Syracuse’s march to the NCAA championship game, which featured three Iroquois women — Trenna Hill, Kristiana Ferguson and Erin Francis. “[Kimaura’s] seeing all these things that these girls are doing and now she wants that too,” Tia Schindler said. Jacobs said he saw a glimmer of hope for a
52 LACROSSE MAGAZINE August 2014>>
“future world that will see the evolution of women playing on the same basis as men.”
Alie Jimerson wants to be a beacon of that hope. “I want to show my sisters and other girls that it’s possible,” she concluded in her essay. “I respect this game and the gift that it gives… I’m Alie Jimerson, Cayuga Nation Bear Clan, and I play lacrosse. Nya:weh!” LM
Sandy Jemison (top), a member 1987 Iroquois team that disbanded rather than defy clan mothers, helped provide an outlet for players like Trenna Hill (middle left and right), who recently graduated from Syracuse.
Cayuga faithkeeper Delmor Jacobs (bottom left) has a daughter who plays lacrosse.
A Publication of US Lacrosse
©JOHN STROHSACKER (SJ); ©SYRACUSE (TH); ©JC PINHEIRO (TH); ©DELMOR JACOBS
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