Allan Downey

Allan Downey, “Playing the Creator’s Game on God’s Day: The Controversy of Sunday Lacrosse Games in Haudenosaunee Communities, 1916-24”, Journal of Canadian Studies 49, no. 3 (2015).

Masterfully weaving together the experiences of communities and local cultures and politics with broader national policies and processes, Allan Downey’s analysis of the controversy surrounding Sunday lacrosse games in two Haudenosaunee communities (Akwesáhsne and Six Nations) in the early decades of the last century carefully documents the spectrum of Indigenous and non-Indigenous viewpoints while demonstrating convincingly that the struggle was never only about sport or religion, but about self-determination. It is an important and timely contribution to our understanding of the nature of modern colonialism and of the forms of Indigenous resistance.