Thakapsicapi!
Photo Credit: David Joles
Collaborating Partners:
Twin Cities Native Lacrosse; John Hunter - Director
MN Art Shanty Projects
Time & Place:
First weekend & Closing weekend of Art Shanties Project (Festival) 2026 in Minneapolis.
Project Description:
The title “Thakapsicapi” is the Dakota word for “lacrosse.” Sounds like: “Tah - Kah -psee -cah- pee.”
Original ball game of this land strengthen bonds and brings joy. Our group facilitates traditional Dakota (and Ojibwe) style lacrosse games for youth, families, and the broader community. We play in most any location, in amongst this land where lacrosse has been played for hundreds in years - with little changed. Art Shanties Festival is a special time for lacrosse, since we get to host 'community' game on the ice of Bde Unma (Dakota for Lake Harriet).
Photo credit: David Joles
Goals or Outcomes Achieved:
Engagement with community
Create a safe and fun space for community to bond and heal
What did you learn? Artistically? Administratively? About the community?
Stories of our ice games travel far and wide and elicit a strong reaction as we share about the wonderful community we create simply by "playing together'.
Photo credit: Ball Play (La Crosse). Lithograph by George Catlin, undated (1966.48.69). Art collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr.
Links
https://www.facebook.com/p/Twin-Cities-Native-Lacrosse-100057303137597/
Quote from the project:
"Lacrosse was given by our spirit helpers to Native (American) people as a way to help us.”
Photo Credit: David Joles
