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North American Indians have often been perceived as violent, bloodthirsty human beings. The horrified fascination exerted by this violence on the European imagination takes hold of all historical accounts and lies at the heart of the smallest social productions. The sports games, whose imposing corpus is intriguing to the colonists, are also perceived as a cultural element of this gratuitous violence, a biological one, even, as inherent to their "wild nature". And yet, far from being instinctual, this violence takes on a ritual and propitiatory dimension that is at the same time at the service of private interests, but also, and especially so, of tribal ones.By taking possession of the lacrosse game through its institutionalization, Canadians hope to control the violence of this emblematic game-ritual. Despite a deep transformation of the game, the instinctual manifestations in the human relationships that are supposed to decline through the internalization of restrictions subsist. The original game still seems to express itself through this violence-based relationship, no matter how codified.Drawing on archives ranging from missiological writings to anthropological documents, as well as on recent academic studies, this article tries to dispel the defining halo of a violence sometimes confused with distinct forms of aggressivity.Abstract: North American Indians have often been perceived as violent, bloodthirsty human beings. The horrified fascination exerted by this violence on the European imagination takes hold of all historical accounts and lies at the heart of the smallest social productions. The sports games, whose imposing corpus is intriguing to the colonists, are also perceived as a cultural element of this gratuitous violence, a biological one, even, as inherent to their "wild nature". And yet, far from being instinctual, this violence takes on a ritual and propitiatory dimension that is at the same time at the service of private interests, but also, and especially so, of tribal ones. By taking possession of the lacrosse game through its institutionalization, Canadians hope to control the violence of this emblematic game-ritual. Despite a deep transformation of the game, the instinctual manifestations in the human relationships that are supposed to decline through the internalization of restrictions subsist. The original game still seems to express itself through this violence-based relationship, no matter how codified. Drawing on archives ranging from missiological writings to anthropological documents, as well as on recent academic studies, this article tries to dispel the defining halo of a violence sometimes confused with distinct forms of aggressivity.

En 1904, en medio de la feria de la exposición universal de Saint-Louis, los Juegos olimpicos no pudieron escapar a la ascención de ideologías racistas del principios del siglo XX y contibuyeron a la discusión del mérito atlético de diferentes razas. Los organisadores prepararon competiciones especiales que llamaron en esta ocasión «Jornadas antropológicas» reservadas a los que la América segregacionista del momento consideraba como primitivos. El impacto de los estudios sobre las razas, sobre la manera de pensar en el deporte no fue, al contrario de lo que se esforzaron hacer creer los diferentes presidentes del C.O.I en el curso de las siguientes decadas, un simple avatar del movimiento olimpico. Veremos la influencía de este espectáculo atletico interracial en los Estados Unidos pero tambien en el mundo, particularmente a través del papel de la prensa. Las jornadas antropológicas permitieron indudablemente elaborar una cierta percepción de la otricidad y limitaran la integración de los pueblos autóctonas en la maquina deportiva mundial.

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Religion and recreational sports practices are intimately linked in Native American culture. Some stories attest to the origin of the game offered to men by tutelary spirits, the latter having acquired their own status through the game. According to some legends, the organization of the world derives from sport encounters between humans or animals. Mythology relates the dealings of civilizing heroes, who, as true tricksters, use cunning and games to play tricks on others. The mythical–religious elements in traditional sports also express themselves through a wide range of ceremonial rites related to death practices, climate conditions, illness and fertility. The institutionalization of traditional sport has provided religion with a new basis of expression that, although failing to give international visibility to Native American athletes, allows them to find a balance between their traditional values and the modern world.

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