00:00Bending hickory wood is the key to crafting a traditional Native American lacrosse stick.
00:10Alfie Jacques has spent a lifetime perfecting the skill.
00:13That's beautiful. Look at that.
00:18He's one of the last people in the world who knows how to make them.
00:22I'm still working on it.
00:23He's on Ndaga, one of the Native American nations that invented lacrosse a thousand years ago.
00:36Here we go.
00:38They call the sport Dejon Chikwa Es, and they believe it was a gift from the creator.
00:45Babies sleep beside their own wooden stick from the day they're born,
00:48and players are buried with theirs when they die.
00:53And in the past five decades, there's a good chance it was made by Alfie.
00:57Most indigenous stick artisans went out of business when plastic and aluminum
01:01replaced wood in the 1970s.
01:04The market just disappeared on us.
01:07Alfie managed to stay afloat because his work was legendary.
01:11He's crafted more than 80,000 of these by hand.
01:15But in 2022, he almost had to stop for good.
01:19Well, I had cancer.
01:21And then, of course, chemo beats the crap out of you, so you don't feel good.
01:26We went to the Onondaga Nation to see how, with Alfie's help, this tradition is still standing.
01:37Go ahead, hit it.
01:38Alfie started making sticks from hickory trees with his father back in 1961.
01:44We didn't have any money to buy one.
01:46My dad said, so let's make our own.
01:51It was trial and error, right from the start.
01:55He used to chop and saw them on his own.
01:59But nowadays, his apprentice, Parker Booth, does most of the heavy work.
02:04They set the rails to dry for a month before cutting them down to size.
02:12When we filmed with Alfie in April,
02:14he was feeling strong enough to run the bandsaw on his own.
02:18But days like this are rare.
02:22Last year, he could barely walk.
02:25I wasn't going anywhere. I didn't see one lacrosse game last year.
02:27Not one.
02:29Couldn't hold my head up long enough to watch a game.
02:32Today, he's grateful for every minute he spends here.
02:45Evening the wood is crucial for the perfect bend later.
02:49This is the only time Alfie needs a measuring tool.
02:53I use calipers.
02:57I know I'm cheating.
03:01He spends about 10 minutes perfecting the thickness.
03:06Alfie's been carving since he was five years old.
03:09I got my start with wood with my grandmother.
03:12She was a basket maker.
03:14The artistic thing was in her, it was in me, it was in my father,
03:18it was in all of us in the family.
03:22Meanwhile, Parker heats their steamer to over 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
03:27Alfie's had it since the 1960s.
03:32The sticks cook for up to 40 minutes until the wood softens.
03:39Alfie tests the wood before bending
03:41because it could easily break if it's over or under steamed.
03:45If it's still stiff, it goes back in the steamer.
03:48A couple minutes.
03:50Get it back in there like that.
03:52But when it bounces, he knows it's ready.
04:02The bark holds the fibers together, keeping the wood from breaking.
04:07Today, Alfie needs Parker's help to bend the wood.
04:11But he did it on his own for decades, at times with just one arm.
04:18I like to take a piece of hickory log and turn it into a good stick.
04:23I like to carve and I like to work with the wood.
04:28At the Nedro-Onondaga Indian Reservation,
04:31Alfie Jacks and his father Lou Jacks make and sell lacrosse sticks.
04:37Onondaga is one of six nations in the Haudenosaunee Confederacy.
04:41Which the French dubbed the Iroquois.
04:44A lot of people here are really, really proud to be Indian.
04:49And the Onondagas are a sovereign nation.
04:52So we'd rather be all on our own.
04:56Alfie's business took off in 1968 after a nearby stick factory burned down,
05:01leaving him and his dad as top producers.
05:04They carved a thousand sticks a month.
05:07Business slowed down in the 1970s when plastic and aluminum sticks started to replace wood.
05:14Alfie had to take other jobs, but he kept running the business in his free time.
05:22Well, that sounded good, didn't it, Parker?
05:26It's kind of like an obligation to our people, to our culture, to the world of lacrosse.
05:33Native people began playing the sport as a spiritual and social activity.
05:38Competitions had hundreds of players and could last days.
05:43It was also a way to prepare young men for battle and settle disputes.
05:48A missionary in the 1600s renamed the game after the French word for a bishop's staff, lacrosse.
05:55European settlers started playing in the 1800s with limited team sizes.
06:00And in 1868, the National Lacrosse Association of Canada
06:04effectively barred indigenous players from competing.
06:08In the U.S., lacrosse soon became popular among middle and upper class university students.
06:14Today, the U.S. and Canada have dozens of pro teams,
06:17and 85 countries compete in international tournaments.
06:21But wooden sticks are rare.
06:24Alfie stayed in business by tailoring his sticks to each player.
06:29By 2004, he finally had enough customers to work full-time in his shop again.
06:34I'll make one heavy and they'll make one light.
06:37You've got to understand the players are all different, too. They all like different things.
06:43While the wood is still in production, Alfie still has a lot of work to do.
06:46I'll make one light and they'll make one light.
06:49You know, I'll make one light for each player.
06:51They all like different things.
06:55While the wood is still hot from the steamer,
06:57Alfie carves off a section of bark where another bend will go.
07:02He marks the date with a pencil
07:07and stores it for the wood to compress.
07:08Okay.
07:12Six months later, the sticks go back in the steamer to prepare for a second bend.
07:31Alfie and Parker push them into a rack, where blocks will hold the bend for two weeks.
07:38Alfie still uses the holder his father made out of scrap wood in the late 60s.
07:43The same goes for his carving bench.
07:49Carving the contours is Alfie's favorite part.
07:53One of those things you do on a snowy Syracuse day.
08:00You're in here nice and warm, you're making chips, playing some blues music.
08:05It's a pretty good feeling.
08:08There's worse things you could do, I guess.
08:12Alfie measures by eye and touch.
08:19After 80,000 sticks, it's like you kind of know exactly how much to take off, how much you're leaving.
08:28He uses antique draw shapes that were used to make barrels.
08:37He pulls the knife in the direction of the wood's grain to keep it strong.
08:45There we go, we got one.
08:53I like it.
08:58Without any markings or template, he drills about 20 holes around the head.
09:12He spends about 10 minutes sanding the edges.
09:17And I say, there's a piece of wood that's all crossed, they can already just have to find it.
09:28Then he finishes rounding the corners with a sanding block.
09:36Alfie designed his logo when he was in the fourth grade.
09:41I thought, if I had my own symbol, then they would know that it's not Al Jones.
09:47You know, it's Alva Jock.
09:50Alfie and his father developed their own method for stringing the pocket in the 60s.
09:54We kind of learned together because neither of us had ever done it before.
10:00Nobody would teach us how. It was like a big secret. They would not teach us anything.
10:06He uses nylon, leather, and rawhide cord, which he makes himself, to string the pocket.
10:13Lacrosse sticks used to be netted entirely with rawhide.
10:17So this is Alfie's way of honoring the past.
10:19All of these wooden sticks, they're all a little bit different.
10:22They have their own character, their own quality, their own way of shooting.
10:27Alfie has been making about 200 lacrosse sticks a year and selling them for $350 a piece.
10:33But he had to stop production to treat stage 4 cancer in 2022.
10:41By August, it was real bad.
10:43It was real bad. So I came pretty close.
10:48That year, he only made six sticks.
10:51And that's not an income, you know, so I didn't make any money.
10:57But his community hasn't let him face it alone.
11:02Once again, I'd like to thank everybody for coming out.
11:04And we'll see you next time.
11:13We're supporting the stick makers' tournament.
11:15Benefit for Alfie Jocks.
11:19Players from all six Haudenosaunee nations raise money for Alfie
11:22with a lacrosse tournament in April.
11:28Alfie Jocks has become synonymous with the traditional lessons of wooden stick making.
11:33His dedication to the game of native origins, now recognized and played throughout the world.
11:41So once again, let's hear it for Alfie Jocks.
11:45Thanks, guys.
11:52Good to see a lot of woodies out there.
11:54Good to see all the good lacrosse.
11:57Thanks for coming.
12:02How you doing, man? How you doing?
12:04Thank you. Thank you. Nice hat.
12:11This is the first game Alfie has seen in over a year.
12:17And it feels even more special, because he's known many of the players for decades.
12:24Alfie played as a forward and a goalie in the 1960s and 70s.
12:28Back then, his father coached the local Onondaga team.
12:34Alfie followed in his father's footsteps and became a coach in the 2000s.
12:42Score!
12:44When guys want to hang their heads, he was always that guy to pick us up
12:48and understand why we're playing a game and not get discouraged.
12:53About 100 players made it to the tournament to raise money for Alfie and thank him for his work.
12:58Everybody wants the Alfie stick because they know the medicine that Alfie brings to the game.
13:05Wooden sticks can give players more power in their throw and help play tougher defense.
13:12But they're more difficult to maneuver and can weigh four times as much as titanium or carbon fiber sticks.
13:22Some leagues and associations have been trying to ban them in hopes of reducing injuries.
13:28You need to practice with it more.
13:29Stop giving it the bad name where they want to try to take the stick that started the game out of the game,
13:34which doesn't make any sense to me.
13:37And although even most indigenous players choose metal and plastic for their professional careers,
13:42they cherish their wooden sticks and consider them irreplaceable.
13:47Many still bring their wooden sticks to the bench for every game.
13:50There's a lot to be said for the connection that happens when you pick up that stick.
13:54It's almost like a jolt of lightning. You feel it.
13:59Of course the world evolves and the biggest thing is carrying the principles
14:03and carrying that tradition behind it.
14:07It's good to be out there with the people.
14:10When I'm surrounded by hundreds of lacrosse players, that's where I want to be.
14:15That's me. That's my life.
14:17One, two, three.
14:23One, two, three.
14:31The day after the tournament, Alfie was back at the workshop with Parker and his sons.
14:38Put the wedge in up there.
14:41Hit it, hit it, hit it.
14:43There you go.
14:48Ah, nice.
14:52Old Indian corn pounder.
14:56His final touch is a purple throwing string, a sacred color for his people and a signature of his sticks.
15:05When we met Alfie, he was working on the last one he would ever make.
15:10Nice beautiful stick.
15:13How's that, huh?
15:15I love doing this.
15:18And even in his toughest moments, Alfie always found a way to keep going forward.
15:24It was like when you're in a lacrosse game and it's overtime, it's tied, and that guy's running to the goal.
15:32And you've got to catch him.
15:34And you've got nothing left in the tank, but you catch him.
15:39It's kind of like that, you know?
15:41Just don't give up.
15:42Don't give up.
15:43Take deep.
15:47Soon after we filmed with him, he again began feeling too weak to work.
15:55Alfie Jacques died on June 14, 2023.
16:00He was buried at Onondaga with his lacrosse stick in hand.
16:12All right.
Comments