'National Treasure of the Haudenosaunee' Alfie Jacques Dies at 74

Alfie Jacques, the legendary Onondaga Nation stickmaker who handcrafted more than 80,000 wooden lacrosse sticks during his lifetime, died Tuesday after a nearly decade-long bout with kidney cancer and other ailments. He was 74.

A Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Famer, Jacques played junior, senior and professional lacrosse in the 1960s and 1970s. He played nearly every position in box and field lacrosse and was a goalie for the Syracuse Stingers during their one season (1974) in the National Lacrosse League. Jacques also coached and served as general manager for the Onondaga Red Hawks, leading them to a Presidents Cup championship in 2010.

Earlier this month, Jacques was honored with the 15th Spirit of the Tewaaraton Award.

“Alfie Jaques is a national treasure of the Haudenosaunee,” said Chief Oren Lyons, Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan and the 2015 Spirit of Tewaaraton honoree. “His tireless dedication to his life’s work has earned him the recognition and respect he justly deserves.”

Jacques’ true legacy is that of a cultural icon who preserved centuries of lacrosse tradition in the workshop near his mother’s house at the Onondaga Nation, where for six decades he used an axe and a mallet to break apart the shagbark hickory trees he felled from nearby forests and a carving horse to sculpt them.

“I’m Onondaga, Turtle Clan, and I'm going to do this as long as I'm able to do this,” he said in a 2019 interview. “It’s such a part of who we are as a people. It is important, as it allows us to play the Medicine Game the way it should be, with all wooden sticks.”

Jacques’ shop became a destination for people from all walks of lacrosse who wanted to hear his stories and feel connected to the sport’s Native American roots. He took his craft on the road, conducting demonstrations at major lacrosse events like the USA Lacrosse Convention, where droves of coaches, officials and fans flocked to his booth for a glimpse at his work.

Jacques started carving sticks with his father, Lou, a Mohawk citizen of the Akwesasne territory, in the 1970s. Together they developed a system for identifying the right trees, cutting them down, splitting the wood into pieces, trimming it with a band saw, shaping it into a crosse, steaming the stick above a fire, bending it around a form, shellacking the wood and weaving in the gut webbing.

As component sticks made of metal and plastic replaced wooden sticks on the field, Jacques’ creations became collectibles. He signed and dated every stick he made. Several are displayed in an exhibit at the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame and Museum at USA Lacrosse headquarters in Sparks, Maryland.

Some still made it to the field. Defenseman Kevin Bucktooth of the Haudenosaunee men’s national team drew attention for using one of Jacques’ sticks in the 2014 world championship in Denver. He said it made him more imposing.

Jacques made a stick for Virginia men’s lacrosse coach Lars Tiffany, which he has wielded proudly during the Cavaliers’ trips to NCAA championship weekend in 2019, 2021 and 2023. He also repaired a wooden stick for New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick, who has long made known his love for lacrosse and its culture.

Jacques’ health declined in recent years, starting with his cancer diagnosis in 2015. He also suffered a heart attack in 2017, but Jacques' devotion to his craft never wavered. There was never a template, no instructions or written procedures, just the ingrained knowledge initially passed down from his father and the delicate skills honed over a lifetime. Jacques never stopped using his father's knife, made in 1832, to carve each stick.

“It’s therapeutic,” Jacques said. “It’s a relaxing thing to do. Everything you do in this work has purpose to the end product. You don’t just cut for cutting sake. You cut with purpose. You saw with purpose, carve with purpose, drill holes with purpose. This is what I live for. This is my life.”

One of his apprentices, Jack Johnson, established a Go Fund Me page in March to assist Jacques with medical expenses. The lacrosse community responded by generating more than $40,000.

A 1999 Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame inductee, Jacques also was enshrined by the Upstate New York Chapter of USA Lacrosse — now the Upstate Lacrosse Foundation — into its hall of fame in 2014.