Women's lacrosse traditional Native American game, which was first witnessed by Europeans when French Jesuit missionaries in the St. Lawrence Valley witnessed the game in the 1630s. The games were sometimes major events that could last several days. As many as 100 to 1,000 men from opposing villages or tribes would participate. Native American lacrosse describes a broad variety of stick-and-ball games played by them. Geography and tribal customs dictated the extent to which women participated in these early games: "Lacrosse, as women play it, is an orderly pastime that has little in common with the men's tribal warfare version except the
Dutch Americans South Carolina and Cornelius P. Van Ness of Vermont were also born to Dutch American families. According to the 2013 American Community Survey, an estimated 4.5 million Americans claim total or partial Dutch heritage. Today the majority of the Dutch Americans live in Michigan, California, Montana, Minnesota, New York, Wisconsin, Idaho, Utah, Iowa, Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. In 1602, the Dutch government chartered the Dutch East India Company ("Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie", VOC). It sent explorers under the command of Henry Hudson who arrived in 1609 and mapped what is now known as the Hudson River. Their initial goal was