Fraternal Societies, Settler Colonialism, and Combat Sports on Canada’s Prairie West

In southern Alberta, Canada, during the early twentieth century, fraternal organizations such as the Oddfellows, Moose, Elks, and Eagles employed boxing and wrestling to advance their interests and assist in molding members to demonstrate the discipline and respectability expected of a member. These organizations not only appropriated symbols of the natural world—Elk, Eagle, and Moose—to stake a claim to the land and space that they occupied but also offered male settlers social support and economic benefits in the case of injury or death when such support was largely unavailable. Boys and young men represented ideal candidates for membership to continue and promote the brotherhoods’ shared beliefs and values, and boxing and wrestling were considered valuable activities for achieving these ends. As a result, boxing and wrestling benefitted fraternal societies, allowing them to attract new members while entrenching existing settler colonial relations on Canada’s prairie west

Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · Sports, Gender, and Society · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies