Friday, November 23, 2007

Games of the North American Indians


A traditional "woman's game", "Jump the Creek," description taken from Native American Technology and Art website:

Kiowa Indians in Oklahoma traditionally played a stick game of "Ahl", literally meaning ‘wood’, with four willow stick dice. The original version of this game, recorded by Stuart, was played on a large cotton cloth over a yard square. In the center of the cloth was a flat boulder, called the "Ahl" stone. Traditionally considered a woman’s game, using their pointed awls to mark their positions, this version substitutes a wooden board with pegs for the players. The game has two players; one "kneels" along the west half of the north-south creek, and the other is stationed along the east half of the north-south creek.

Two "awl" pegs, one white and one brown, represent the respective players. Each player places their peg at their starting position, which are the western and eastern starting banks of the south creek. The western player moves their awl peg clockwise around the board, and the eastern player moves their peg counter-clockwise, as shown by the arrows on the board.

There are four stick dice that determine the number of spaces a player will move. Three of the sticks have flat sides marked in red with plain white rounded backs; The fourth dice, the ‘trump’ stick, is called ‘sahe’ by the Kiowa because of it’s green painted flat side. When a player reaches or passes their starting bank at the south creek they win a stick counter. Counters may also be taken from an opponent.
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The website acknowledges that information was gathered from Stewart Culin's "Games of the North American Indians." Culin's book is a fantastic resource - a comprehensive catalog of all kinds of games that Culin discovered in his research of North American Indians around the turn of the last century. Culin, primarily an ethnographer, leaves much to be desired in his descriptions of games. He doesn't delve into the origins of the games or into their history; he was more interested in recording the existence of the games.

It seems pretty clear that once the "Native Americans" came into contact with the "Europeans," the NAs adopted and adapted Euro games to their own use, and so Culin acknowledged in his work. However, the ahl game seems to be pre-Euro. Here is what Culin wrote about the game:

Kiowa. Oklahoma. (Cat. no. 16535, 16536, Free Museum of Science and Art, University of Pennsylvania.)

Set of four sticks of willow wood, called ahl (wood), 10 inches in length, five-eights of an inch in width, and three-eighths of an inch in thickness (figure omitted), nearly hemispheric in section, with one side flat.

Three of the sticks have a red groove running down the middle on the flat side, and one has a blue stripe. The last has a burnt design on the reverse, as shown in the figure [omitted], while the backs of the others are plain. The flat sides are also burnt, with featherlike markings at the ends.

A cotton cloth, 41 by 48 1/2 inches, marked as shown in figure 133 [omitted, but similar to illustration at beginning of this post] called the ahl cloth; a flat bowlder, called the ahl stone; two awls, sharpened wires, with wooden handles, 6 3/4 inches in length; eight sticks, 8 3/4 inches in length, to be used as counters [figure omitted].

These objects were collected by Col. H. L. Scott, U.S. Army, who furnished the following description of the game, under the title of the zohn ahl (zohn, creek; ahl, wood), commonly known as the ahl game.

The ahl cloth is divided into points by which the game is counted. The curved lines are called knees, because they are like the knees of the players. The space between the parallel lines 1 and 1 and 20 and 20 [north-south line] is called the creek, and the corresponding spaces between the parallel lines at right angles are called the dry branches [east-west line]. The sticks are held by the players in one hand and struck downward, so that their ends come on the ahl stone [in the center of the cloth] with considerable force. If all the sticks fall with the sides without grooves uppermost, the play is called white, and counts 10. If all the grooved sides come uppermost, it is called red, and counts 5. Both of these throws entitled the player to another throw. If one grooved side is uppermost, it counts 1; two grooved sides, 2, and three grooved sides, 3. The game is played by any even number of girls or women (never by men or boys), half on one side of the N-S line and half on the other [E-W line]. The flat ahl stone is placed in the middle of the cloth, and the players kneel on the edge. The two awls are stuck in the creek at 1 1 [south]. The player at A [SW] makes the first throw, and the throwing goes around the circle in the direction of the hands of a watch, each side counting the results of each throw on the ahl cloth by sticking its awl just beyond the mark called for by the results of the throw. The moves are made in the opposite directions [that is, the player who starts her awl from the SE side goes counter-clockwise direction]. If in counting any awl gets into the creek at N, that side must forfeit a counter to the other side and be set back to the creek at S. [Problem: there are no counters in the game, other than the awl held by each side. So, does this mean that the awl on the side that lands in the creek must start over? I can't think of another way this might be played, unless there are playing pieces in the game that are not described as part of the equipment]. That side is then said to have fallen into the creek, the object being to jump over. If in their passage around the circle the two awls get into the same division, the last comer is said to whip or kill the former, who forfeits a counter and is set back to the beginning. [Again, are we talking about sending back the other player's awl to the beginning, or are other pieces somehow involved, that were not described in the game?] The counting continues until one gets back to the creek at S. The one first at S. receives a counter, and if there is more than enough to take it to the creek the surplus is added to the next round; that is, the creek is jumped, and the awl put beyond it as many points as may be over. When one side wins all the counters, it conquers. If the game should be broken up before this event the side which has the greater number of counters is victor.

Colonel Scott further states:

The Kiowa have a custom of wetting the fingers and slapping them several times on the stone before a throw, and calling out "red, red," or "white, white," according to the number they desire to count; or, if but "one" should be required to throw the opposite party into the "creek," some one puts her finger into her mouth, and drawing it carefully across the top of the stone, calls out "parko, parko" ("one, one"). Often before the throw the thrower will rub the four sticks in a vertical position backward and forward several times between the palms of the hands, to insure good luck.

The Comanche have a similar game which they play with eight ahl sticks, and the Cheyenne and Arapaho are said to have a game which they play with ahl sticks which are 2 feet or more long.

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