Indian Games : an historical researchDavis, Andrew McFarland
History
Indian Games : an historical research
Davis, Andrew McFarland
Dice; Indians of North America -- Games
The Yumas played a game with two poles fifteen feet long and a ring a
few inches in diameter. [Footnote: W. H. Emory, U. S. and Mexican
Boundary Survey, Vol. I, p. 111.] Kane [Footnote: Kane's Wanderings, p.
310; H. H. Bancroft's Native Races, Vol. I, p. 280.] says that the
Chualpays at Fort Colville on the Columbia "have a game which they call
'_Alkollock_,' which requires considerable skill. A smooth, level piece
of ground is chosen, and a slight barrier of a couple of sticks placed
lengthwise is laid at each end of the chosen spot, being from forty to
fifty feet apart and only a few inches high. The two players, stripped
naked, are armed with a very slight spear, about three feet long, and
finely pointed with bone; one of them takes a ring made of bone or some
heavy wood and wound with cord. The ring is about three inches in
diameter, on the inner circumference of which are fastened six beads of
different colors, at equal distances, to each of which a separate value
is attached. The ring is then rolled along the ground to one of the
barriers and is followed at the distance of two or three yards by the
players, and as the ring strikes the barrier and is falling on its side,
the spears are thrown, so that the ring may fall on them. If any one of
the spears should be covered by the ring, the owner counts according to
the colored bead on it. But it generally happens from the dexterity of
the players that the ring covers both spears and each counts according
to the color of the beads above his spear. They then play towards the
other barrier, and so on until one party has obtained the number agreed
upon for the game."
In his "Life among the Apaches," [Footnote: Life among the Apaches by
John C. Cremony, p. 302.] Colonel Cremony describes the hoop and pole
game as played by the Apaches. With them the pole is marked with
divisions throughout its whole length and these divisions are stained
different colors. The object of the game is to make the hoop fall upon
the pole as near the butt as possible, graduated values being applied
to the different divisions of the pole. The women are not permitted to
approach within a hundred yards while the game is going on.
[Transcriber's Note: Lengthy footnote relocated to chapter end.] Those
who have described this game in the various forms in which it has been
presented dwell upon the fact that it taxed the strength, activity and
skill of the players. In this respect it rivalled lacrosse. In
geographical range the territory in which it was domesticated was
nearly the same.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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