Closed Captions Audio Described

Arlene Adams, Ryan Woodcock, Sarah Wahl, and Wesley Pierre Sapiet, members of the Salish Language Immersion School and International Traditional Games Society, demonstrate and explain traditional Salish games including lacrosse, shinney, double ball, hoop and dart, stick and ring, and stick game. They discuss the cultural, spiritual, and physical purposes of these games, their origins, and efforts to revitalize Salish language and traditional knowledge among young people.

Transcript

0:07 Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Tent of Many Voices. This tent is part of a traveling exhibit that has been following the Lewis and Clark trail since January of 2003. This tent along with our exhibit tent over here, our scale model keelboat out here, our plains Indian tepee all have been following
0:29 this trail. Went through the eastern States in 2003. In 2004, we started in Saint Louis, came up the river to North Dakota and in 2005, we started back in North Dakota and are heading west across the trail in about the same time frame as Lewis and Clark. So here we find ourselves at the Rocky Mountains,
0:52 the area that was an obstacle for Lewis and Clark. And thinking about what Lewis and Clark did on this journey, they traveled across lands that they knew were inhabited and some of those inhabitants they knew and some they didn't. And part of their job was to meet the Native Americans along the way that was on Jefferson's orders, meet them, learn from them
1:16 and find out about their lives, find out about the things they do. This Tent of Many Voices is called the Tent of Many Voices so that we can bring to you people from different walks of life, different backgrounds, different perspectives. It is a story of Lewis and Clark all the way through, but not just them.
1:39 It's a story of the people they met along that their way. And with that said, I'd like to introduce to you our next presenters. They are both members of the International Traditional Game Society and they are part of the Salish Language Immersion School. So at this time, let's please welcome
1:59 our Salish presenters, Arlene Adams and Ryan Three Woodcocks.
2:14 [singing] [rythmic tapping]
3:10 [speaking Salish]
3:32 Thank everybody for coming here today. We thank you for taking time out of your life to listen to what the animal spirits have to say to us. I am told that as a Salish person that my knowledge comes to me from all of the elements around me and from the teachings of those elements
3:56 through the tools of my ancestors, from my great grandmother, my great grandparents to all of the people that helped bring me here today. My name is Arlene Adams. My Indian name is [speaking Salish] That means that Indian paintbrush, thunder sparks makes that paintbrush. That's my Indian name.
4:22 I come here. My people were forcefully removed from this area
4:28 in 1885 to about 1910.
4:34 And so it's with the heart of the ancestors that lay below me today that I am honored to be a part of, of this gathering to come and talk about traditional games with my sisters and my cousins, Sarah and Wes will come and join us at any time. We are part of an international Traditional
4:57 Games society that formed about 25 years ago to re revitalize our raw games, the hockey and the basketball and all of the different or the games that you see in athletic sports today, majority of them came from indigenous peoples.
5:19 And so it's with that in mind that we continue on that. We started this society and on every reservation and every place in the United States will look at the revitalization of native games as well. We're we are um with the Salish revitalization of our Salish language.
5:42 We have a school that is three years old or we started out with eight students in preschool age and now they are going into the second grade and it's all Salish immersion. We have six on staff. We are hoping to add 10 more staff members this year and 35 more students.
6:05 As of yesterday, we had 30 students. And so it is our great hope in the revitalization of all of our tools and all of our knowledge that these things will come about for us and it's very unfortunate that our history tells us and gives us what we have today, but it sure certainly didn't, um,
6:28 wipe us off like the intent was. And so we're happy that today our ancestors are still looking at us and still hoping for the best for us. That's what we pray for. And we go out and we ask every day the elements out there to help us when we go out and we gather our sticks, everything that, that we do as teachers,
6:54 we do as hunters and gatherers because it's really hard to have as a teacher. You have a set budget to buy your, your tools with $100 doesn't do it per year. And so we, we do our best to find any item that we're going to utilize within that curriculum.
7:17 When our Salish people were given creation stories.
7:23 It's a misnomer that we're called flatheads. And someday that will become, that will come off of everything that's attached to Salish and Kootenai and Pend d'Oreille people. But that within that frame of being flathead, it really helped me to understand my identity as Salish and how the misnomer
7:48 can just go around me. I'm not a flathead Indian and I'm proud to be a Salish Indian. And I'm proud that in our creation stories, Coyote came about and he did a lot of things for us for the coming of you the way that we're told that these creation stories
8:11 I can't tell you any of them right now when that snow comes and when those spirits say that it's ok, then that's when those stories come out. And so I, we weave around those misnomers. We go in and out of our culture to understand who you are. So that someday we'll all understand who each other are. And we come here with
8:34 the spirit of our ancestors, the spirit of all of the, the tools that they give us, they give us buckskin balls, they give us the hair that creates the, the ball inside of here comes from the animal hair, that hair. I am told your hair is an extension of your mind.
8:58 It's something that you're only given an opportunity to have once in your life. And so you take care of that hair and when we take care of our animals, we take care of all of his body, all of everything that he has on him. And so when we scrape that hair off, we dry them and we use them for our buckskin balls,
9:24 the rawhide and all of his animals are used to stretch on to the, the drums um onto any kind of rawhide tool that we're going to make
9:36 any time we go out and just take a stick from the hills. You're always told to leave some kind of offering so that we'll always be there for our kids. We'll always be there for us to go and have, we've been sitting out here for four days teaching kids. The kids in Hamilton are wonderful. They're very, very wonderful kids that just wanna learn
10:00 and wanna understand that, that relationship between non Indian and Indian. And it helped me to understand you guys are all sitting on our homeland. And I said, well, someday, you know, maybe we'll come back here and we'll have a school here and we'll be able to share this. A lot of the kids wanted to know how come we didn't have a Salish school here? Why weren't there any Indians here? And a
10:24 lot of really ironic questions that if you have and that this, you know, our big society picture of getting along and using our diverse culture and education, then it's up to each one of you and each one of us in this valley that they help each other to help our kids understand why the non Indians and the Indians don't get along. And
10:49 so I, I challenged that little girl. I said, go, go out and ask your, your postmaster, go ask the store clerk, go ask anybody that lives in your town. Why that? Why? That isn't? Because the schools evidently aren't teaching that. And so when we, when we go out and look at those raw tools, we look at the arms and the elements of our trees,
11:14 all of the, the elements out there we're told are there for us, are told that when you take something, you put something back. And with that in mind, I would like Ryan Woodcock to introduce himself. We are, our families are from here. Originally. Our Aboriginal territory is so vast.
11:39 Um We are told that, you know, from as far as we can see all around us and then we got shoved onto this little piece of land. And so the bones of my ancestors, my direct descendants of Chief Charlo and his bunch are from this area. His granddaughter, I would like for her to come up and explain too when, when um Ryan speaks after he speaks to talk a little bit about,
12:04 about them and what brought them into the society or the traditional games movement, so to speak Ryan.
12:13 Hello, my name is Ryan Woodcock. Uh My Indian name is [speaking Salish]
12:20 and I'm honored to be here today and speak in front of you all and know I'm much younger probably than most of you. So just happy to be here. And I've been playing lacrosse since I was in fifth grade and been teaching lacrosse all my life since then too whoever I go and share the game with the game that's close to my heart that I was given.
12:43 And where I was shown when I was growing up to live, you know, in a in Denver, Colorado is where I was raised. So, so many things have been shown to me coming back here and realizing who my family is and meeting them and speaking and listening and being with them. So I'm just so happy to be here
13:06 with that said, uh these are our games. Um these games um are for our mind, our body, our spirit and our emotions. Um It's how games are, are played in um young age, simpler and going on through uh
13:30 through adulthood. This is shinney here. Um shinney hit the shins too much. So
13:40 what is modern day hockey Um, stems from this game, um, double ball, I pick up this here, and these basically have sand inside of here, in balloons nowadays. But uh traditionally, uh a women's game. So I shouldn't be playing this but,
14:02 but yeah, so have two posts on each side, you know, a fields range. Um, it can be a half mile, 500 yards, you know, to modern day of 80 yards or less than that. So, um, but all the games are,
14:22 are played for other reasons than just physical aspects there, you know, to make us strong, your [speaking Salish] make us strong inside and make us grow and become older and, and become young men. That's what lacrosse is. It's a young man's game to grow into war, um to become strong and uh,
14:47 and to use your mind in everything you do. So, um, with that said, this, these are some other uh introducers and so We need to hook them up to the mics. You have one go ahead. This is Sarah Wahl [speaking Salish] Good day. Good day to see you. I'll be here today.
15:10 As she said I'm Sarah Wahl. Um, I'm direct descendant of Chief Charlo. Um, I guess my first involvement with games was in high school. I went to the tribally run alternative school in Pablo. It's called Two Eagle River School. We'd have Shinney tournaments the first game he showed you. That was my introduction into traditional games. Up to that point. I wasn't, I was aware of games, played lacrosse mostly. I guess
15:35 I learned more as I went along. I'm lucky enough to have a mother that's really involved in, in a lot of our tribal aspects and teaching a lot of things as tour guides. And one of the things I love about teaching games is to work with children, you know, to start, start with the young ones and, you know, talk about us and the way our, the way our lives are, as Arlene said. So there's more understanding, you know,
15:57 breaking stereotypes is a big part of what we do. And, uh, I know, I just, I've, it's, it's very dear to my heart these games as well. Just to hang on to our traditions, our culture in any way possible. As long with, uh, teaching more children as we go, we have, uh, during Native American Awareness Week, up at the People Center in Pablo, we teach games all week long to all the schools
16:20 on the reservation and some schools off the reservation. And uh
16:27 it's like what, what I normally teach would be double ball and shinney stick, some hoop and dart as well.
16:35 Uh I saw that my partner introduced himself as well.
16:40 Hello. My name is Wesley Michael Pierre Sapiet. I'm originally from here. This is where my family comes from. And, um, I, I teach native games as well. Usually how to make the stick and ring games for Children. Um There's a lot of history behind each one of these games, mainly for endurance,
17:05 self-discipline and a lot of other things as well. And if Sarah wants to continue with the aspects of the history of these traditional games, I'll, I'll just help her out. Thank you.
17:24 OK. I noticed that we explain, they started explaining some of the games and uh we could go with just a little further into detail uh with these games, I guess we could start out with double ball as you saw like he said, traditionally, originally, uh the story goes that this was originally a Blackfeet women's game. It was played amongst women when we're teaching children. We don't, you know, we don't pass that information on that way.
17:49 Boys don't mind playing it the whole game. Uh is uh you can't, can never touch the double ball with your hands. Everything must be done with the stick passing, picking it up, throwing, stealing, scoring, all of the above has to be done. With the stick. Self control is always a huge part with these games because a lot of times they would play games rather than go to war,
18:12 like have a huge shinney tournament. Like you said, they could be miles long with tribe against tribe. And the thing was, is somebody on the opposing team whacked you with a stick, you couldn't turn around and whack them back because, you know, it could start a war between your people. So, self control was always a really major part of what they were teaching with them. Focus and of course, endurance and strength. These shinney sticks, they're made out of cedar. Usually young cedar.
18:37 Like when it grows out of the ground, the bottom part of the roots under the ground, it curves like that. So when you go out to gather shinney sticks, you uncover a little bit of the bottom of the root and you cut them down. So they have a curve like this. It's not always cedars. Sometimes they do use, uh, willow as well. Um, but they are really hard sticks. I mean, it's, it's pretty major that. One of the first years my daughter played, she came home with a shiner like you wouldn't
19:02 believe she got nailed right in the face. You know, six year olds with cedar sticks. I don't know. It's a little crazy, but you do hear a lot of things people are, you know, worried about letting their children play these games because they can get a little rough. But strength was part of, you know, growing up Indian you had to be strong. Life was good but life was tough. But, um,
19:25 I, a lot, yeah, these are the shinney, shinny sticks. These are the ones with cedar, they start out with at the bottom with the root. And like you said, uh, hockey comes from this, like, if you've ever seen a game of floor hockey, it's a lot of like, originally there were really not any rules to shinney other than scoring, getting the ball through the goal. I mean, but uh, you know, nobody went out of their way to crack somebody in the head or anything.
19:49 But there really were, you know, no rules. Like I said, they could have 80 against 30 depending on the size of the tribe. It didn't, it was never evenly matched or, you know, and it could go on for hours for a full day. People could play on these three mile fields, you know, to decide something between two tribes and uh,
20:12 But yeah, it's played a lot like field hockey nowadays when we teach, you know, we tell kids no high sticking and whatnot. So you don't get little girls with shiners and, and uh it's, we do play on a lot smaller fields a lot of times when we play, maybe it's, you know, 50 yards with younger kids. Ok. And that's shinney, um, double ball like, oh, I didn't explain. Ok, scoring with shinney is just through the goals.
20:34 You have your two goals as long as it goes through, you know, you get a point for it. Uh double ball, the scoring is a little different the way they set them up. The goalpost on each end would be with two tripods with a Tepee pole lane across the top of them. So the goal is usually probably about 8 ft 9 ft up in the air. And with double ball, when you start, when you score, if it goes over the top of the goal, that's worth one point.
20:57 If you can hang it on the center pole, that's worth two points. If you can hang it up in a tripod, it's worth three points. But what with the double ball? The game doesn't stop. Somebody scores, somebody else just throws the ball back in and the game just keeps rolling as long as, like I said, it's only touched with the sticks. You can't use your feet to step on it or, you know, use your hands.
21:19 And it's, it's a really fun game. Double ball is definitely one of my favorite games. Ok. And as, as well as those, we have, uh, hoop and dart, which is a, a younger child's game. That's the hoop he's holding there. Uh, the hoop we have has got, it's, it's metal on the inside. This one's probably as well and it's just woven and it's just, um, well,
21:42 and maybe you could call like a spider web or maybe more commonly known, like a dream catcher. And, uh, the way it's, it's done is that you said line up your children on either side. And the reason it's done with little kids is it's for, for being able to aim, you know, more self control, of course. And like, uh, the hoop is representative of, say a grouse or, uh, you know, a small rabbit
22:03 and it's rolled pretty well here. Let's see, I'll give you a good roll on that one and the way it scored your dart must stick in there. If it doesn't stick, it doesn't count. If it goes through, it doesn't count. If it sticks and falls out, it doesn't count.
22:18 But, yeah, I almost ran him over there. But,
22:23 yeah. Ok. It was. Oh, yeah. Ok. We have some smaller hoops as well. But let's say, ok, if this was our playing field, we'd have kids on either side. They're not allowed to step the line, you roll it down and, uh, they have to throw it. It can't just be jabbed in there because everyone knows a little rabbit is not gonna stay there and just let you jab it with a stick or a dart for that matter. Yeah. There, there, it is self control again.
22:48 Once again and patience is very important. When we're teaching this game, we tell kids, ok, whoever has the most points. The prize you win is, is you go home and feed your family. That's the winning prize with this one. And uh, ok, what else do we have up here? We did bring a, a stick game. I will show you stick and ring real quick as one of the favorites with little. Well, with anybody,
23:11 depending on the length of the ho the string or the size of your hoop. The game gets harder. That one looks like a tough game if you ask me. And it is all about hand eye coordination, pretty much. And once again, patience and self control. Good job. All right. And it is a tough game. I've been teaching that game and making that game forever and my record is six in a row. So it's, it's a hard game. But when we were teaching at Great Falls recently
23:36 with the guy that was announcing it was teasing, he's like you go back there and see Sarah, she's really good. She can get 100 in a row with her left hand over her right eye and I was back. Oh, no, no. OK. We also have stick game up here as, as well, stick game. Um There's a lot of different stories that uh about how this originated. The one I know comes from the
24:00 Kalispel Indians. They're cousins of ours. They also speak a part of the Salish dialect. They, they all live over towards uh Washington, Idaho now but the story, as we know it goes, there was a young girl who was supposed to marry an older man, you know, they set it up that way. So this girl would be taken care of. This man was already, you know, proven could hunt, provide for his family. So they set their daughter up with him, but she was in love with a young man, of course.
24:25 Right. So they're, they're unhappy with the situation. So the young man and the, and the girl, they run away, they run away. We're in love. We're out of here. You know, they took off, they're gone for a few days and I start realizing, you know, we can't live like this. We need our people, we can't survive without our people. So they decided to go back, you know, because they knew like you have to add your people the way life was, you needed people with you. You had to survive as a group, as a tribe.
24:49 So they go back and they go talk to one of the wise men, maybe a couple of them, you know, and they hold counsel. Well, what are we gonna do about this? These people are in love but she's supposed to marry this man. Her parents want her to marry this man. And what they came up with was this game. It's called stick game. It is a guessing game. It's, these are bones, what they call them originally. They're made out of like the front legs of deer bones, the very bottom down by the hoof.
25:14 And, uh, they represent a male and female. Female is the clear bone. This is the male bone at the stripe. And in the game, it's all a game of guessing. Somebody else on the other team is gonna be hiding them and you want to catch the female. That's what you wanna do. You catch female, you get the bones. If you get the male bone, that's how the opposing side gets sticks. Like if I was to guess him here, I'll try to match him real quick.
25:38 Ok. This is my honey. I'll see if I know him. Huh And I know him, see, that's my man. Ok. But if I would have missed him, I would have had to give up a stick. That's how you score. If you, if you accidentally pick the male bone, you have to give over a stick, the games played to all the sticks are won and that was the deciding factor. He was looking for the female.
26:01 You always want to catch the female bone and that's, that was what they were doing, ok? And whoever had the most sticks won the girl in the end. But that's how stick game originated as far as I know the story. And nowadays it's played, it could be huge. Now they play it at almost every powwow you go to, you'll see stick game playing and they even have tournaments set up, you know, $20,000 grand prize, stick game sets and you play it through team, you know, five people on each team.
26:25 It's fun to watch. You get people that have played against each other for decades. You know, two old men that have sat across the side from each other for decades and just keep faking each other out all the time. They think they know some way, you know, it's a lot of fun. If you're ever there, go, you know, check it out, go. You, you can always bet there's always betting going on.
26:46 Pardon me? Oh, the, the striped bone is the male and the clear bone is the female. Um, we might even, but I don't, do you think we have enough time to play a short game maybe? Yeah. Would you guys like to try to play a short game? We split everybody up real quick or a few of you? If you wanna try? It's, it's a fun game. No. Yeah. No. Sure. Yeah. All right. Well, let's try it out.
27:11 How about if we turn some of these chairs this way? This will be our center of our field and let's face each other coming in this way and we'll play real quick. Ok. I'll give you a really fast,
27:23 really fast run down on rules and I'll explain more as we go if we have any questions.
27:37 Ok. And as well there, as well as it goes along with this game. A lot of times they have people with hand drums and they have their own stick game songs. So, while they're hiding the bones, they got their people singing their good luck songs. You know, they're good, they're good hiding songs.
27:54 It'll be fun. Trust me, it'll be fun.
28:07 uh,
28:12 even if it isn't equal, like I said, sometimes it's tribe against tribe you never know, could be outnumbered.
28:22 OK, real fast on this with the ball. OK? The first, the first stick they go for is the kick stick. This is the advantage stick basically. OK? You want the advantage, you wanna have one extra stick. It's the first stick that you play for, ok? And you get, they get a set of bones, you decide, you decide who's gonna point, then you're gonna decide who gets to guess first on him, he's gonna be hiding
28:46 or under your shirt wherever you wanna hide him at. So they can't be seen.
28:54 Covered.
28:57 The pointer is like the captain of the team. They're always in control of who's gonna point. They can pick somebody else to point and it can be really specific like they say, all right, I'm gonna have my friend Joe point but he's only gonna point for Ed and I'm gonna point for Sally or you know. Right. OK. So, and the first thing they're playing for the kick stick.
29:19 OK. So you wanna try to get the female bone, you can match him if you like I did, I brought my [inaudible] out. Now I tell you're ready to make sure you, they know you have to say (hugh) that way. That's a legal point, right? Because when you're playing the game, you'll see people out there doing this, doing this just trying to fake out you, you show you what, what you got, you know, but the thing is you have to say who make it legal? Anybody wanna hide?
29:43 Ok, you're gonna be point her on the side and you can be pointer on this side. Are you gonna point on the side? Ok. You a point. Ok. Points just a regular left, right? OK. This is outside like if two, like if you two both had bones, I know if this, if someone pointed you this way, that would mean your two outside hands would be the open, that's what they're going for. This is down the middle. That would mean your two inside hands.
30:06 That's if both bones are on one side right now, we're just on either side like this or like that. Say (hugh) at the moment of calling, when you say (hugh) that makes sure that they know that that's an actual call. Sometimes you're trying to fake them out to get them to show
30:26 Unless you say (hugh) and then they know for sure that that's the call. Never show until you hear him say (hugh) and you're looking for the female, you want the female OK, you can point him first. He's hiding, decide which way it goes and you both can turn to for the, the stick
30:44 You can match him if you want, if you want to open like that match and say (hugh) Open them up. If they, they're laying the same way as yours. When you first start, you're gonna, you're gonna try to get the bones,
30:59 you want, you want, you wanna take his bones. So just open up and say (hugh) see if they're on the same side and you get them, you have to open it's a miss so now he's got to try to match you.
31:13 Yeah. And if he, and if he matches you, then he gets the stick. But if he misses, then you get another chance to get the stick the advantage stick and in order for her to open up another, you have to say (hugh)
31:27 Ohh miss
31:33 Another chance. Three times Three times. Oh, just straight across
31:40 (hugh) Oh she got it. (cheering) And the game starts. She gets the bones she get both sets of the bones
31:51 Can everyone hear mepretty good without this.
31:57 You decide who else you want to hide the bones. Does it work across? Um, actually now that they're hiding the bones
32:09 now that they're hiding the bones, one of us over here is gonna be picking to try and get the bones back because we, so that's where you push, pick like both outsides or both insides or we wanna, we wanna get both sets of bones back so we can start winning some of the sticks Because right now. They can start winning ours and we don't want them to have, how can we win yours if you don't have these things, Anytime some one picks the male bone
32:33 Oh if you miss we get a stick
32:38 we wait until they hide and then in order to the bones back yet they have to catch the female, they catch the female, they have to give up the bones
32:54 down the middle since two of them would be (hugh) on the outside
33:03 outside. I'll call one. Okay
33:08 I'll do first (hugh) Oh, missed one. That's one bone He got the male on that one. So he would have to give up a stick on this side. It was easy. You hide your bones
33:22 Now it's her turn. You can go ahead and call it.
33:26 Do I have to say (hugh) yes, you do. I'm not gonna open my hand if you don't.
33:36 (hugh) oh and you got her. So she gives up her bones. No, you keep yours because he missed you. But she's got to give up hers and she's still going, they still have opportunity to win sticks as long as she's got bones. When do we get to guess? When they get both the bones back over here.
33:56 Does it matter if I say (hugh) again Make sure you hold them out okay Is that it? Oh just (hugh) Oh he missed her again. You give up another stick no, you keep the bones. Give up another stick. Come on. Let's hear it for our team (cheering) Ok. Like some powwows they would have singers on their side,
34:18 hand drum singers while they're hiding there singing up a storm on that side. So exciting.
34:26 There's people making bets at all times too. They're betting on one call. Maybe they stand there, I got five bucks on this next call. Anybody gonna match me on it, you know.
34:36 and it's still their turn? Yup, they're still trying to get her bones. (hugh) Oh, ok.
34:45 All right. Now it's this turn's, this teams turn to make some sticks. So, they [inaudible] Whose side are you on? I wanted to come over.
34:53 (laughing)
34:55 Ok. So why don't you, you do the "hughing" this time
35:00 they have them over there? You're telling me to get the female, You guys can decide who's gonna point out of them.
35:07 Oh, you two have it.
35:10 (hugh) oh, got one. Yep found the female. So pass those bones over.
35:18 Pardon me? Why did he open? He pointed at him. He opened both his hands because he, he pointed that direction for his left hand, and he caught it. Oh I see. But there's still one more to catch. Still got to be able to catch the other one. So we didn't get a stick for that. Nope. Because you only point in one at a time so you have to point at him. That was good. Do it again.
35:40 They can either match or just individually. Yeah you can either match them or you can point at them. [inaudible] Do you want to point or... Well you only have one set now don't you? Yeah we got one set.
35:56 You can either turn them and match him or you can have somebody call.
36:02 You want to match? Why don't you call? I can match him? No you keep yours hidden until they call. But can I call a match? Yes. How do I do that? You just call the point. (gestures with finger left and right) I want to match you guys.
36:19 Well you only got one guy left. Well I want to match the two of them. Oh, you're gonna, well, you need the bones to be able to match him but he has, well, if you're ok. Well, you're the pointer, the captain. You decide who gets the bones and has them. If you want to match him, you have to have the bones in your hands. So you have a point,
36:39 (hugh) Then I turn them up? Right? Yeah. Yay (cheering) Wooo Good call, good point.
36:51 Ok. So now's your chance to win sticks again. If these guys get a male bone then you guys win the sticks on there and one of you, one of them holds them out. Do you want to call and you want to call? Ok. Do they do the same time? One at a time You decide I indicate. that's down the middle. That's both their inside hands. Alright.
37:13 (hugh) Down the middle. Show your left hand and your hand
37:18 Got one, missed one So you hand over your bones, sir and we hand over a stick on this side.
37:26 Yeah, These guys are getting their butt kicked.
37:30 So why does he get bones? Because he caught him. He did catch the female. So they get the bones over But they have no, but they don't get a chance to make sticks till they get both bones on their side.
37:40 You still have them? She still has them. (hugh) Oh missed again (cheering) Oh, I'm 18 [inaudible]
37:54 Well, they're out, aren't they?
37:56 We, we, we still play for those ones as well. You know, once you get all, you gotta get all of yours too. Oh my goodness We have time to play that long We'll play a few, little bit more.
38:09 (hugh) Ohh caught him. Alright give your bones over. Oh,
38:17 We need a drummer over on our side. Okay now is your chance and make back some sticks. This will be our last side.
38:28 Okay. You go Yeah you go. You just take one person, Ok You (hugh)
38:37 Ooo so that's a stick on this side. Pass it over. Finally guys.
38:46 So it's your turn now to call Boy if I had money on you guys, I'd be sweating.
38:53 (hugh) oh yeah, Good job. That's one set. We still got 10. We don't get a stick? No you still gotta catch him on this one.
39:07 Did he still call? Yeah, you still gotta catch him. Ok.
39:15 (Hugh) which is Is that left or right?
39:22 You got this straight?
39:25 He got your right. So you guys get another stick Hey alright coming back
39:32 Let's hear the home run song
39:35 Do we still have any? Yeah
39:38 So Yeah you still got to catch him. He's still going.
39:44 (hugh) (Cheering) You're good ladies.
39:54 Now we can start getting sticks. If you Yeah now you can start getting sticks,
40:00 we got about two more minutes to play the game. Then we gotta do some Q&A but
40:07 they have to call, they have to call Yeah they're picking you guys again. This is your chance to win sticks (hugh)
40:14 Oh he got him So you got to give those bones back over I got these.
40:22 They still got to point at you
40:27 (hugh) Oh it's you doing it?
40:34 (cheering)
40:38 You guys wanna try to get a couple more sticks? Still got about a minute.
40:46 Okay you decide who's pointing and who's hiding? So, thank you guys for coming and listening and talking to us today We ask that you help in revitalization of Native games You left hand. Yay (cheering)
41:06 Oh she missed them both
41:10 Oh I though she had a match, I'm sorry, I thought that was good because they
41:15 I thought you said you got both the stripes? Yeah we got both the stripes. Oh so no the sticks go this way and the bones stay on this side.
41:24 So the bones stay on this side.
41:28 If you were playing with the hardcores if you throw over your bones whether you're supposed to or not you don't get them back. Well, so they'd be ours right Right. If they would've given them up like that you guys would've kept them. Whether it was alright or not. So now it's Ok? One last time and we'll wrap it up Who wants to do it? (hugh) Ah. Missed one. Are you guessing him at the same time? because you can get them both at the same time. Do what you can,
41:53 you can guess them both at the same time, but he's still up and running One more chance. So was that at the same time? (hugh) Oh (cheering) Okay that was a quick run down of stick game. Ok. Thank you, You're welcome. That was fun Ladies and gentlemen, let's give him a big hand. Wasn't that fun?
42:21 We'll be glad to take some questions now, questions about the traditional games from any of our presenters. So if you would raise your hand and we'll come around with a microphone so you can ask your questions.
42:37 That's great.
42:40 All right. Also to let you know the traditional games [audio cuts out] out on the other side of the BLM tent in the grass today. So be sure you go out and check in with them and you'll get to play some of these wonderful traditional games as well. Was there a question back here? Right here. Is there a kind of kids game?
43:02 Is there a kids game? We have all kinds of kids games? Did you just get here? Yeah, you come on over to where we're at and we'll, we'll play some games with you. Ok. For a real quick kids game. There's one that's called the Run and Scream game. It's about endurance and that's, the game is exactly what it sounds like. You get a bunch of kids out there, you tell them scream and start running
43:27 and whoever can scream and run for the, at the same time for the longest distance. That's who wins that round. It's about endurance. Yeah. [inaudible]
43:39 Yeah. Yeah, we did. As a matter of fact, this year at Great Falls, we had about a week long traditional games and it was an invite of anyone international is, it's international traditional games. We had people out of Canada people coming from all over for horse games as well as just our field games. And it was, yeah, we do have inter tribal games with each other. It's fun. [inaudible]
44:02 Uh, the society is about, is about three years old now, four years old, 25 years old. Ok. That's my bad to, I've been involved for about two years. If my mom was here, she'd smack me [inaudible] When we first started with the East [inaudible] Montana.
44:25 Now we're headquartered out of Great Falls. But every tribe has their own traditional games society at our, at home on the flat at Salish Kootenai. Um, we've been at it for about 15 years but they came into the society in the last five years.
44:45 And so all of our students that we had as kids are all starting to teach now. So that's how good it is. And the International Games at Great Falls were just last month and they were awesome.
45:03 How many different tribes do you know how many participated?
45:08 Yeah, we all the, all the reservations are represented out of Montana. For sure. I know, spoke to somebody from Wyoming and a few people out of Canada, out of Alberta and whatnot.
45:22 It was an amazing gathering. It was on television. It was really fantastic. Yeah, the horse, the horse, the horse games were broadcasted nationally. As a matter of fact, traditional horse games. I missed them. I was working. I was teaching games. Do we have any more questions for our presenters of the traditional tribal games? Yes, ma'am.
45:47 Which tribes are you three representing? Or four?
45:51 Yeah, I, we're all Salish, Bitterroot Salish. We're all from here.
45:59 Let's give them all a big hand. Thank you very much. It was our pleasure having you here to talk about traditional games. Please come back and join.