Indian Games | Page 5

298; Perrot p. 44.]
The game was played not only by the Indians of our Coast, but Powers
[Footnote: Contributions to North American Ethnology, Vol. III, p. 151.
Tribes of California by Stephen Powers; The same game is described
among the Meewocs in The Native Races of the Pacific States by H. H.
Bancroft, Vol. I, p. 393.] found it also among the Californian Indians.
He describes a game of tennis played by the Pomo Indians in Russian
River Valley, of which he had heard nothing among the northern tribes.
"A ball is rounded out of an oak knot as large as those used by school
boys, and it is propelled by a racket which is constructed of a long

slender stick, bent double and bound together, leaving a circular hoop
at the extremity, across which is woven a coarse meshwork of strings.
Such an implement is not strong enough for batting the ball, neither do
they bat it, but simply shove or thrust it along the ground."
Paul Kane [Footnote: Wanderings of an Artist among the Indians of
North America by Paul Kane, p. 190; H. H. Bancroft's Native Races,
Vol. I, p. 244.] describes a game played among the Chinooks. He says
"They also take great delight in a game with a ball which is played by
them in the same manner as the Cree, Chippewa and Sioux Indians.
Two poles are erected about a mile apart, and the company is divided
into two bands armed with sticks, having a small ring or hoop at the
end with which the ball is picked up and thrown to a great distance,
each party striving to get the ball past their own goal. They are
sometimes a hundred on a side, and their play is kept up with great
noise and excitement. At this play they bet heavily as it is generally
played between tribes or villages."
Domenech [Footnote: Seven Years' Residence in the Great Deserts of
North America by the Abbe Em. Domenech, Vol. II, pp. 192, 193.]
writing about the Indians of the interior, calls the game "cricket," and
says the players were costumed as follows: "Short drawers, or rather a
belt, the body being first daubed over with a layer of bright colors;
from the belt (which is short enough to leave the thighs free) hangs a
long tail, tied up at the extremity with long horse hair; round their
necks is a necklace, to which is attached a floating mane, dyed red, as is
the tail, and falling in the way of a dress fringe over the chest and
shoulders. In the northwest, in the costume indispensable to the players,
feathers are sometimes substituted for horse hair." He adds "that some
tribes play with two sticks" and that it is played in "winter on the ice."
"The ball is made of wood or brick covered with kid-skin leather,
sometimes of leather curiously interwoven." Schoolcraft describes the
game as played in the winter on the ice. [Footnote: Schoolcraft's North
American Indians, Vol. II, p. 78. See also Ball-play among the Dicotis,
in Philander Prescott's paper, Ibid, Vol. IV, p. 64.]
It will be observed that the widest difference prevails in the estimate of

the distance apart at which the goals are set. Henry, in his account of
the game at Michilimackinac says "they are at a considerable distance
from each other, as a mile or more." Charlevoix places the goals in a
game with eighty players at "half a league apart" meaning probably half
a mile. LaHontan estimates the distance between the goals at "five or
six hundred paces." Adair, [Footnote: Henry, p. 78 Chulevoix Vol. III,
p. 319, Kane's Wanderings, p. 189, LaHontan, Vol. II, p. 113; Adair, p.
400.] who is an intelligent writer, and who was thoroughly conversant
with the habits and customs of the Cherokees, Choctaws, and
Chicasaws estimates the length of the field at "five hundred yards,"
while Romans [Footnote: A concise Natural History of East and West
Florida, by Capt Bernard Romans New York, 1770, p. 79.] in
describing the goals uses this phrase "they fix two poles across each
other at about a hundred and fifty feet apart." Bossu [Footnote: Vol. I, p.
104 Similarly, Pickett (History of Alabama, Vol. I, p. 92) describes a
game among the Creeks in which there was but one goal consisting of
two poles erected in the centre of the field between which the ball must
pass to count one. He cites "Butram," and the "Narrative of a Mission
to the Creek Nation by Col. Mammus Willet," is his authorities neither
of them sustains him on this point.] speaks as if in the game which he
saw played there was but a single goal. He says "They agree upon a
mark or aim about sixty yards