4 Games of the Northwest and Far North

When sports migrate from place to place, sometimes they have to be adapted to the environment. This was the case with lacrosse. The Inuit in Alaska played a variation of the game, with most of the same rules. However, wood was scarce. Instead of using netted wooden rackets, they played with netted baskets made from the sinew and bone of animals.

Several Inuit games depended on the materials they had on hand. One example is the blanket toss. This was a popular game, usually played at festivals. Seals or walrus hides would be stitched together to form the blanket. Only these materials had the strength needed for the game.

To play, a large group of people would grasp the blanket at all the edges, stretching it tight. Then, someone would climb onto the tight blanket. Once someone was in the center, the people at the edges would toss her into the air. The blanket behaved much like a modern trampoline. In some games, the object was to jump the highest. In others, people would do flips and somersaults before they landed. People took turns in the center while the others held the edges.

The Inuit people enjoyed several other jumping games. During seal hunts, seals would be tied together with an avatuk. This was a float made of sealskin, with rope on either end. It kept the dead seals from floating away. When the avatuks weren’t in use, children used them to play illupik, a type of jump rope. Other games had players jumping as far as they could while holding their toes.

One game, called aratsiaq, combined jumping with aim. Players had to leap and kick a target hanging from a tree. Then they had to land on the foot that made the kick. After each player had a chance to kick it, the target would be raised. Players dropped out after they missed. In some games, players had to kick the target with both feet!

A game called spear the whale also involved a target hanging from a tree. In this case, the target was a diamond-shaped piece of bone with a circular hole in it. This was the “whale.” It hung waist-high. Lines were drawn behind and in front of it, which the two players could not cross. The players stood on opposite sides of the “whale” and tried to spear the hole with 20-inch-long sticks. As they did this, they tried to prevent their opponent from doing the same. A block of wood usually dangled below the target, steadying it.

Another popular sport was wrestling. The Inuit had several versions. One type, called leg-twist wrestling, began with opponents lying on their sides facing each other. They would put their hands behind their knees and wrap their upper leg around their opponent’s. Then, using only their legs, they would try to flip each other over. In another wrestling game, the opponents stood with their feet flat on the ground. The object of this game was to lift the other person. Games of tug-of-war were also popular.

An Inuit from northern Canada competes in the “toe jump,” which is like the broad jump except that the athlete must hold his toes when making his leap.

The object of this Inuit game, the “seal kick,” is to touch the wooden seal with the feet. The competitor’s legs are tied to his neck and the seal is raised after each round.

Another popular game in the Northwest was shuttlecock. The shuttlecock was a branch or piece of twig with feathers stuck into it. The game went by many names. The Kwakiutl people of British Columbia called it quumla.

Boys and girls both played quumla, although in the Skokomish tribe, girls tended to prefer it. Each player would have a wooden paddle, similar to a Ping-Pong paddle. The paddles were about a foot long and made out of thin boards. The children would stand in a circle. Using her paddle, the first player would bat the shuttlecock to her right. The next player had to hit it, keeping it moving around the circle. The object was to keep the shuttlecock in the air for the longest time.

When a player let the shuttlecock hit the ground, she dropped out of the circle. The game would continue in this manner until another player let it drop. The circle would get smaller and smaller until there were just two players left. After that, the first one to miss ended the game.

Like the people of other regions, northern tribes played a version of the hoop and pole game. The Dakota people used a hoop a foot wide netted with leather thongs. The straps divided the hoop much like a modern dartboard. Players would get different amounts of points, depending on where their dart landed.

Children would form two teams. One team would roll the hoop, and the other would throw darts at it. When a player hit the heart, or center, of the hoop, he picked it up. Then, he would chase the other team. As they ran, he would swat them with the hoop. Players kept blankets nearby so they could wrap them over their backs and cushion the blows a little. After this, the next team threw the hoop, shouting “Ho! Here is a buffalo returning to you!”

The hand game was a popular game played by the Chinook and Clatsop tribes in Oregon. Almost every tribe played some form of this game. It’s a simple game, so the fact that it traveled so far isn’t too surprising. The game was a guessing game for two players. One would take a small stone and hide it in his hand. He would switch it from hand to hand, humming a simple tune. Then, the switching would end. The other player would bet that he knew which hand held the stone. Once the bet was made, he would guess. Games would go back and forth between hider and guesser.

Guessing games took other forms as well. People would put a variety of small wooden disks in two bags. Among the disks in one bag was a black disk; the other bag included a white disk. Players would choose black or white and then pick a bag. Also, sticks with unique designs would be placed in bundles of regular sticks. Players guessed which bundle held the right stick. These guessing games were usually played while singing a song of some sort. This helped to pass the time and increase the suspense while a player decided on his answer. §

Cat’s cradle, still played today, was highly popular with the Hopi, Zuñi, and Navajo peoples of the American Southwest.