Boys and Girls Clubs leaders come together to learn Indian games

This weekend's lesson focused on the recovered games of the Plains Indians. The games themselves were taught to the visiting Boys and Girls Clubs representatives on Friday. Saturday was all about learning how to make the equipment for the games.

"'Cause you can't buy anything (for traditional games) at Wal-Mart," joked DeAnna Leader of the International Traditional Games Society.

Robert McCaskill, 28, of Farmington, N.M., spent part of Saturday sewing buffalo hair inside buckskin to make a doubleball, used for a game of the same name.

"My sewing skills are — let's just say I'm going to finish," he said, after working for more than an hour on the doubleball — a piece of hide with a ball stuffed with the buffalo hair and sand on each end.

McCaskill said he's anxious to take the nine action games and four intuitive games back to Farmington to teach the kids at the Boys and Girls Club there.

He said some of the kids he teaches participate in physical activities and some choose not to, but he thinks the traditional games may get more interest.

"All kids love new things," he said.

The traditional-game workshop was put on by the International Traditional Games Society. The three-day event was made possible by the federal Office of Justice Programs Native American Continuation Grant and a grant from Indian Health Services, according to JoAnn Maxwell, executive director of the Boys & Girls Clubs of North Central Montana, which hosted the workshop.

The event is tied to an IHS effort dubbed TRAIL, or Together Raising Awareness for Indian Life, which promotes a healthy and physical lifestyle for children as a way to combat Type II diabetes, Maxwell said.

Several students stayed active Saturday by running around the gym playing doubleball, which is a lot like lacrosse without baskets on the end of the sticks.

"It's just hard to aim with (the stick)," said Kendra Fisher, 15. Fisher and five of her Great Falls High classmates attended the workshop so they could become certified to teach traditional games to Longfellow Elementary students. The six students are part of UNITY — United Nation Indian Tribal Youth.

Fisher said she enjoyed the games, though she had played many before, and thought the younger students would enjoy them as well.

As she spoke, she wove sinew for a hoop game.

Victor Sharp, who is originally from Browning but now lives in Great Falls, was one of the instructors on to make the hoop, used for the Salish Hoop and Arrow game.

Sharp showed how a willow branch is shaved of its bark and formed into a 10-inch circle, which is then wrapped with deer hide. Inside the circle, sinew is woven into a pattern, similar to a dream-catcher but with more knots at the intersections for added strength.

At the center of the sinew spider web is a circle.

The game is played by rolling the hoop through a group of players, who then attempt to toss pointed sticks through the circle in the sinew.

"There was quite a few that scored points on these," he said.

The games originally each served a purpose, whether it be honing spear-throwing or rock-throwing skills, or simply getting two kids who were fighting to giggle and work together, Leader said.

The latter is the objective of the tie-up game, where intersecting loops of string are placed on the wrists of two players and they must work together to untie themselves.

"They can go for hours and still be tied up," Leader said.