Traditional pastimes for Native American children included athletic contests, imaginative games and activities that mimicked adult life.

The details of the games varied depending on the tribe and the natural materials available to children in the forests, deserts, oceans or prairies that surrounded them. The games here are adapted from a few of the pastimes recorded between 1800 and about 1940. Traditional games are still an important part in tribal life with hand games and stick ball games being among the most popular.

Simple Hand Game

This game has been played for several centuries by many North American tribes. A very complicated form of this game is played today by Kiowa hand-game teams.

Players

Four to 20 players and one judge

Materials

• Two sets of five tally sticks (you can use sticks, craft sticks, toothpicks, or other small items)
• Counter: A bead, pebble, or decorated bone, about 2” long and ½ inch in diameter. It will need to fit in the palm of your hand.

Set Up

Divide into two teams. Sit on the floor with the teams facing each other across an open space. You might place a blanket on the floor and have the teams sit along opposite edges of the blanket. Give each team a pile of five tally sticks.

Playing the Game

Draw lots to see which team starts out with the bead. Players on the bead-holding team all put their hands behind their backs so that the judge can put the bead in someone’s hand without it being seen.

The players on the bead team all hold out their closed fists, shake their fists, cross their arms back and forth, and touch palms with their neighbors. The motion and activity will disguise action of the players handing the bead to each other along the line of players.

The guessing team claps to set a rhythm for the hand motions. Native Americans might have drummed to set a beat, but clapping will work well. When someone on the guessing team thinks they know where the bead is, they point at the player and all hand motion and clapping stops as the player immediately opens his hands.

If the player is not holding the bead, the judge gives the bead team a tally stick from the guessing team’s pile, and the game begins again.

If the player is holding the bead, the bead team gives a tally stick to the guessing team, and also gives them the bead. The judge gives the bead to the new team, in the same way as before.

Play resumes with the opposite team being the guessers.

Winning the Game

The game stops when one team wins all 10 tally sticks, or when an agreed upon number of guesses has been completed. Among Native Americans the game continued until one of the sides won 30 tally sticks! Played in this way the game took hours to finish.

Crab Race

Native American children living in the Northwest Coast area, (Washington, British Columbia, Canada and along the coast of Alaska) enjoy playing on the beaches and are familiar with all the animals living on the shore. In playing this game the children are copying the comical sideways scuttle of the crab.

Players

Two to 10, depending on space

Setup

Draw a start line and a turning line on the ground or floor. You might use pieces of string if you are inside. The lines should be 10 to 20 feet apart, depending on the age of the players.

Playing the Game

Line up along the start line on all fours. Face your left side toward the turn line. Race sideways (like a crab) to the turn line, stop, then go back to the start line. Racers should not turn around at the finish line; they will scuttle toward their left on their way to the turn line, and to their right on the way back. First one back to the start line wins.

Take it Outside!

Obstacle Race

Obstacle races were a favorite with Native American boys who used the natural features around them such as rivers, ravines, logs and hills, to race through, over and around to a finishing point.

Players

Two to 10 players, depending on space.

One player should serve as timekeeper

Materials

• Paper bags
• Rope or garden lime
• Paper towel rolls
• Grownups
• Watch with a second hand

Set Up

Since you will be racing in a back yard or park, you will need to create your own interesting obstacles. These can be made by using white rope, yarn or garden lime to outline “rivers,” arranging bags or wastebaskets as trees, using paper towel rolls as “logs” and grownups or older friends as “mountains.”

To make your forest of trees you can use several tall paper bags. Put a shovel full of dirt on the bottom of each bag to weigh it down. Arrange the bags so that the runners will have to dodge and twist to get down the path and through the “forest.”

Playing the Game

All the runners should agree in advance what they will have to do to get past each obstacle. For instance you may agree that you want to jump over the “logs,” dodge through the “trees” lie down and wiggle (swim) through the rivers, and tunnel through the “mountain”.

Winning the Game

Native American children could simply take off and run across country. There was plenty of space for a group of children to jump across streams and over logs at the same time. In a back yard it will be best run the obstacle course one at a time. The winner is the person that can finish the course in the shortest time.

Make it Yourself!

Ring and Pin Game

Pin and target games were played in nearly all American Indian cultures. In this game a cord is tied between a small target and the back end of a sharpened stick. The target is then flipped up into the air and the player tries to catch the target with the tip of the stick.

The targets were made from many different materials such as vertebrae or toe bones, dried squash, or bundles of twigs. The pins were made out of bones, wood or, during the historic period, out of wire. This was a good game to play on long winter evenings and also a good way to teach hand eye coordination.

Materials

Pencils, length of dowel, or a twig about 6” long
String or leather strip about 12” long
Eight or more large plastic beads (pony beads)

Directions:

1. Make a blunt point on the stick. You can use a pencil sharpener to make a point.
2. Cut a length of string about twice as long as the stick.
3. Tie the string to the non-sharpened end of the stick. You can tape over the string to
4. help hold it in place.
5. String at least 10 beads on the string, then tie the string to form a loop.
6. Decorate the stick anyway you like.

Playing the Game

Sit far enough apart that you will not poke the other players with your stick.

Toss the loop up in the air and try to catch it with the stick.
The first player to catch the loop 4 times is the winner!