Handgame, also known as stickgame, is a
Native American guessing game
A guess (or an act of guessing) is a swift conclusion drawn from data directly at hand, and held as probable or tentative, while the person making the guess (the guesser) admittedly lacks material for a greater degree of certainty. A guess is als ...
, in which marked "bones" are concealed in the hands of one team while another team guesses their location.
Gameplay
Any number of people can play the Hand Game, but each team can (the "hiding" team and the "guessing" team) must have one pointer on each side. The Hand Game is played with two pairs of 'bones', each pair consisting of one plain and one striped bone. ten sticks are used as counters with some variations using additional count sticks such as extra stick or "kick Stick" won by the starting team. The "raw" or "uncooked" counting sticks will be divided evenly between both opposing teams.
Different rules such as which bone will be guessed, the plain or striped bone, is determined by the traditional format of the tribe or region - the plain bone or the striped bone. California, Oklahoma, and Dakota Indians generally call for the striped bone, where as most other tribes prefer to guess for the plain bone.
The two teams, one "hiding" and one "guessing," sit opposite one another; two members of the "hiding" team take a pair of bones and hide them, one in each hand, while the team sings, and uses traditional instruments (drums, sticks, rattles, clappers), and attempts to distract the "guessing" team. The leader or 'Captain' of the "guessing" team, or a team member selected by the Captain, then must guess the pattern of the hidden bones. Since each hider holds one plain and one striped bone in each hand, there are initially four possibilities: both to the left, both to the right, both inside, or both outside. A gesture with a stick or hand generally accompanies each call the signs for these are to the left, which is to both hiders left. to the right, which is to both hiders right. In the middle with is in between the assigned hiders. Or outside with is on the outside of the hiders. For each hider mis-guessed, the calling team must turn over one stick to the hiders. If a hider is guessed he must surrender the guessed bones to the calling side. The side continues hiding and singing until both pairs of bones have been guessed and surrendered. Then the teams reverse roles, and the game continues in this manner until one team holds all the sticks.
How the betting is factored in is tribes will play against one another for material items such as beaded material, fabrics, flour, but most of the time money is wagered on the handgames. How that works is if someone challenges another person for $50 dollars the other person would cover that bet and the winner would receive $100 total. his/her 50, and the challengers 50. The handgames go way back to the olden days, in fact they would play to settle disagreements amongst one another. And they would also play for items like bullets and clothing and hides.
History
![Stick game set Travellers Rest Montana 2012](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/Stick_game_set_Travellers_Rest_Montana_2012.JPG)
Handgame predates recorded history. The oral tradition tells us that people originally learned Handgame from the animals. Historical documentation states that games were once played for land use and female companionship, and later on for horses and cattle. Today, handgame is played during traditional gatherings,
powwow
A powwow (also pow wow or pow-wow) is a gathering with dances held by many Native American and First Nations communities. Powwows today allow Indigenous people to socialize, dance, sing, and honor their cultures. Powwows may be private or pu ...
s, tribal celebrations, and more recently in tournaments hosted by individual tribes or Indian organizations. More recent versions of handgame played by tribes in the Northwest added an extra stick, or "kickstick"; this variation was promulgated by the Paiute
medicine man
A medicine man or medicine woman is a traditional healer and spiritual leader who serves a community of Indigenous people of the Americas. Individual cultures have their own names, in their respective languages, for spiritual healers and ceremo ...
Wovoka
Wovoka (c. 1856 - September 20, 1932), also known as Jack Wilson, was the Paiute religious leader who founded a second episode of the Ghost Dance movement. Wovoka means "cutter" or "wood cutter" in the Northern Paiute language.
Biography
Wovok ...
when he traveled to the Northwest to teach the
Ghost Dance
The Ghost Dance ( Caddo: Nanissáanah, also called the Ghost Dance of 1890) was a ceremony incorporated into numerous Native American belief systems. According to the teachings of the Northern Paiute spiritual leader Wovoka (renamed Jack Wilso ...
. Handgame bones and counting sticks have been identified in ancient anthropological digs.
Handgame continues to spread amongst Native American tribes; the
Indian Gaming Regulatory Act
The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (, ''et seq.'') is a 1988 United States federal law that establishes the jurisdictional framework that governs Indian gaming. There was no federal gaming structure before this act. The stated purposes of the act ...
classified it as
Class I gaming, leaving its regulation to individual tribes.
In 2010,
Tulalip
The Tulalip Tribes of Washington (, lut, dxʷlilap), formerly known as the Tulalip Tribes of the Tulalip Reservation, is a federally recognized tribe of Duwamish, Snohomish, Snoqualmie, Skagit, Suiattle, Samish, and Stillaguamish people. The ...
's Battle of Nations Stick Game Tournament, the largest handgame tournament to date in the US, attracted 177 teams competing for a $US 30,000 first prize.
Singer Judy Trejo has recorded a CD, ''Stick Game Songs of the Paiute,'' on
Canyon Records
Canyon Records of Phoenix, Arizona is a record label that has produced and distributed Native American music for 56 years.
History
Canyon was founded in 1951 by Ray and Mary Boley, who had opened the first recording studio in Phoenix, Arizona ...
.
See also
*
Slahal
Slahal (or Lahal) is a gambling game of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, also known as stickgame, bonegame, bloodless war game, handgame, or a name specific to each language.Hill-tout, Charles. "Salish People: Volume II: th ...
, stickgame as played
Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast
The Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast are composed of many nations and tribal affiliations, each with distinctive cultural and political identities. They share certain beliefs, traditions and prac ...
*
Up Jenkins
Up Jenkins, also known by the shortened name Jenkins, is a party game in which players conceal a coin (or ring, button, etc.) in their palm as they slap it on a table with their bare hands. The goal of the game is for the players on the team witho ...
, a British game played with a coin
References
{{Reflist
*
Stewart Culin
Stewart Culin (July 13, 1858 – April 8, 1929) was an American ethnographer and author interested in games, art and dress. Culin played a major role in the development of ethnography, first concentrating his efforts on studying the Asian-Ameri ...
, ''Games of the North American Indian''. 1907; reprint, New York: Dover Publications, 1975.
*
Frances Densmore
Frances Theresa Densmore (May 21, 1867 – June 5, 1957) was an American anthropologist and ethnographer born in Red Wing, Minnesota. Densmore is known for her studies of Native American music and culture, and in modern terms, she may ...
, ''Music of the
Teton Sioux''.
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...
Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 61. Washington, D.C.: 1918.
* "Numaga Days celebrates games." Geralda Miller, ''
Reno
Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is the c ...
Gazette-Journal''. September 2, 2004.
* Bill Rathbun, "Whatever Happened to Professor Coyote? A journey to the Heart of the Handgame", 2000, Yerba Buena Press, Berkeley.
* Bill Rathbun, "Handgame!", 1992, 1994; Yerba Buena Press, Berkeley
External links
Handgame instructions from the University of Idaho
Gambling games
Guessing games
Native American sports and games