Choctaw+Stickball

American Indian 210 Jeff Visser ** __ Choctaw Indian Stickball __ ** In 1636 Jesuit Missionary Jean De Brebeuf was the first to document Native American Stickball. Stickball is a Native American sport that was played across North America by the natives for hundreds of years. The Choctaw Indians were the most famous stickball players and still play it today. It is what modern day La Crosse came from and many of the rules and equipment used looks very much the same as it did hundreds of years ago. Stickball was a very socially and ceremonially important; it had many rituals which needed to be followed by anyone wanting to play. Many religious ceremonies were performed which could be very elaborate or painful. Stickball was usually played in a dried up river bed, there was no set size and fields went anywhere from 100-500 yards. Teams varied from 9 players all the way up to a couple hundred. Sticks or // kabocca // were 2-2.5 feet long and were commonly made out of hickory or pecan wood, many times expert stick makers were sought out. They were looped at the end then were looped together with deer skin, squirrel skin, or basket making material. Many things were then added to the sticks such as feathers because they believed this would make them faster and more accurate, styles varied between tribes. The ball or // towa //was made of deerskin and stuffed with deer or rabbit fur. One of the last things done before the game started is the team who didn’t bring the ball had to inspect it and approve it before the game could start. The goal was usually a V shape three feet apart at the bottom with a cross bar 20 feet up. Sometimes to settle disputes in the tribe between groups stickball was played. Many considered stickball good practice for war so every male was required to play; it was even called the little brother of war. There were many rituals involved before the game to keep the player focused. Players were not allowed to eat rabbit before a game because it would make them confused and frightened like a rabbit, no frog because frogs bones are broken easily, no sucker fish because that would make you sluggish. Also men were not allowed to touch a woman a week before the game because they thought it would make them sluggish. There were some more positive rituals such as a man with a pregnant wife couldn’t play because he needed his strength to raise a child. Leading up to the game are some of the more serious rituals such as they had to fast from the supper the night before until after the game. Once it becomes dark the night before the match a dance is performed but, right before the dance the location of the playing field is announced to protect themselves from magical sabotage from the opponents. Women will dance on stones to weaken opposing players while men call upon spirits to give them strength. Men will stay up very late and get up very early going down to the river to purify themselves with priests. In the morning teams would take a long route going down to the playing fields for more rituals, they would take a long route to avoid the opposing teams’ priest’s curses. Once they get to the field the head conjuror will give a big speech about how their families are counting on them. After this the priests will ritually scratch the players with comb shaped pieces of wood and then give them root to chew on. Finally the players must spit the root on these wounds then wash off in the river again. Once on the field the players are given black or red beads to symbolize which team they are on. Then priest call on different animal spirits to bless their players with, then players are called out form the opposing team and are cursed. For one final advantage players rub themselves with elm bark or grease to make them slippery so no opposing players can hold them back. An old man called the ball witch brings the ball and tosses it in the air to start the match. Choctaw stickball was unorganized, there were no plays made, and everybody just ran for the ball. It was also very rough; many men would spend more time having wrestling matches than getting the ball. No matter what happened everybody was supposed to be a good sport, it was considered dishonorably to lose your temper during a game. Stickball is still played today, usually the teams on consist of 10 people. In 1904 La Crosse was officially accepted as an exhibition sport in the St. Louis Olympics. It is a social occasion for some Choctaw but other clubs and teams play more serious stickball. It is called a cross between lacrosse and football. ** Sources  ** [] This clip on youtube helped because it gave me a visual of stickball. This helped me to have a mental image when describing the game and be able to explain it better in my article [] This article was a great source of information about stickball, it had a little bit of everything in about the history and current events dealing with stickball. This was a great source and gave me a lot of good information for my paper. [] This article was a good source about the equipment used in stickball giving specific details. This was a great source that helped me decide what to write about the equipment used in stickball. [] This article was ok but had some small interesting facts about stickball and some of the variations between tribes. This was a good source for little facts that helped my paper. It was not quite as good as other sources. [] This article was a good time line of the major events in stickball history, it shows how the sport has progressed over time. It had good information and was interesting to see how much it has evolved. It fit in well with my article and had good dates. [] This source gave me a lot of good information about stickball although it is not that reliable. I was not trying to use much of it because Wikipedia is not a reliable source but it had some good information still that I was able to verify on other sites. [] This article let me see a small insight into some of modern day stickball and how it is once again becoming popular in some places. It had a little bit of good information in the article for my specific area. It fit in well with my section on modern day stickball [] This article gave a brief but detailed summary of the basic rules of traditional Choctaw stickball. It was a good article and was one of the better ones that I got my information from. It fit in perfectly with my homework and gave me a lot of good information that I will be able to use. [] This was a shorter article that focused more on lacrosse. It showed that people in lacrosse know that it came from the Native Americans. It was a good article because the history of lacrosse can be traced back to the Native Americans. [] This was just a short answer that a person gave about stickball. This gave me a good idea what the average person knows so I knew what areas to focus on explaining it which turned out to be everything. It was not a good source of information but a good way to get an idea of what to write. [] This was a good article for me because it had some general information about stickball but also had a time line to go with it. This helped me to read then look at the time line right away to get a better idea of things. It was an alright source that helped me a little. [] This was a good way for me to see how valuable stickball still is the Choctaw today. This showed that it is still much respected and that Natives hold it in very high value. This didn’t give me much information but it was a good way to understand how highly it is held. [] This was an alright article, it had more general knowledge with one or two little facts I didn’t know before. It was another good way to get more facts but overall it wasn’t that good of an article. [] This was an article written by today’s Choctaw Indians. This was a great source because it helped me to see what the Choctaw say about stickball and to have the views of the tribe. This was a good source that helped me to understand Choctaw Stickball better. [] This was a very short article because it was an encyclopedia article. It had a little bit of information I had not seen before. It was very short but the little facts in it were good and helped my article to be better [] This was a good way to hear about stickball and get some new facts about it. It was a good video from the Choctaw that explained the history and game of stickball. Overall it was a good thing to see and will help me to write a better article. [] This was a good article because it was another way to get a good perspective of how people view stickball. These articles showed how people of today’s lacrosse view the history of stickball and respect the Native American’s physical play. [] I liked this article even though it did not focus on the Choctaw. This gave an idea how stickball actually was a game of war. These Native Americans used it not only to train for war but also to use to attack people without them noticing. Overall it was a good article to see how they used stickball for war. [] This article was interesting because it showed how Native Americans are still playing stickball today. At a symposium on the itinerary stickball was one of the things. This showed how the Native Americans still see stickball as very important.