Hi! This page is all about the
games of Native American Indians. It will let you know anything you want about the subject.
Almost every Indian tribe in America played games. Some of the games might of had some religous meaning at some point in time, but later some of them lost it. When the men weren't hunting, fishing, or working on crafts, they relaxed by playing games. Some of the more popular games included:
- One of their favorites was lacrosse, a
game named by the French. Each player had a racket with which he
caught and threw a ball made from a knot of wood. Trained teams of
six to eight men attempted to hit the ball into goals set at the end large
fields or on the ice in the winter. A game was played from noon until
evening and sometimes ended the following day. Teams from different tribes
would compete on special days. The people who watched often placed bets
on which team would win. The players carefully discussed plans for winning
the games, which was fun as well as usefull training for war.
- Footracing was very popular in many areas. Sometimes they ran over 30 miles on a course.
- Indians played many different ball games, and in almost all of these you weren't allowed to touch the ball.
- Many Indians enjoyed shooting arrows for one of their sports. They used lots of things for targets such as bark, woven grass, or an arrow stuck in a tree.
- Guessing games were also very popular. In a game called the Hand Game, one or more players on a team held marked sticks in their closed hands. The players sitting across from them, would try to guess where a certain stick was. The side that was hiding the sticks would sing very loudly to confuse the guessers, and both sides bet on the results.
The women had different games, and they were played separately. Usually only women played a game called shiny, or shinty, was a kind of field hockey game.
If you want to learn more about Indians you might want to check
out these homepages.
The picture on this page is used with permission.
