The traditional card games drew the biggest crowds a couple of Fridays ago during this year’s Sovereign Day celebration on the Hoopa Valley Tribe’s reservation.
The drumming and singing would befuddle a non-stalwart — how can a person make a good decision with all those tricky spirits messing with your head? That’s the idea, at least so I gathered from a brief description a tribal member gave me. I’m sure I’m missing some subtleties, but hopefully not delivering too hackneyed of an interpretation.
Anyway, it was exciting! And for more on the Hoopa Valley Tribe’s present state of mind — what with a new chairman and all, who’s promising to escort convicted drug dealers off of the reservation and shut the door tight — you can check out this week’s
North Coast Journal
. Hard copy out now; online version up tomorrow!
This article appears in Know When To Kill Them.
This game is played by all sorts of tribes. It is a team sport.
California tribes normally guess the marked bones… Utah/Colorado/Wyoming tribes (and I presume others) will sometimes agree to switch it up and guess unmarked which is a bit confusing. Anyway, each hider gets a marked and unmarked bone. The caller signals if the hiders have the marked bones inside, outside, both left, or both right. If one hider is guessed correctly but the other incorrectly, then the next guess is just left or right with the guessed hider sitting out and the hiding team gets one point for the caller’s wrong guess. If the caller then incorrectly guesses the lone hider, both hiders hide again. If the caller can’t guess either hider, the hiding team gets 2 points. If the caller guesses both hiders, the roles are reversed. Points are done with two sets of 5 scoring sticks (one for each side) but now usually with an extra "kick stick" which was introduced by the "Ghost Dance" teacher dude, I forget his name.
Tribes can put whatever limits they want on the game. In the original prehistory version, teams would escalate the betting to wives and such. These days there is usually some limit and wives are not wagered.
The drummers and singers on the hiding team can do whatever they want except for obstruct the view of the hiders hands/bones.
So you dudes went and watched the actual game and didn’t catch all of this? This game is the bomb.
Criminy that’s complex (to me), and very cool. No, I certainly didn’t catch all that — the drums and singing totally threw me for a loop, I guess.
Thanks for the great explanation!
I only wish the casinos had this game. This would give people who understand statistics a reason to go. I suppose the drumming might annoy the bingo players.
That is the greatest idea anyone has ever had, ever.
Seriously. Has anyone ever suggested it to the local gaming tribes?