Miwok games

This was very hard and cross grained. The game might be played by many men, in which case they lined up as in football. In case only two men played they followed the ball at top speed down the field.

The object of each side was to put its ball between the two goal posts. When several men were playing much care was needed in striking the ball so that it would land advantageously to the stroke of the next player in the line. Culin, 97 quoting Hudson, describes the game from two Southern Miwok groups on the Chowchilla river. By the Chowchilla two oak-wood balls, three inches in diameter, were used.

The goals, which are each some yards from the center, are two trees or two posts, a long step, or, say, 3 feet, apart. The captains at station 1 strike their respective balls toward their respective partners at station 2. If the ball falls short of 2, the failing striker must forward his ball to station 2 by an additional stroke; when the ball passes into the territory of the partner at station 2, he no.

The last stationed partner must drive it over the goal line. The smallest number of aggregate strokes on a side wins. Station keepers must keep within their own territories. It was played with sharp-pointed, five-foot, willow poles and with a rope ring two feet in diameter or with a braided buckskin string modernly a rag a foot and a half to three feet long.

In the center of the field was a small shallow hole into which, at a given signal, a man threw the ring or string. Immediately the women scrambled for possession of it and each endeavored to throw it toward her end of the field. It could not be carried on the stick and must not be touched by the hand. In the scramble a woman would sometimes have her foot jabbed by a stick accidentally. Any desired number of women might engage in the game.

Among some of the Miwok there was but one goal post, some six feet in height, at each end of the field. The string or ring must be thrown against a goal post to score. In this respect the game resembles the lacrosse game of eastern North America. One Central Miwok informant stated that in the form she knew the game there were two goals of arched willow branches about one hundred yards apart.

There was no special grouping of players by lineage or moiety, but often people of different localities played against one another. Each side staked valuables. The goals are feet apart. Basket ball. This game, called a'mta P, N, C and ama't u p C , was played by women and girls only. The field was about two hundred yards long and had a willow arch goal at each end, or else two upright posts at each end, as shown in text-figure These and two of the balls used in this game are shown in plate LV, figs.

The ball was of buckskin stuffed with deer hair, moss, or grass. A man, called the potcukbe C , threw the single ball down hard in the middle of the field.

Then the women who were in their positions on each side rushed and scrambled for it. The attempt was made to catch it when it bounced. It could be caught only in the baskets, being caught in the larger of the two baskets and covered with the smaller, while the player ran.

If caught with the hands the side having the ball had to give it up, and a game was counted lost by that side. Each side tried to carry it or throw it through its own goal, past the line of opponents standing there, who tackled the players who carried the ball, and if possible threw the ball back toward their own goal. The group, which put the ball between its own goal posts first, won.

Male and female spectators as well as the players bet on the outcome. While most believe that the Miwok settlements date back to the migrations from Asia approximately 20, years ago over the Bering Strait Bridge, certain sources also mention that the Miwoks were descendants of Siberians who entered California about 3, years ago by sea.

Before their run-in with European Americans in , they lived in small groups or tribelets along with domesticated dogs devoid of any centralized political authority. Anthropologists eventually segregated the Miwoks into four geographically and culturally distinct groups. While the future of the tribe was threatened by the invasion of their native lands by miners from various countries during the Gold Rush period, their population was also substantially annihilated by a host of epidemics such as malaria, smallpox, and cholera.

Today, it is an endangered language as most members of the tribe speak in English, with some of the dialects being already extinct. Acorn was their staple food item which they pulverized to make soup, bread, and flour. Besides acorn, their summer diet also consisted of berries, seeds, grains and greens such as milkweed, sheep sorrel, wild pea, and columbine.

In winter they thrived on bugs, acorns, nuts and animal meat such as deer, rabbits, geese, beavers, quail and elk, which they often seasoned with salt water or seaweed. Among fish, they preferred salmon, shellfish, trout, sturgeon and a few other varieties found in the valley. Their food also included snakes and grasshoppers. While women were in charge of gathering berries, beans, greens and acorns, the men were involved in hunting and fishing.

Interestingly, the Indians would say a prayer for the hunted animal to be reborn while cooking its meat. They used earthen ovens to cook, sometimes roasting their fish and meat whole on an open fire, whereas for preservation they would sun dry or heat them. In the summer months, the men wore loin clothes made of deerskin, grass, or fibers of bark.

In the winters, they put on leggings, robes, and kilts made out of the hides of animals like wild cats, deer, rabbits, and bear. Though they loved moving barefooted, the tribes would sport high top moccasins while traveling or hunting.

The women dressed in calf-length belted aprons made of willow bark strands or tulle reeds. In some cases, they also wore short skirts made of grass fiber. The Northern Sierra Miwok womenfolk wore wrap-around dresses made of deerskin. During the chilly months, they wore fur or leather robes and woven tule moccasins. In the colder regions, the women put on buckskin dresses while the men wore deer or buckskin shirts and leggings. While their attire now comprises of modern clothing like jeans, Miwoks in some parts still wear moccasins.

They wore crown-like headdresses for ceremonies. The tie-on headbands consisted of flicker quills of various hues sewn together in a row. Its borders had brown feathers while the hair plumes served as embellishments. Dice game. The half acorns were not colored, but the wooden dice, an inch and a half or two inches in length, were darkened on the rounded surface.

Four sometimes six or eight dice were shaken in the cupped hands and released suddenly, often with a slight swinging motion, being dropped on a mat or upon a flat, coiled basketry tray hetalu, C.

A tray in the Field Museum is mm. It has a zigzag design. Either two or four persons played this game. At the start of the game the counters were placed centrally between the players. The game was won when all counters were in possession of either side. They then appropriated the valuables which had been staked by their opponents. The scores counted as follows: if all flat or all rounded sides turned up, two points; if an equal number of flat and rounded sides, one point.

Any other combination counted nothing. Woman versus woman or man versus woman, but never man versus man was the rule. Northern Miwok specimen comprises four acorn dice, the only form originally used with a flat basket tray.

Game of staves. Six staves about eight inches in length and semi-circular in cross-section were cast upon a piece of matting or deer skin.

The score was counted as with the dice. If all fell with the rounded side up or all with the flat side up, two points were scored. If they were evenly divided one point was scored. Any other combination did not count. This was a gambling game, but was sometimes played without bets.

Probably the custom varied.