Lakota Woskate:
Lakota Games exhibit expands at Center

      “Lakota Woskate: Lakota Games,” an exhibit at the Center, has expanded to include 15 traditional Lakota games crafted by Lakota artist Mike Marshall, of Rosebud, S.D. The exhibit incorporates reproductions of ledger book drawings by Amos Bad Heart Bull.

     “Lakota Woskate” introduces traditional games as a focus of the Center in partnership with Creighton University’s Native American Studies Program.

     Games played by the Lakota before the introduction of non-Native games continue to be important to the Lakota people. Hundreds of games documented by Lakota and non-Lakota scholars were played by people of all ages.

     “Unlike today’s high-tech games, none of the Lakota games were meant to be played alone,” says Ray Bucko, S.J., the Center’s cultural outreach adviser. “The games brought people together, stimulated social interaction and strengthened social bonds. They also taught skill, patience, cooperation, measured competition and endurance – virtues important to being a good Lakota.” Bucko is director of Creighton’s Native American Studies program and chair of the Sociology and Anthropology Dept.

    “Lakota Woskate” comprises games the Lakota classified by gender and age. Games for boys include the bull roarer, tateka yuhmunpi; cactus buffalo, unkcela pte; a pop gun, ipahotonpi; a top, canwacikiyapi: two whirling bone game pieces, hohuyuhmunpi; and a slingshot, inyan onyeyapi.

      Games for girls and women include the plum pit game, cunwiyawa; and the game of bowls, icaslohe econpi.  Both girls and boys enjoyed hohukazunta, a sled made of buffalo ribs. Elk rawhide is used to bind the ribs.

     The winged bone game, hutanacute, was traditionally played by men. Marshall crafted the distinctive gaming pieces from buffalo ribs. The front of the rib is pointed; the back is flat. Each rib is inscribed with lineal decorations to distinguish it from others game pieces. Young cow, pteheste, resembles a large arrow with a wooden shaft. The tip of a buffalo horn is attached to one end; turkey feathers are attached to the other end.

      Informally, all people played catching deer bones with a needle, tasiha unpi, but only women played it in formal competition and for stakes. It consists of a long pin that’s held in one hand and a set of deer bones and beaded loops that are held in the other hand. The player swings the set of bones and beads in the air and then attempts to catch them with the pin.

     The Center’s game pieces are based on artifacts preserved at the Buechel Memorial Lakota Museum at St. Francis Mission, St. Francis, S.D. The collection was assembled by the Rev. Eugene Buechel, S.J., in the early 20^th century.

     Between 1890 and 1913, Bad Heart Bull (1869-1913) created a pictographic record of Oglala Sioux history and culture. The work comprises more than 400 drawings and Lakota language script notations made in a ledger book. Among the images of Lakota culture are depictions of games.

        Traditional games from Native cultures and from cultures throughout the world speak to the Center’s mission of promoting dialogue, understanding and peace among all peoples who live in Siouxland, says Marcia Poole, the Center’s director.

     The Sioux City Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center, exit 149 off I-29, is a private, non-profit institution built and sustained by Missouri River Historical Development, Inc. (MRHD). Admission, all programs, exhibits and activities are free; www.siouxcitylcic.com.

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