Stampede School - Games at the Indian Village

Hand Games

"At the Indian Village, people play stick games. A long time ago, only men played stick games but now everybody does. Stick games are played with a pair of small bones and sticks. You start off with one team passing around the sticks and songs are sung and the drums are beat to distract and draw power to the hiding team. The other team tries to guess which hands hold the bones and if you guess right, you win sticks for your team.

Stick games have been played for a very long time and it is good to learn things from long ago, new again."

Faith and Chelsey - Grade 4 students

Page from student journal - Grade 2 student

"It is important for me to be involved in this project because we can work together on something that’s going to teach others about the Indian Village and the importance of Natives being involved in the Stampede. The Stampede allowed the Native people to set up teepees, make their traditional food, play their traditional games like the hand games and stick games, drum, sing, and dance. If it weren't for the Stampede agreeing to let Natives show their culture, some Native people might not know about these things."

Tara - Grade 4 student

Students learn how to play a "stick game"

"If Treaty 7 First Nations wasn't a part of Stampede then there wouldn’t be an Indian Village and the Native culture would have died out because they would have put all kids in Residential Schools and when the elders died there would be no more stories to tell. For the people who go to the Stampede they can learn about Native culture and the native people can show their culture which they wouldn’t be able to do if Guy Weadick wouldn’t have gone to the Indian Agent to ask for permission to involve them in this show. They were provided with the opportunity to teach the children about their culture and the elders were able to tell their legends so that the culture wouldn’t be forgotten."

Sierra - Grade 4 student

"Imagine a day when you become a historian. You learn about hand games which are games that Natives play when they are bored. We made hand games at school. We used the colours black and red because black represents hair and red represents blood."

Katie - Grade 1 student





[Our Roots]	-	[Nos Racines]
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