By: Chandler Nichols
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (UATV)- With November being National American Heritage Month, Culture, traditions, and language are all a part of the month-long celebrations. With this year’s theme focused on identity, respect and sovereignty, members were able to showcase their roots through different ways such as traditional dance and traditional sport.
History
Native American Stickball is a team or every man for themselves game that is typically played on any open field where players with two sticks or their hands each attempt to control and shoot a ball at the opposing team’s goal or at a pole that stands in the middle of the field. It shares similarities to the game of lacrosse and many historians think lacrosse gained inspiration directly from stickball.
Each team tries to advance the ball down the field to the other team’s goalpost. Points are scored when a player hits the opposing team’s goalpost with the ball. Traditional stickball games were sometimes major events that could last several days.
As many as 100 to 1,000 men from local and state villages or tribes would participate. The games were played in open plains located between the two villages, and the goals could range from 500 yards to several miles apart. The villages could come up with their own version of the game and typically there was no out-of-bounds. Men are allowed to be as physical as possible with each other, but they were not allowed to touch the women out of respect. Playing time was often from sunup until sundown.
The historical game played a huge role in keeping the peace between tribes who played against one another. The game was not only used as a way to settle disputes among the many tribes but was also played to toughen young warriors and train them for combat.
Choctaw Member Daniel Martin said, “That’s how we brought up our young warriors. It taught them to take a hit and get back up. And also, my biggest rule I tell the schools today is it taught you how to respect women. Because back then women ran our tribes. They made the decisions for the tribe so we put them at what you might call it a pedal stool.”
Often before the game was even played terms would be set and agreed upon and the losing team would have no choice but to accept the outcome. If a tribe did not accept the terms of the game, the dispute often would end in battle.[
Impact on Campus
Identity. That is one of the themes for this year’s Native American Heritage Month. From art murals to dance traditions, campus was filled with numerous opportunities to see Native Heritage first-hand. The Union and UREC fields played host to these events. Members of Native tribes used their roots to teach eager learners all about their heritage through the game.
The Native American Student Association here on campus collaborated with the Multi-Cultural Center. These two organizations came up with the idea to host lessons on stickball and an exhibition game. One of those eager learners was Izzo Ahmed who is a program coordinator at the center, and he decided to participate in this game because he wanted to expand his knowledge of other cultures.
“I was just interested. NASA supports black events here on campus and so I felt like it was only right to do the same. I wanted to immerse myself in other cultural games. I am a big fan of soccer which is big back home in Sudan and so I wanted to immerse myself in something new.
BJ Frogg is a member of the Cherokee Nation. Originally from Oklahoma, he moved to Arkansas as a student and while attending college, he hoped to keep his Native American roots alive and visible. He partnered with NASA to further promote Native American history and culture. It was important for him to be a part of the month-long celebration because he knew he could showcase what he was taught to the University of Arkansas community.
“Native Americans are still around. We never left; we didn’t disappear. We’re still around. There’s many things we can still teach and pass on stuff to a lot of our younger generations. They’re not growing up like we used to. I have two daughters and teaching them the best I can. Many Americans don’t know that Arkansas had a significant Native American population and so little events like this can reestablish our presence here.”
Natives has seen their culture decline due to the loss of their land and according to the most recent census, there’s only just five million full blooded Native Americans left in the US. American Indian or Alaska Natives make up only 0.8% of the student population at the University of Arkansas so it’s important for BJ Frogg to keep talking about his roots not only for students now but for future students as well.