Butterfly
Hide and Seek: Butterfly
Hide and Seek was a quiet game. All children were taught never to hurt a
butterfly. It was considered a gift of good luck if you stayed so quiet
that a butterfly would trust you and land on you. Little girls played the
butterfly game. One girl covered her eyes and sang a song.
"Butterfly, butterfly, show me where to go." All the other
little girls would quickly and quietly hide. The singer had to find them
without saying another word. It was a game of skill. If you were
observant, you could tell where people were hiding by the marks they left
as they moved around.
The Moccasin Game:
The Moccasin Game was a noisy game. You had to get
permission from the village elders to play the Moccasin Game. To play, you
needed four moccasins, a pebble, and a stick. The players were divided
into two sides, the finders and the keepers.
The Singer: One player of each team was the
singer. The singer's job was to encourage his or her own team, while
jeering at the other team.
The Keeper: One player was the keeper. His job
was to hide the pebble in one of the moccasins. The keeper would move his
hands rapidly over the moccasins. Even after he dropped the pebble, he
would continue to move his hands rapidly, to fool the other team. When the
drum stopped, he stopped.
The Finder: One player was the finder. The
finder had to turn each moccasin over until he found the pebble.
There was a complicated scoring system. Several
rounds were played. A game of Moccasins could go on for hours. It was a
very noisy game, and deeply enjoyed by the players.
Lacrosse:
Lacrosse was a rough game. Lacrosse was played with
two poles. At the end of each pole was a piece of net, shaped like a
basket. The object of the game was to toss a ball back and forth and catch
it in the basket at the end of your pole. Although you could not touch the
ball with anything except your net, you could use your pole to hit another
player. You could trip players. It was a warrior's game. It was also a
national game. Village played village, while onlookers cheered for their
favorite teams and booed the opponents.
Sep:
Sep was a fall asleep game, rather like a funny
bedtime story, with a prize. After a good meal at night, it was time for
the kids to quiet down. Sometimes the kids were so wound from the
activities of the day that they could not fall asleep easily. When that
happened one of the elders might say, "Let's play Sep!"
Sep was a silly game that everyone loved. It worked
like this - someone would sing a song with very funny words. Without
warning, the singer would suddenly stop singing and say, "Sep!"
Everyone had to be very quiet until one of the adults picked up the song
again. Any child who made a sound during Sep - the quiet period - was out
of the game. There was a prize for the person who stayed in the game the
longest. During the quiet times, the children would fall asleep. Then the
parents and adults could talk. In the morning, the game was completed, and
the prize awarded.
Sep could be played quietly in one wigwam,
or could be played with the occupants of many wigwams at once. Because the
wigwams were in a circle around a central open area, when the wigwam flaps
were open, everyone could hear the silly songs, just as they could hear
the night
messages.