Daily Life in Olden Times Woodland Ojibwa/Chippewa Indians Ojibwa Games        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. Campsite24   Return to the Ojibwa Index Free Presentations in PowerPoint format  Free Clip Art Return to the Northeast Indians Index   or the Native American Index  All Rights Reserved    Clip Art Credit: Phillip Martin Have a great year!