Sunset kissed the horizon. Kana trotted her gray pony along a narrow path, to a game field where cheers, singing and drumbeats drew her attention to the contest in progress. Her whole village, turned out for the stickball game to settle a dispute with a village from Mississippi. Despite the fact she was in no mood for a game, she guided her pony to the animated crowd watching the ball play, dismounted and led it by its reins.

            She hitched her pony to a post next to other horses and ponies and made haste to the contest. Dust tickled her nostrils. So much dust the players caused in this game, hundreds of them, constantly running back and forth. She asked the Great One to let the game end soon. She must speak with her uncle, Foha’s war chief Gray Eagle. Her eyes skirted the animated crowd every direction—the dancing and singing women on both sides of the field, the shamans shouting from the sidelines, the players getting tackled or else stumbling from a whack on the head with two-feet long hickory sticks.

Her cousin Eyachubbe— wearing white war paint—tossed a small deer hide ball with his hickory stick to another teammate, who caught it in his stick’s small rawhide cup then raced toward their opponents’ goal. An opposing player in red warpaint tackled him, stole the ball, maneuvered around Foha’s players. But when he tossed it to his teammate, Red Panther snatched it in the air with a low leap. Agile as a cat, he wove and darted between numerous opponents chasing him, his ball nested in the stick’s leather-laced cup.

Red Panther rushed the ball toward a tall sapling. He passed it to Eyachubbee, who snatched the ball with his stick then wove through and around the mass of players who chased him. He tossed the ball to a teammate, who ran with it, then tossed it back to Red Panther, who raced with it while spectators withdrew to clear his path. His long black hair flying, he evaded three more opponents, passed the ball to Eyachubbee, who sent the ball flying into the goal, a sapling. Each side’s scorekeeper drove a stick in the ground. Ten sticks to the opposing team’s seven. Applause and cheers erupted from the sidelines.  

Kana did not cheer.

In this excerpt from my work-in-progress, tentatively titled Ruffians, Redsticks and Circuit Riders, I describe a popular game played by two Choctaw villages. Stickball was also called “little war.” The Southeastern tribes in the early 1800s and earlier played it to settle disputes with other villages in a peaceful manner. These tribes still play it today. Lacrosse traces its origin to this sport.

Unlike our modern times, though, early stickball games had few rules—players could tackle each other, whack each other with their two-feet long hickory sticks, and similar things. Hundreds, even thousands, of men on both sides participated in the contest.

The players would fashion a rawhide cup at the end of their hickory sticks. The ball, also made of hide, was stuffed with deer hair. Sometimes, even, a rock. This game was so rough, players got injured. The object of the game was to fling the ball against a goal, such as shown in my excerpt. If the ball struck it, a point was scored.

During the 19^th century, the United States government tried to ban the game. Today, it thrives among these tribes from the American Southeast: Chickasaw, Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole. They even have tournaments, notably the World Series of Stickball, held in Mississippi.

Recently, as part of my research, I visited the Poarch Creek reservation in Poarch, Alabama and spoke with the Creek curator of its museum. She told me her people, at least those living in Alabama, play stickball just for fun and the women are allowed to play with the men.  However, they do have a rule, she said—the male players are not allowed to hit the women players. The game remains rough even today.

Here’s a video of a recent World Series of Stickball Tournament held in Mississippi.

Sources

“Choctaw Nation Sends Three Teams to Stickball World Series,” Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, July 12, 2022, accessed 10/24/2023 Choctaw Nation Sends Three Teams to Stickball World Series

Browne, Eric E. “Games of the Southeastern Indians,” Encyclopedia of Alabama. Last updated March 27, 2023, Alabama Humanities Alliance 2023.

Griffin, Benjamin W. McIntosh and Weatherford, Creek Leaders, Tuscaloosa and London: The University of Alabama Press, 1988.