dexismore] teton sioux music 485 



Games 



THE MOCCASIN GAME (hAJJ'pA APE'ECUI^Pi) 



Guessing the location of a hidden object was the central idea in 

 one distinct class of Indian games, the object varying in the differ- 

 ent games. The moccasin game is a familiar example of this class. 

 Cidin says: ''The moccasin game was played by the Algonquian 

 tribes, and is found among the Dakota and Navajo. Two, three, four, 

 six, or eight moccasins are used, but four is the standard number. 

 The objects hidden vary from one to four, and consist either of bullets, 

 stones, or little billets of wood." * The game as played by the Santee 

 Sioux in Minnesota is briefly described by Rev. E. D. Neill, as follows: 

 ' ' A bullet or plum stone is placed by one party in one of four moccasins 

 or mittens and sought for by the opposite. " ^ In the usual manner of 

 playing the game four bullets are hidden, one under each of four 

 moccasins. One of these bullets is marked, and the count is deter- 

 mined by the readiness with which the marked bullet is found by the 

 '■guessing side," and also by the position of the moccasin under 

 which it was hidden, whether it were at the end or in the middle of the 

 row. The manner of playing the game among the Sioux is practically 

 the same as among the Chippewa. Illustrated accounts of this 

 game among the Chippewa have been given by Culin,^ and also by the 

 present writer.* The Sioux songs of the moccasin game are espe- 

 cially rhythmic, but the drum is not steadily maintained in one rhythm, 

 as among the Chippewa. Thus we find several drum rhythms occur- 

 ring in this group of songs. This is one of the instances which sug- 

 gest a freer use of the drum among the Sioux than among the Chip- 

 pewa. 



1 Culin, Stewart, Games of the North American Indians, Twenty-fourth Rep. Bir. A mer. Ethn. ,p. 339, 

 Washingrton, 1907. 



2 Dakota Land and Dakota Life (1853), Minn. HUl. Colls., vol. 1, p. 280, St. Paul, 1872. 



3 Op.<;it., pp. 340-344. 



* Bulletin 53, pp. 210-213. 



Cf. also The Menomini Indians, by Hoffman, W. J., Fourteenth Rep. Bur. Ethn., pt. 1, pp. 242-244, 

 Washington, 189G; and Skinner, Alanson, Social Life and Ceremonial Bundles of the Menomini Indians, 

 op. fit., \m, pt. 1, pp. 59-61, New York, 1913. 



4840°— BOll. 61—18 33 



