CULIN] DICE GAMES: BLACKFEET 57 
other or by a number of women who sit opposite and facing each other in two 
long lines, each player contesting with her opposite neighbor. Twelve sticks, 
or counters, are used in the game, and at first these are placed on the ground 
between the two players. 
The player, kneeling or squatting on the ground, grasps the four bones in the 
right or left hand, holding them vertically with the ends resting on the ground. 
With a slight sliding motion she scatters the bones on the ground close in front 
of her, and the sides which fall uppermost express the count or the failure to 
count. Sometimes, but not always, the players throw the bones to determine 
which shall have the first throw in the game. 
The person making a successful throw takes from the heap of sticks the 
number called for by the points of the throw—one stick for each point. So 
long as the throw is one which counts the player continues to throw, but if 
she fails to count the bones are passed over to the opposite player, and she 
then throws until she has cast a blank. When the sticks have all been taken 
from the pile on the ground between them the successful thrower begins to 
take from her opponent so many of the sticks which she has gained as are 
called for by her throw. As twelve points must be made by a player before the 
LLANES 
BLZNIVLRIN LZ 
=k XxX XUOGya> 
Fic. 27. Bone stick dice, Black- Fic. 28. Bone stick dice; length, 5} 
foot Indians, Blackfoot agency, inches; Blackfoot Indians, South Pie- 
Montana; in the collection of Dr gan reservation, Montana; cat.no.51693, 
George Bird Grinnell. Field Columbian Museum. 
twelve sticks can come into her possession and the game be won, it will be seen 
that the contest may be long drawn out. A run of luck is needed to finish it. 
Some of the counts made by the throws are here given: Three blanks and 
chief count 6; three blanks and chief reversed, 3; two zigzag, one four, and 
chief, 4; two blanks, one four, and chief, 2; two blanks, one zigzag, and chief, 
0; two blanks, one zigzag, and chief reversed, 0; one zigzag, one blank, one four, 
and chief, 0. 
The women do not sing at this game as the men do at the gambling game of 
hands. 
The game described was obtained by Doctor Grinnell from the Pie- 
gan of the Blackfoot agency in northwestern Montana, on the eastern 
flanks of the Rocky mountains. They live on Milk river and Cut 
Bank, Willow, Two Medicine Lodge, and Badger creeks, being the 
southernmost tribe of the Blackfeet. It will be observed that the 
implements for this game are practically identical with those collected 
by Doctor Matthews from the Grosventres (Hidatsa) in North 
Dakota (figure 241). Concerning the latter Doctor Grinnell remarks: 
The Grosventres of Dakota—by which are meant, of course, the Grosventres 
of the .village, a tribe of Crow stock—are not very distant neighbors of the 
