Omaha daily bee., 1896-05-09
INDIAN GAMBLING GAME.
The PuyniIups and Inequalities PInycd
nSIn-IIneI to a DrnNN.

'Slu-ttNtl tp +"
The social event OF the season for the
Puyallup, the Nisqually and a few White
river Indians has just passed, says the Ia
coma Ledger. 1t was the annual gambling
and horse racing of the tribes, which took
place on the Nisqually reservation. The fes-
t~ivities began Saturday and lasted Cutil Mon
day morning, when they ceased, and a process.
sion of the most tired Indians that the people
along the route have seen in many a day
started back to the Puyallup reservation.
They bore no ~laurels, 1t is true, but then they
had their ponies and blankets, which at one
time during the gambling they came disas-
trously near losing.
The sport took place at a gambling house
kept by Jim Dimrood, a Nisqualiy Indian,
and located in a clearing i've acres in ex-
tent on the right bank of the Nisqually river,
four miles above MaXheid station, where the
Northern Pacific crosses the river. The game
played by the Indians Is called "sla-hael,"
and was actively participated in by thirty
Puyallups. five White river Indians and
thirty Inequalities, the White river Indians
playing with the Puyallupa. The stakes put
up by each side were seventeen ponies, one
COW and ten pigs.
II was in this gambling house last Satur-
day afternoon that Jack Skamenke, the
leader of the Nislually gamblers, stood up
and began singing the low, dirge-like song
| which forms part Of the ceremony, and then
handed the bones to one of his men. The
Indian took the bones, fumbled and changed
them. and then, holding a bone tightly cen
| cealed In either hand, began swinging them
for a wary Puyallup to guess which hand
| contained the white one. The gambling was
in full progress. The scene was a strange
one, well worthy the brush of a Frederic
Remington or any who indulge a liking for
the wild and fantastic. The bright wood
fires were burning in either end of the room.
Ten feet from the walls two rows of Indian
men were kneeling down, facing each other,
leaving a space of ten feet between them.
In cue row were Puyallup and White river
Indians, and in the other were inequalities.
In the center of the kneeling rows of Indians
were the leaders, Tommy Lane for the
Puyallups and Skamenke for the Inequalities.
Back of the kneeling bucks were benches
running the entire length Of the room. On
| these sat the Indian women of the respective
tribes, who watched the varying fortunes Of
the players with most intent interest.
Stuck in the ground in semi-circular form,
in front of both Lane and Skamenke, were
thirty-fve small wooden pegs about three
inches in length and one-quarter of an inch
in diameter. These were the beans" and
when one side won the thirty-ive belonging
to the other the game and pot were also
won. q. ..N
Suspended from the neck of each Indian
| player, and hanging in front Of his breast,
was a handkerchief. beneath which he deftly
| concealed his hands when the bones were
given him to swing. g. tI-r-..,
The bones mentioned are three inches in
| length and one inch in diameter One of
them is perfectly white. the other one has
two black rings around 1t. Each of the
leaders has two sets of bones, but only one
set is used at a time. The game proceeds
as follows: The leader of the side whose
turn it is to play chants a sing-song in
cantation to bring luck, the squaws join
ing in this musical (O effort, and the bucks
also If they wish. Two of his men are then
designated by the leader to shake the bones,
urbi,b orn upncnaH hv tho n1aunr In
either hand, and both hands are placed be-
meath the handkerchief hanging over his
breast, where he fumbles the bones, shifts
them about from hand to hand to confuse
those who are keenly watching him from the
other side, and then, suddenly drawing them
from beneath the handkerchief, begins swing
ing them to the right and left in front of
him. The leader of the opposite side then
guesses himself or names one of his men,
whom he thinks may be the more lucky, to
guess which swinging hand contains the
white bone. II the guess Is correct the
leader of the side which is playing-not
guessing-pulls one of the beans from the
ground in front of him and losses it over
to the leader of the side which has made the
correct guess. The bean" is taken by the
winner and stuck in the ground with the
other beans belonging to his side. The bones
are also to be passed to the guessing side,
whose turn it becomes to play.
Providing the guess is incorrect the side
making it losses a bean over to the side
playing, and the man who has shaken the
sticks has the right to shake them again,
while his opponents make another guess.
Both sets Of bones were guessed upon by
the same man at the same time. If he
guessed the white of one and missed the
other he won a bean and one pair of bones,
but lost a bean upon the other set, which
was shaken again for him to make another
guess. In this manner the bones and beans
were constantly passing back and forth from
one side to another with the varying luck Of
the different sides. Saturdays game ended
in q draw.