The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1904-07-19
BALI. AMONG THE INDIANS.

american youth-and men, TOBIAS run
largely to ball games Between base
paii and football the athletic and sport
Ing blood of the men and boys can
get its full of exercise and excitement,
but we wonder what they would say
or feel If they were to take part in
game of bail as the Indians once
played It? They would find It strenu-
Gus enough to satisfy the most exact
ing.
The game. called 'pokkocheta" by
the Creeks. was common to most of
the Indian tribes of the South and
West, and 1t was not uncommon for
them to bet everything they could raise
on one game. A brief account of it
may not be undressing to those who
have no knowledge of It, We notice a
newspaper allusion to the game in one
OF our contemporaries In which the
statement is made that the game is
now played with twenty players on a
side. but that is a modern innovation.
George Catlin, who travelled extensive
ly among the Indians of the South and
West. and who witnessed a noted game
at the Choctaw Agency in 1882. says
| Il. is no uncommon occurrence for six
or eight hundred or a thousand of
these young men to engage in a game
OF ball. with FIVE or six times that
number of spectators" etc. From this
II will be understood that there was
no certain number of players on a side.
To begin with. the ball. called by
the Creeks Pokko. was something like
modern baseball. 1t was made by
the Indians of tightly wound yarn COW
cred with deerskin. The ball-sticks-
Tokonhe, in Creek-bore no resemb-
lance to the bats of our players. Each
player had two of them. made of tough
wood, two or three feet long, one end
| trimmed and bent to form small
hoop, and over this was a sort of bag
made of deerskin strings netted to-
gether so as to for n a shallow cup.
With these two sticks the player had
| to catch and throw the ball, as they
were not allowed to touch 1t with their
hands.
The l-yard-Hiyakpo- hoote-was
a level piece of ground, and the goals
were 200 or 800 yards apart At each
goal two poles were set I'D about six
feet apart. Midway between the goals
a stake was set to mark the starting
point of the game, and when all was
ready the judge or Judges threw the
ball up from this central post and then
the fun began-and sometimes 1t was
not all fun. AS soon as the ball went
| up the players made for it, each try
ing to catch it in his sticks When
one succeeded in getting the ball he
| started towards the goal belonging To
his side. If he had no room to run
ne threw 1t towards his goal, and all
the players on his side tried to catch it,
While the other side of course tried to
get 1t away from him, or to prevent
him from throwing it or running with
1t. Each time it is sent between the
poles a one end it counts one for that
side and in the old games one hundred
points was the game.
This is a brief account of the way
the game is played, and it may readily
be seen that there was not only fun
but often something else in it, When
several hundred. active and athletic In
dams were all striving to get hold of
the ball there was something doing.
Whether the ball was in the air. on
the ground or held by the ball-sticks
the struggle to get 1t and keep 1t was
fierce and wild. We copy this para
graph from Catlins account OF the
game: There are times when the ball
gets to the ground and such a confused
mass of rushing together and around
1t, Knocking their sticks together, with
out the possibility of any one getting
or seeing it for the dust they raise
that the spectator loses his strength
and everything else but his senses.
when the condensed mass of ball-sticks
and shins and bloody noses Is carried
around the different parts of the
ground for a quarter of an hour at n
time. without any one of the mass he
ing able to see the ball, and which thew
are often thus scuffling for several
minutes after 1t has been thrown off
and played over another part of the
ground"
Such is part of Catlin's description
of a big game as he saw it more than
seventy years ago among the CTfoc- |
taws, and 1t gives an idea of the rough |
and-tumble nature of this national
amusement. 1t was not unusual for
two players to indulge in a fight, in
which case nobody interfered, but al
lowed them to fight it out In all such |
cases, or even If general fight came
on no one was allowed to go for OF |
use a weapon, but must settle it with |
natures own weapons, and no il1-feel- |
ins grew out of it when the game was |
played altogether by one tribe or town. |
When opposing towns engaged in a
game the consequences were oft
en- serious. We have some re-
collection of a game that was PLAYED
at the old town of Cusseta, where the
modern town now stands in Chambers
County, between the rival towns or |
clans of Mcintosh and OpothTe- yohola,
in which one of the players was killed |
by one of the opposite side. We do not |
now recall the particulars. but we re- |
member that bitter feeling between |
the two towns was caused by the oc- |
currence and that they carried the feud |
with them to their new home in Indian
Territory
DC hYia account of tho .,a,,,.,