Snow Game-Stick "Ga Wa Sa"
date: label: Accession Date
content: 1 Apr 1903
name: label: Donor Name
content: U.S. National Museum
notes: label: Notes
content: From card: "The national game of the Iroquois. Played on the snow. The one who throws the longest distance wins the game. The peculiar gliding throw over the snow requires skill and strength; usually the best three in five points wins the game. When on hard packed, straight, level trough in the snow, the snake stick is thrown a distance of nearly a mile. The stick is made of hard maple and white metal moulded on the front point to prevent injury to stick if it strikes anything. Skill and strength are not all the requirements to win the game, the best substance used in the manufacture of the stick so as to obtain the least resistance according to the condition of the snow enters into consideration. - Signed, Andrew John. Illus Hndbk. of N. Amer. Indians, Vol. 15, Northeast, Fig. 12, pg. 307."
label: Notes
content: For some information on snow snake see Zotigh, Dennis. "How to Play Snow Snake, the Traditional Winter Game of the Haudenosaunee." Smithsonian Voices, February 29, 2024. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/national-museum-american-indian/2024/02/29/snow-snake-traditional-winter-game-of-the-haudenosaunee/.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 2 Mar 2024
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Not Given, Niagara River, New York, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Iroquois (Haudenosaunee), Tuscarora
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 040710
label: USNM Number
content: E215543-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Snowsnake