Games

Haida Indians love games. Some of them are:

a) The Dice Game

1. Player one holds the die by the thin side and throws it onto a mat.

2. If it lands on the cross-hatched side , player one gets no points and she gives the die to player two.

3. If the die lands on the long side or concave side with the x-pattern, the player gets two points and takes another turn.

4. If the die falls on the bottom , the player gets four points and takes another turn.

Each player continues to throw the die until it lands on the cross-hatched side and her opposition takes a turn.


b) The Stick Game

There are two teams. One player from each team plays at a time. Since this game requires concentration, the teams try to distract each other with songs and dances.

The stick game is played with a beautiful set of 40-60 five-inch carved sticks. All but one of the sticks has a pattern painted on them like a deck of cards. There are four groups of sticks with the same pattern painted on them. The black stick is called dijl, or bait.

1.One grabs two handfuls of sticks and shuffles them under a cedar bark.

2. Player two watches his opponent carefully and selects the hand he thinks they are in.

3.Player two dramatically throws the sticks on the mat to see if the blank stick is there. If the blank stick is there, player two gets the bundle of sticks.

4. If the blank stick is not selected, player one wins nothing.

5. Each player gets a turn until one of the players loses all his sticks. Sometimes gamblers will lose many of their personal possessions in the game.

c) Line Tag

Girls who were too old to play with dolls and too young for adult games played games of dexterity, speed and skill.

Place: Any open space
Time: continuous
Players:any number over four
Object: Girls would stand in a line and hold hands. The person in the front of the line would attempt to tag the person at the end of the line. The girls in the middle would twist and turn to keep the leader from tagging the end person. If tagged, the end person becomes the leader and leader becomes the second person.