What Kinds of Games Did Pueblo Indian Children Play in the Past?
Like all children, Pueblo Indian children of the American Southwest loved games. Anthropologist Alice Cunningham Fletcher said these games "have been played in our land for untold generations, while traces of the articles used for them have been found in the oldest remains on this continent."
1 Corn-Husk Shuttlecocks
In the shuttlecock game, children made shuttlecocks out of bundled corn husk and feathers. Children of the Zuni Pueblo used their hands to bat the shuttlecock into the air, keeping it there as long as they could without missing.
2 Shuttlecock Variation
In another version, children stood in a circle and batted the shuttlecock around the circle to the right.
3 Corncob Darts
Boys fashioned a round hoop, either out of bundled corn husks or bent branches. They made darts of pointed sticks stuck through corncobs, with feathers on one end. Each boy tried to toss his dart into the hoop on the ground a distance in front of him.
4 Darts Variation
Often, the dart was tossed through a hoop hung from a tree branch or rolled along the ground.
5 Pa-tol Sticks
Three flat, wide sticks carved with different symbols were tossed into a wide circle made of stones. Children moved markers around the circle according to the toss.
6 A Hazard Game
The pa-tol sticks game is known as a hazard game. According to Pueblo Indian myth, these games of chance were played by the War Gods.
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