Traditional game celebrates Indigenous culture

By Justin Seward - Lethbridge Herald on June 23, 2022.

Herald photo by Justin Seward The Lethbridge Public Library hosted a stick game night on Monday. Drummers played a song for the marked bones holder to dance to and distract the other team from guessing which hand the right bone was in. A wrong guess resulted in a lost stick for the other team.

The Lethbridge Public Library hosted an evening of stick game as a part of National Indigenous History Month on Monday night.
The objective of stick game is for one team to hide their marked bones from the guesses of the other team, who will lose a stick with every wrong guess.
“I put this on to bring everybody together, have fun and play some traditional Blackfoot stick games,” said Marilyn Contois, event organizer.
“It brings everybody together to celebrate and have fun. We’re celebrating Indigenous Peoples month and this is one of the fun celebratory ways people come together mostly during the summer time and it’s mostly like different Nations will host these games. But it’s for big money, like thousands of dollars.”
On this night, there was no money in the games and just for fun as the winner took home a box of chocolates and also taught people how to play the game.
Aboriginal drummers were participating by providing a beat for the bones carrier to dance to and throw the other team off while they were guessing.