Biloxi ball game

[Justin McBride]

> Mrs. Rowe talked about the Kaws playing "shinny".  I think Justin 
> mentioned that the Kaws and Osages had recently competed.  Maybe he can 
> fill you in.

Actually, that big inter-tribal game (or series of games, rather, held over 
three separate weekends) from a year or so ago was a handgame, where Kaws 
and Osages competed against the Poncas and Otoes for bragging rights and 
possession of a travelling trophy.  The Kaws and Osages put up a good fight, 
but in the end, the Poncas and Otoes cleaned house...handily.  Now that you 
mention it, though, it seems about time for a rematch!

As for ball games, I was asked by a tribal member a few years back to find 
out what sort of traditional sports the Kaws played.  I went through Bob's 
dictionary and compared words for games with the games described in Stewart 
Culin's "Games of the North American Indians" (©1975, Dover Publications, 
Inc., reprinted from the 24th annual BAE report, 1902-1903) as having been 
played by other Dhegiha tribes.  I found about 16 games all together, but 
only three of them are what I'd call ball sports:

ttabé bastáj^e  (bola/double-ball)  two teams of five female players use 
sticks to hurl small bola made of two balls fastened together toward goals; 
similar to shinny, which is played by males

ttabé basíge  (thrown ball)  men and women compete together in game like 
shinny, but ball is thrown instead of batted/hurled with sticks

ttabé gasü´  (shinny)  two teams of male players compete--often 
violently--for goals in stick-and-ball game similar to field hockey

I seem to recall having seen a women's double-ball fairly recently in a 
museum, although I cannot for the life of me recall where.  It might have 
been at NMAI in Washington, D.C., or at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of 
Natural History in Norman, OK.  At any rate, I also seem to think that it 
might have been labeled as being Otoe or Ioway.  But, given the state of my 
memory, I could be very, very wrong about this.

-Justin