Part 1 - Chapter 5

 

Discussions of the recreational activities of the Southeast Indians: games, music, dancing, and singing as well as their use of visual arts.

 

The Indians of the Southeast enjoyed what are considered recreational activities. As early as the beginning of the eighteenth century, Robert Beverley described the pastimes of the Virginia Indians. These activities could be applied to the general Native population of the Southeast.

"Their sports and pastimes are singing, dancing, instrumental music and some boisterous plays, which are performed by running, catching, and leaping upon one another."1

Authorities agree that the Indians enjoyed gambling on their team games and playing games of chance. As Adair stated:

"The Indians are much addicted to gaming, and will often stake everything they possess."2

"Most of the games are occasions for gambling and quantities of property changed hands in consequence of them. A Choctaw would wager the use of his wife or himself for limited periods in lieu of anything else."3

Of the tribes, later to be known as the "Five Civilized Tribes," the Cherokees seemed to enjoy the most diverse range of games and the Chickasaws the least.

Both the Creeks and the Cherokees have legends that deal with the ball game between the birds and the beasts. According to Mooney's text:

"In one story the bat is rejected by both sides, but is finally accepted by the four footed animals on account of their having teeth, and enables them to win the victory from the birds."4

Among the Southeast Indians, the ball game seems to have been universally played. In the Creek towns where there were Red clans and White clans, practice games were played with the teams organized according to clans.5 Adair described a typical Chickasaw ball-play. There were, however, variations among the tribes of the Southeast:

"Ball-playing is their chief and most favorite game: and is such severe exercise, as to shew it was originally calculated for a hardy and expert race of people, like themselves, and the ancient Spartans. The ball is made of a piece of scraped deer-skin, moistened and stuffed hard with deer's hair, and strongly sewed with deer's sinews. The ball-sticks are about two feet long, the lower end somewhat resembling the palm of the hand, and which are worked with deer-skin thongs. Between these they catch the ball, and throw it a great distance, when not prevented by some of the opposite party, who fly to intercept them. The goal is about five hundred yards in length: at each end of it, they fix two long bending poles into the ground, three yards apart below, but slanting a considerable way outward. The party that happens to throw the ball over these, counts one; but if it be thrown underneath, it is cast back, and played for as usual. The gamesters are equal in number on each side; and, at the beginning of every course of the ball, they throw it up high at the center of the ground, and in a direct line between the two goals. When the crowd of players prevents the one who catched the ball, from throwing it off with a long direction, he commonly sends it the right course, by an artful sharp twirl. They are so exceedingly expert in this manly exercise, that, between the goals, the ball is mostly flying the different ways, by the force of the playing sticks, without falling to the ground, for they are not allowed to catch it with their hands."6

Adair, also, stated how he saw many broken limbs occur in the course of this game, but none were deliberately planned and were not caused out of spite.7

This ball game was also known as the "brother of war," for often it was played by opposing towns to settle a conflict.8

Prior to the game, the men submitted to the painful process of dry scratching because they felt it gave them strength and courage to beat the opposition; their female relatives danced throughout the night. The men did not sleep, under the penalty of reproach, and did not wear any clothes but a breech clout or flap.9 The articles of clothing that were worn by the various tribes for games and ceremonies will be discussed in subsequent parts of this book.

The teams were only composed of men although the women also played this game but only after the men had completed theirs.10

The scratching process mentioned earlier involved the use of an instrument called, among the Cherokees, a kanuga. It was composed of seven teeth which were run down the victim's arm from the shoulder to the elbow four times leaving twenty eight bleeding scratches. The numbers seven and four were sacred to the Cherokees.11

Bartram described a rehearsal of a Cherokee ball-play dance at the town of Cowe, North Carolina:

"This assembly was held principally to rehearse the ball-play dance, this town being challenged to play against another the next day.

"This oration [by an aged chief] was delivered with great spirit and eloquence, and was meant to influence the passions of the young men present, excite them to emulation, and inspire them with ambition.

"The prologue being at an end, the musicians, began both vocal and instrumental; when presently a company of girls, hand in hand, dressed in clean white robes and ornamented with beads, bracelets, and a profusion of gay ribbands [ribbons], entering the door, immediately began to sing their responses in a gentle, low, and sweet voice, and formed themselves in a semicircular file or line, in two ranks, back to back, facing the spectators and musicians, moving slowly round and round. This continued about a quarter of an hour, when we were surprised by a sudden very loud and shrill hoop, uttered at once by a company of young fellows, who came in briskly after one another, with rackets or hurls in one hand. These champions likewise were well dressed, painted, and ornamented with silver bracelets, gorgets and wampum, neatly ornamented with moccasins and high waving plumes in their diadems:12 they immediately formed themselves in a semicircular rank also, in front of the girls, when these changed their order, and formed a single rank parallel to the men, raising their voices in responses to the tunes of the young champions, the semicircles continually moving around."13

Another extremely popular game played by all the tribes except those in Virginia and Florida was the Chunkey game. This game consisted of rolling a hoop or roller along the ground while the opponents threw sticks at it. The opponent, whose stick lay the closest to the roller when it came to rest, won. 14

A somewhat similar game was played by the Choctaw named "ulth chuppih" which called for two players:

"An alley with a hard smooth surface and about two hundred feet long, was made upon the ground. The two players took a position at the upper end at which they were to commence the game, each having in his hands a smooth, tapering pole eight or ten feet long flattened at the ends. A smooth round stone of several inches in circumference was then brought into the arena; as soon as both were ready, No. 1 took the stone and rolled it with all his strength down the narrow inclined plane of the smooth alley; and after which both started with their utmost speed. Soon No. 2 threw his pole at the rolling stone; instantly No. 1 threw his at the flying pole of No. 2, aiming to hit it, and by so doing change its course from the rolling stone. If No. 2 hits the stone, he counts one; but if No.1 prevents it by hitting the pole of No. 2, he then counts one; and he, who hits his object the greater number of times in eleven rollings of the stone, was the winner."15

A game that was played with the men opposing the women was popular with the Creeks, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Timucua. It was:

"played about a single pole, each side endeavoring to strike the pole with a ball above a certain mark or if possible to hit a figure or a skull placed at the top."16

Games of chance were also popular among the Indians. One played among the Cherokee is described as follows:

"The shallow basket used is 1 feet square. The beans are colored butter beans, a variety of lima, and those selected are dark on one side and white on the other. Twelve beans are kept as counters. Six others are put in a basket, as they come, and the players, who are four in number, and each two partners, play in turn. The basket is held in both hands, slightly shaken, and then with a jerk the beans are tossed in the air. If all turn black, 2 are taken from the counters; if all turn white, 3 are taken. If but one turns up white, 1 is taken from the twelve. When they turn five white, 1 only is taken. The game is played three or six times weekly. Whoever gets twelve beans has the game."17

A game popular among the Natchez women was played with bits of cane:

"The women played with small bits of cane, about eight or nine inches long. Three of these they hold loosely in one hand, and knock them to the ground with another; if two of them fall with the round side undermost, she that played counts one; but if only one, she counts nothing. They are ashamed to be seen or found playing; and as far as I can discover, they never played for any stakes."18

The Choctaw women also played a game, that it seemed they, also, were ashamed to be caught playing:

"The women also have a game where they take a small stick or something else off the ground after having thrown up a small ball which they are to catch again, having picked up the other; they are fond of it, but ashamed to be seen at it."19

The Natchez young people played a ball toss game:

"The young people, especially the girls, have hardly any kind of diversion but that of ball: this consists in tossing a ball from one to the other with the palm of the hand, which they perform with a tolerable address."20

The Muskogean young men, in general, played racing games and shooting games for exercise.21

Although many North American Indian tribes used music as regular accompaniment to their games, few of the Southeastern tribes did. The Cherokee in their ball-play dance appear to be an exception to the rule. However, the ball-play described was in the setting of a dance before the actual game, so it appears questionable whether the music accompanied a dance or a game.22

The Indians held many feasts and dances during the year, especially during the period of the busk or green corn festivals.

"The Cherokees, besides the ball-play dance [described earlier], have a variety of others equally entertaining. The men especially exercise themselves with a variety of gesticulations and capers, some of which are of the martial order, and others of the chace [chase]; these seem to be somewhat of a tragical nature, wherein they exhibit astonishing feats of military prowess, masculine strength and activity. Indeed all their dances and musical entertainments seem to be theatrical exhibitions or plays, varied with comic and sometimes lascivious interludes: the women however conduct themselves with a very becoming grace and decency, insomuch that in amorous interludes, when their responses and gesture seem consenting to natural liberties, they veil themselves, just discovering a glance of their sparkling eyes and blushing faces, expressive of sensibility."23

The Indians enjoyed dancing and had different ones for different occasions.

"Their several dances were accompanied by music appropriate for the occasion. At the war dance a warlike tune was sung telling `how they will kill, roast, scalp, beat, and make captive, such and such numbers of them, and how many they have destroyed before'....At the peace dances the song relates that the Bad Spirit made them go to war and that it should never do so again, but that their own sons and daughters should intermarry with the former enemies and that the two nations should love one another and become as one people."24

"These people [probably of the Creek Nation], like all other nations, are fond of music and dancing: their music both vocal and instrumental; but of the latter they have scarcely anything worth the name: the tambour, rattle-gourd, and a kind of flute made of a joint of reed or the tibia of the deer's leg; on this instrument they perform badly, and at best it is a rather hideous melancholy discord, than harmony. It is only young fellows who amuse themselves on this howling instrument; but the tambour and rattle, accompanied with their sweet low voices, produce a pathetic harmony, keeping exact time together, and the countenance of the musician, at proper times, seems to express the solemn elevated state of mind......there is then an united universal sensation of delight and peaceful union of souls through out the assembly.

"Their music, vocal and instrumental, united, keeps exact time with the performers or dancers."25

"Their [Virginia Indians] musical instruments are chiefly drums and rattles: Their drums are made of a skin stretched over an earthen pot half full of water. Their rattles are the shell of a small gourd or Macock of the creeping kind and not of those called Callibaches which grow upon trees."26

 Flutes or flageolets and whistles were used among the Louisiana Indian tribes but not as an accompaniment to dancing.27

Bartram stated that they had an endless variety of steps but the usual pattern involved the young men moving in a circle with the course of the sun and the young women moving in an inner circle, contrary to the course of the sun all the while moving their feet in a slow shuffling step alternately placing one foot in front of the other.28

This did not rule out the fact that some of the dances were accompanied by "violent movement of the limbs and excessive movement of the muscular powers."29

They had different songs composed for different occasions and every town strove to excel each other in composing new songs for the dances.30

The Indians had different dances to depict, celebrate, propitiate, and thank different animals. These dances were only danced at certain times of the year. The snake dance of the Alabama Indians was never performed during the summer months for fear that the snakes would be offended at the serpentine course of the dance steps and bite them.31

Most of the dances were held around a central fire although some of those of the tribes in Virginia danced around carved posts.32

Art work was not done just for the sake of art, but was an integral part of the ceremonial, spiritual, and material cultural world of the North American Indian.

Bartram described art work in the town of Attasse [Atasi]:

"The pillars and walls of the houses of the square are decorated with various paintings and sculptures; which I suppose to be hieroglyphic, and as an historic legendary of political sacerdotal affairs: but they are extremely picturesque or caracature, as men in variety of attitudes, some ludicrous enough, others having the head of some kind of animal, as those of a duck, turkey, bear, fox, wolf, buck, etc. and again those kind of creatures are represented having the human head. These designs are not ill executed; the outlines bold, free, and well proportioned. The pillars supporting the front or piazza of the council-house of the square, are ingeniously formed in the likeness of vast speckled serpents ascending upwards; the Ottasses being of the snake family or tribe."33

The Indians living near the Saint Mary's river, between the current states of Georgia and Florida, used paint decoratively inside one of their houses:

"....but there was one [house] amonges the rest verry great, long and broode, with settelles round abowte made of reeds, tremly couched together, which serve them bothe for bedded and seates; they be of hight two fote from the ground, sett upon great pillers paynted with redd, yellowe, and blewe, well and trimly pullished."34 35

The Southeastern area had motifs that were unique to it, as well as geometrical designs that were more universal. Without discussing the archeological phases regarding the differentiations of designs, some of the motifs common to the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex archeological excavations were:

barred ovals bi-lobed arrow Akron grid
forked eye birdman theme bellows-shaped apron36
cross and circle

       serpent

Plate #1shows illustrations of a few of the motifs. All illustrations in this chapter and in chapter six are drawings made by the authors from either pictures of artifacts from various books or from the actual artifacts found in the collections at The Thomas Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, OK. The specific books consulted were: Fundaburk and Foreman's Sun Circles and Human Hands; Bierer's Indian and Artifacts In the Southeast; Phillips' and Brown's Pre-Columbian Shell Engravings from Spiro, Volumes 1 and 2; and various works of and about the work of William Henry Holmes.

                          Plate # 1
Various Motifs from the S.E. Ceremonial Complex
plate_1sm.jpg (26733 bytes)
The Southeastern Indians used wood extensively for making tools and other objects:

"[They] understood that a specific kind of wood was usually preferred for each type of tool. The relationship of the tool to the wood of which it was to be made was well established, and the form of the implement was determined by tradition and experimentation."37                      

The Natchez club was a good example of a utilitarian object that also had a symbolic significance. While it was built so that it could be thrown or used for striking blows, it also was "elevated to use as a figure in their symbolism".38

It was customary, for birds to adorn temple and mortuary roofs and for wooden idols to be housed in temples. Animals, serpents, and small birds were also carved out of wood and placed in the temples.39 These birds or animals were sometimes painted. The color signified different states of being. Adair described:

"Two white painted eagles carved out of poplar wood with their wings stretched out and raised five feet off the ground standing at the corner [of a council-house] close to their red and white imperial seats."40

Garcilaso de la Vega described the art form that adorned the inside of a Florida Indian temple in extreme detail:

"The ceiling of the temple from the walls upward, was adorned like the roof outside with designs of shells interspersed with strands of pearls which were stretched so as to adhere to and follow the contour of the roof. Among these decorations were headdresses of different color feathers such as those made to wear, and in addition to the pearls stretched along the ceiling and the feathers nailed to it, there were many others which had been suspended by some thin, soft-colored strings that could not be seen distinctly. Thus both the pearls and the feathers seemed to have been placed in the air at different levels so that they would appear to be falling from the roof.

".....along the highest of the four walls of the temple there were two rows of statues ranged one over the other. These were figures of men and women, and were of the normal size of the people of the land, who are as large as philistines....The male figures held all of the various weapons,....and these weapons were adorned with bands of pearls and seed pearls, each band being comprised of four, five, or six strands. And for greater beauty they were decorated at intervals with exquisitely tinted fringes, for these Indians color everything they wish, and do it extremely well."41

Among the Creek Indians, wooden masks were used in religious ceremonies;42 archaeologists have unearthed copper over cedar wood masks.43

Cane was another substance that the Indians used extensively. A well balanced arrow or spear did not necessarily look artistically like a work of art, but excellent craftsmanship was necessary if it was to perform properly. Cane was, also, used to create beautifully symmetrical baskets and finely decorated mats.44

To make the baskets they [probably the Cherokee Indians]:

"divide large swamp canes into long, thin, narrow splinters which they dye of several colours and manage the workmanship so well that both the inside and outside are covered with a beautiful variety of pleasing figures."45

Wild hemp was also used for purposes of weaving. They created, according to Adair, "handsome carpets of the wild hemp which grew to a height of six feet and ripened in July.

"When it is fit for use they pull, steep, peel, and beat it; and the old women spin it off the distaffs with wooden machines, having some clay in the middle of them to hasten the motion. When the coarse thread is prepared, they put it into a frame about six feet square, and instead of a shuttle, they thrust through the thread with a large cane, having a large string through the web, which they shift at every second course of the thread. When they have thus finished their arduous labour, they paint each side of the carpet with such figures of various colours as their fruitfull imaginations devise, particularly the images of those birds and beasts they are acquainted with; and likewise of themselves acting in their social and marital stations."46

Jewelry and other forms of personal adornment will be discussed in the later parts of this book. It needs to be noted that the weaving of bird feathers, animal hair and moss were all arts practiced by the Southeastern Indians long before the advent of the European.47

Gourds were another natural article that the Indians fashioned into dippers, decorative rattles, and other intricately carved articles.48

Stone has always been used for making work implements; however, the Indians used it also as a medium for carving intricate tobacco pipes. The pipes were usually only eight or nine inches in height and represented animals or people playing chunkey, kneeling, or smoking a pipe themselves.49 The Indians carved statues, as well, ranging in height from a few inches to over two feet.50

The Indians used clay to make ceremonial and utilitarian vessels as well as to carve statues, effigy pipes, etc. The decorations were added to the vessels at different times during their formation depending on the tribe. The Caddoans engraved the surfaces of dried vessels; the Choctaw combed on decorations in elaborate geometric patterns; while other tribes incised them when the clay was still soft or leather-like.51

White clay was, also, used as a base for pigments when painting on walls "which had been plastered with red clay, and in red, brown, and blue on walls which had been plastered with white clay."52 The paintings, often involved the depiction of men with animal heads and animals with human heads as well as simple drawings of animals and humans.53

The Indians believed that their life was cyclical and part of a continuum. Before the advent of Europeans, there were legends that described their coming to the land of the Indians, and after their arrival, the destruction of the Indians.54

Many of the Indians' customs changed with the advent of the Europeans, and all were forced to change their way of life. One of the areas that was influenced by the influx of Europeans, their goods, mores, and attitudes was the domain of Native dress and adornment.

However, before the changes that occurred after the influx of first a few and then many Europeans are noted, a brief survey of how these Native Americans might have dressed prior to European contact will be addressed. The information is gathered from archeological artifacts and reports from the Southeast ceremonial complex. 


1. Beverley, The History and Present State of Virginia, §40, p. 47.

2. Adair, History of the American Indian, 1930 edition, p. 428. In his footnote, Adair also states that all authorities are in agreement about the Indians' love of gaming.

3. Swanton, "Aboriginal Culture of the Southeast", BAE Annual Report 42, p.707.

4. Mooney, Myths of the Cherokee, p. 454.

5. Swanton, "Social Organization and Social Usages Among the Creek Indians", BAE Annual Report 42, p. 165.

6. Adair, History of the American Indians, 1903 ed. pp. 428-429.

7. Ibid., p. 429.

8. Swanton, "Social Organization and Usage Among the Creek Indians",  BAE Annual Report 42,  p. 459.

9. Ibid., p. 458.

10. Stewart Culin, Games of the North American Indians, reprinted from BAE Annual 24, p. 598.

11. Ibid., p. 580.

12. Bartram began his travels in 1773 and the description of the dress of the participants does not, necessarily, reflect what was worn in the previous century.

13. Bartram, The Travels of William Bartram, 1955 Dover edition, pp. 298-299.

14. Swanton, "Aboriginal Culture of the Southeast", BAE Annual Report 42, p. 706.

15. Cushman, History of the Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Natchez Indians, pp. 130-131.

16. Swanton, "Aboriginal Culture of the Southeast", BAE Annual Report 42, p. 706.

17. Culin, Games of the North American Indians, p. 105.

18. Le Page Du Pratz, History of Louisiana, p. 347.

19. Culin, Games of the North American Indians, p. 709. from Captain Bernard Roman's book A Concise Natural History of East & West Florida, vol. 1, p. 81, N.Y. 1775.

20. Le Page Du Pratz, The History of Louisiana, P. 347.

21. Culin, Games of the American Indians, p. 805.

22. Ibid., pp. 574 & 833.

23. Bartram, Travels of William Bartram, Dover 1955 edition, pp. 299-300.

24. Lawson, A New Voyage to Carolina, p. 174.

25. Bartram, The Travels of William Bartram, 1955 Dover edition, pp. 395-396

26. Beverley, The History and Present State of Virginia, §43, p. 55.

27. Kniffen et al, The Historic Indians of Louisiana, p. 284.

28. Bartram, Travels of William Bartram, 1955 ed. p. 396.

29. Swanton, "Creek Religion and Medicine", BAE Annual Report 42, p. 523.

30. Bartram, The Travels of William Bartram, 1955 Dover edition p. 396.

31. Swanton, Creek Religion and Medicine, BAE Annual Report 42, p. 525.

32. Swanton, "Aboriginal Cultures of the Southeast," BAE Annual Report 42 p. 708.

33. Bartram, The Travels of William Bartram, 1955 Dover edition, p. 361.

34. The spelling and punctuation were not changed because they seemed to represent the period in which the book was written.

35. Jean Ribaut, The Whole & True Discouerye of Terra Florida, p. 85.

36. See Galloway, The Southeastern Ceremonial Complex, for more information on various motifs, archeological phases etc.

37. Kniffen et al, The Historic Indian Tribes of Louisiana, p. 137.

38. Ibid., p. 143.

39. Swanton, The Indians of the Southeastern United States, BAE 137, pp. 613-619.

40. Adair, History of the American Indian, 1930 ed. p. 32.

41. Garcilaso de la Vega, The Florida of the Inca, pp. 318-9.

42. Galloway, The Southeastern Ceremonial Complex, p. 174.

43. Ibid., p. 110.

44. Kniffen et al, The Historic Tribes of Louisiana, pp. 146-149.

45. Adair, History of the American Indians, 1930 ed. p. 456.

46. Ibid., pp. 453-454.

47. Kniffen et al, The Historic Tribes of Louisiana, pp. 157-159.

48. Ibid., pp. 159-160.

49. Hudson, The Southeastern Indians, p. 395.

50. Ibid., p. 397.

51. Kniffen et al, The Historic Indian Tribes of Louisiana, pp. 164-165.

52. Hudson, The Southeastern Indians, p. 378-379.

53. Ibid., p. 378-379.

54. George Lankford, Native American Legends, pp. 136-139.