Columbus Sports History (Games and Sports of Early Valley Indians)

SOURCE: “Games and Sports of Early Valley Indians” by Billy Winn in Columbus Sports Memories, edited by Joan Emens, Erma Davis Banks, and Callie B. McGinnis, 1996.

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Valley Indians played a variety of games and sports prior to contact with Europeans and Africans in the 17th century. While we cannot be certain about all these recreational activities, we do know of a few which stretch far back into antiquity.

The most popular of these was stickball or pokkecheta, a much beloved and very rugged sport played by the Creeks, who were the principal Native Americans in the Valley for many hundreds of years. Stickball is still played by displaced Southeastern Indians today. It resembles our game of lacrosse, only it is far rougher. There were and are, in fact, almost no rules governing roughness in Indian stickball, which the Creeks played with two ball sticks.

The object was to throw a small leather ball between two upright goal posts at either end of a cleared field. The ball could not be touched with the hands, but those who did not have the ball could do almost anything to the individual who did. Most able-bodied men in a village played, and sometimes serious injuries resulted. The end of the game was reached when one side or the other reached a specified number of goals, 20 say. All Indians loved this sport, and games between towns were attended by hundreds of spectators who often bet all their possessions on the outcome.

Gambling seems to have been a passion with the Creeks, who had a board game something like our Pachisi, pitched cane sticks similar to the way we throw dice, and were especially fond of a game called "roll the bullet." Men also played chunky or chunkee, a kind of bowling in which a round chunky stone was rolled along the ground and the participants threw a spear or pointed stick at the spot they thought it would come to rest. This, too, was a very popular sport. Chunkee stones are still found in the Chattahoochee Valley. Women and girls participated in a throwing game involving men. The object was to hit a carve figure on top of a tall pole. Women got to throw with their hands, but the men had to use ball sticks.

Foot races also seem to have been popular, as were informal contests with bows and arrows. Many games were designed to sharpen the skills of young boys, for whom developing accuracy with the use weapons was essential. Since the Creeks spent so much of their time near or on water, we may assume they had swimming contests. Of course, Indian children made up their own games involving imaginary creatures and situations, just as children do today!