Theresa

A popular Native game is/was what with more southern tribes is called "hands"; it is like "Button, button, who's got the button?" Yes it's still being played at pow-wows and such. Two small, oblong bones were used, one of which had a black ring around it. Those who participate in this game, numbering from two to a dozen, were divided into two equal parties, ranged on either side of the lodge. Wagers were made, each person betting with the one directly opposite him. Then a man took the bones, and, by skillfully moving his hands and changing the objects from one to the other, sought to make it impossible for the person opposite him to decide which hand held the marked one. Ten points were the game, counted by sticks, and the side which first got the number took the stakes. A song always accompanied this game, heard at a little distance, very pleasant and soothing. At first a scarcely audible murmur, like the gentle soughing of an evening breeze, it gradually increases in volume and reaches a very high pitch, sinks quickly to a low bass sound, rises and falls, and gradually dies away, to be repeated again. The person concealing the bones swayes his body, arms, and hands in time to the song, and goes through a manner of graceful and intricate movements for the purpose of confusing the guesser. In the past the stakes,were sometimes very high, two or three horses or more, and men have been known to lose everything they possessed, even to their clothing

A Blackfoot game-gambling with a small wheel called it-se'-wah. This wheel was about four inches in diameter, and had five spokes, on which were strung different-colored beads, made of bone or horn. A level, smooth piece of ground was selected, at each end of which was placed a log. At each end of the course were two men, who gambled against each other. A crowd always surrounded them, betting on the sides. The wheel was rolled along the course, and each man at the end whence it started, darted an arrow at it. The cast was made just before the wheel reached the log at the opposite end of the track, and points were counted according as the arrow passed between the spokes, or when the wheel, stopped by the log, was in contact with the arrow, the position and nearness of the different beads to the arrow representing a certain number of points. The player who first scored ten points won. It was a very difficult game, and one had to be very skilful to win. Little boys learned how to shoot their bow and arrows with a similar game.

That's fine we were great gamblers long before the Euros came along.

yeah but if I know how to pick a lock - I know you can't hold anyone with out their say so.

Theresa...............jingling keys.

Shhhh..... I'm still hunting the little monster down.

We wouldn't do anything like that to you, unless you became an annoying little brother. No, I don't want you to go. I'll be nice now.

But I know how to get him up.

Oh Philly boy....

Am I going to have to get the handcuffs again?

I got them too.

Oh great first I'm on a hunt for doggy, and now I'm gonna have to hunt for you too? You guys just love to keep a gal busy don't cha?

When I was growing up and going to school it was illegal for Alaskan Natives to speak their own languages. If caught using one word of your own language you could be beaten. My hands have many minor scars from being whacked with the old fashioned wooden rulers the kind with the metal edge. To this day I refuse to buy them for my kids, they get the clear plastic kind. In highschool the vice-principle was so afraid of the Native kids he carried a pistol inside his suit jacket. We planned a way to expose him - one of the boys "bumped" into him in the stairwell. He became confrontational and his suit jacket fell open, exposing the gun. An undercover cop arrested him on the spot. In my former job as a Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation Counselor in Alaska, I was required to take a class in cross cultural communications in order to maintain my certification. I considered the class a redundancy in my life, but I had to take it anyway. This class was taught by a caucasian, Catholic Nun (dressed in street clothes) she made me angry when she told the class that all shaman were insane. So I pointed out that in her own reference material for the class, modern psychologists consider them their peers. I waited outside of the class when it was over so we could talk. When she finally came out I asked her why the church had to get rid of the eskimo way. Her exact words were, "We had to get rid of the eskimo religion, don't you see? We couldn't let everyone walk around being their own Pope now could we?" These experiences along with a lifetime of polite predjudice have a tendency to make me at times angry and/or frustrated. I've been through periods where I become confrontational, and others where I become educational. The only thing that really frustrates me now are the wanna be Indians and the red apples, who have decided that they know more about the "Indian way of life and the Indian religion" than the people who actually live it. In one of my term papers for the cross cultural comunications class I asked, "Why is it when you wear what we wear, when you eat what we eat, when you do as we do, when you live as we live you are one of us, but no matter what we can never be one of you?" One of my cousins refused to admit that he was eskimo, he would tell people that he was Japanese. To this day I haven't recieved an answer from the instructor, though I do know what it is.

And a Big Birthday Kiss to Wolfie. Love, Theresa

I think he needs more than one. Have a hankie love.

The green eyed cat With black silky fur, Was tied to a table leg He couldn't endure. He decided one night To escape to the moon, And tied a red ribbon To a bucket and balloon. He clambered inside And off he did float. Thjat's all there is To this story I wrote. Theresa

Very nice.

It's more like don't lie to your wife. Or Don't be greedy. Or Don't be bossy.

OOO oooo What about a Stephan King novel?

One day, Raven was flying and saw an old house. He was curious, so he went and looked inside the house and found Mink. Raven asked Mink to marry him. Mink agreed. One day, Raven went hunting. But, before he left, he told Mink to make some akutaq. It gets dark early in the fall and Mink couldn’t see very well in the dark. She heard a voice and the voice told her to put some akutaq on the porch or else she would be eaten alive. She was scared so she put the bowl of akutaq outside. A little while later, the bowl was thrown back inside. The dish was licked clean. Soon after that, Raven came home. Mink asked him if he wanted anything to eat. He said no, that he had met a hunter on the way home and the hunter gave him something to eat. A few days later Raven went hunting again. Again, he told Mink to make some akutaq and to make it very good. When evening came, Mink heard the voice again. The voice said “Hey, if you don’t give me some akutaq, I’ll eat you alive!” Mink thought the voice sounded like Raven so she decided to go and find out. She took a piece of coal from an old fire and threw it outside. The voice on the porch said “Ow, ow, ow.” After a few minutes, Raven came in with his hand over his eye. When Mink asked him what happened, he said that when he was trying to get wood for the fire and he got some into his eye. But when he took his hand away, his eye was full of charcoal. Mink then said to him “You’re the one that has been eating my akutaq! Get out. I never want to live with you again.” Raven then left.

This is so sad in so many ways.

You are very gifted.

I really like that.

Vanna shrieks as she reached to hold on and realized she has a ......

Very nice.