Unidentified Figures

Description

The majority of the people depicted in Plate 339 are playing a hoop and pole game, one of the most common and widespread of all North American Indian games. Played by men, it consisted of throwing or shooting projectiles through a hoop, with the score calculated on the basis of how they fell in relation to the target. There were tribal variations in equipment and rules. The Mandans and Hidatsas hurled poles at a hoop rolled on the ground or thrown in the air. The hoop was laced with a network of leather thongs, and winning presumably depended on where the pole pierced the network. There is a detailed rendering of a Mandan hoop and pole in Plate 349. Mandan and Hidatsa women played a game with a ball which they tossed and caught with the foot; see the figure in the upper right corner of Plate 339. This was an individual competition, not a team sport, and the woman who kept the ball in motion the longest without its touching the ground was the winner. The balls often were embroidered with dyed porcupine quills like the one shown in Plate 353. The two men in Plate 338 are carrying poles or spears. A former label associated with the sketch suggested that they too are engaged in a Mandan or Hidatsa hoop and pole game.