| Reference Source | Reference Type | Archival Data | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kellogg, L.P. 1923 | Use - Material |
Game of straws played. "On this day the Poutewatamies came to play at the game of straws, against the Miamis, the game was played in the cabbin of the chief, and in a sort of square over against it. These straws are small rushes of the thickness of a stalk of wheat and two fingers in length. They take up a parcel of these in their hand, which generally consists of two hundred and one, and alwas of an unequal number. After they have well stirred them, and making a thousand contortions of body and invoking the genii, they divide them, with a kind of awl or sharp bone into parcels of ten, each takes one at a venture, and he to whom the parcel with eleven in it falls gains a certain number of points according to the agreement, sixty or four score make a party. There are other ways of playing this game, and they would have explained them to me, but I could understand nothing of the matter, except that the number nine gained the whole party. They also told me, that there was as much of art as chance in this game, and that the Indians are so great cheats at it, as well as at all others, that they are so eager at it; as to spend whole days and nights at it, and that sometimes they do not give over playing till they have stript themselves naked and have nothing more to lose". |
|
| Pease, T. C. and R. C. Werner 1934 | Use - Material |
Game with bean-seeds and straws. "At night most of the men, seated like dogs on mats of round reeds, play with straws. For markers they use the little beans which I have mentioned, which grow on the thorny trees. The game is usually of 200 straws of the length of a foot. The one who can best deceive is the best player, so they are always on the lookout against being deceived. They mark with their beans one or two, according to the wish of the one whose turn it is to mark, then three, and so in regard to the other players up to six, which is the game. One of them takes the straws in both hands and forces his thumb into the middle. The other; if he so desires, does the same thing, and afterwards counts the straws by sixes, if he happens to have one left, and one bean is marked the first, he has the head, if the other gets two which are marked next, it is what they call the neck which comes after the head, so he loses, if he gets one like the other, they begin over again. They have perhaps five or six hundred of these beans, some of which they stake on each play, and when one player has them all before him, they gain what they have staked. They are addicted to this game in a degree that cannot be exceeded [more on their actions regarding the game]. |
|
| Pease, T. C. and R. C. Werner 1934 | Use - Customs |
Used in making torches when killing prisoners of war. "When he [prisoner of war] is condemned to die, it is always by fire. I have never seen any other kind of torment used by this nation. They plant a little tree in the earth, which they make him clasp, they tie his two wrists, and with torches of straw of firebrands they burn him, sometimes for six hours." |
|
| Kellogg, L.P. 1923 | Use - Material |
Straw is spread on prisoner in order to facilitate burning. ". . .it is true; an old Illinois woman; whose son had been formerly killed by the Outagamies; did him all the mischief that fury inspired by revenge could invent, at last, however, taking pity on his cries, they covered him with straw, to which they set fire, and as he was still found to breath after this was consumed, he was pierced by arrows by the children . . . he is unworthy, they say, to die by the hands of men". |
| Reference Source | Reference Type | Data | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blair, E 1911 | The Algonquian game of straws utilizes stems, or straws, from a special plant with stems of thickness smaller than the cordage for a salmon-net. "They take for this sport a certain number of straws, or of the stems of a special plant, which is not so thick as the cord for a salmon-net, and with these they make little sticks all alike in length and thickness, the length is about eleven inches, and the number is uneven". |