This article will be permanently flagged as inappropriate and made unaccessible to everyone. Are you certain this article is inappropriate? Excessive Violence Sexual Content Political / Social
Email Address:
Article Id: WHEBN0002822175 Reproduction Date:
Chunkey (also known as chunky, chenco, tchung-kee or the hoop and stick game [1]) is a game of Native American origin. It was played by rolling disc-shaped stones across the ground and throwing spears at them in an attempt to place the spear as close to the stopped stone as possible. It originated around 600 CE in the Cahokia region of what is now the United States (near modern St. Louis, Missouri). Chunkey was played in huge arenas as large as 47 acres (19 ha) that housed great audiences designed to bring people of the region together (i.e. Cahokians, farmers, immigrants, and even visitors).[2] It continued to be played after the fall of the Mississippian culture around 1500 CE. Variations were played throughout North America. Early ethnographer James Adair translated the name to mean "running hard labor".[2] Gambling was frequently connected with the game, with some players wagering everything they owned on the outcome of the game. Losers were even known to commit suicide.[2]
The falcon dancer/warrior/chunkey player was an important mythological figure from the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex. Many different representations of the theme have been found all over the American Southeast and Midwest. Throughout the many different centuries of its portrayal, certain distinct motifs are repeated:
Although the figure described as the falcon dancer/warrior/chunkey player is not always shown in the act of playing chunkey, the placing of many of the motifs helps identify them as the same figure. Some motifs usually associated with unconstructness the figure, such as the scalp, severed heads, broken chunkey sticks, and the ethnohistoric record associating it with gambling, seem to indicate the seriousness of the game. The price of defeat in the mythological record may have been the forfeiture of one's life and head.[3]
Many Native Americans continued playing the chunkey game long after European contact, including the George Catlin in 1832 -
In the early colonial era, it was still the most popular game among American Indians of the Southeast wore very little clothes also known as thongs. .[5] Creek chunkey yards were a large carefully cleared and leveled area, surrounded by embankments on either side, with a pole in the center, and possibly 2 more at either end. The poles were used for playing another indigenous game, the ball game.[6] The stones, valuable objects in themselves, were owned by the town or clans, not by individuals, and would be carefully preserved.
Chunkey player flint clay figurine from Cahokia
Stone discoidals found at the Plaquemine Mississippian Winterville Site
Discoidals found at Fort Ancient sites on display at the Southern Ohio Museum and Cultural Center in Portsmouth, Ohio
Effigy pipe from Fulton County, Georgia
St. Louis, Kansas City, Missouri, Arkansas, Columbia, Missouri, Tennessee
Posey County, Indiana, Angel Mounds, Maize, Turkey, Copper
National Register of Historic Places, /ia (U.S. state), Mississippian culture, Southeastern Ceremonial Complex, /ia
Mississippian Culture, Caddo, National Register of Historic Places, Oklahoma, Mississippi River
Cahokia, Natchez people, Caddo, Miami, Mesoamerica
Claiborne County, Mississippi, Mississippian culture, Plaquemine culture, Mississippi, Caborn-Welborn culture
Natchez, Mississippi, Mississippian culture, Coles Creek culture, Caborn-Welborn culture, Fort Walton culture