Native Life: Chunkey (Hoop and Stick)

We've already discussed one Native pastime, stickball.  There were other sports, with equally passionate devotees.  One of these was known as chunkey.

Chunkey is an English corruption of several names for the sport, including "chenco" and "tsung-kee", which one source translates as "running hard labor", though without an exact etymology a to which language that translation came from.  It originated in around 600 C.E. with the Cahokians, a mound-building culture centered around modern-day St. Louis.  The basic object of the game was to throw a spear or stick at a rolling disk or hollowed-out stone, trying to land the spear as close as possible to the place where the disk would stop, not as easy as it sounds.  It was a common element of Mississippian culture, with designs on shell gorgets and other carvings showing chunkey players garbed in specialized regalia to participate in the sport.  It lived on after the demise of the Mississippians in the Southeastern tribes, though a variant of the sport had reached the West Coast and was observed among the Chumash people there.

As with stick ball, chunkey was taken seriously.  Specialized areas were reserved in towns and villages for it.  Often stick ball courts could also be used to play chunkey.  People from an entire village, or even several surrounding villages in an area would gather to watch a match, and the honor of the players as well as their village was at stake.  Players who lost a match were known to commit suicide.  George Catlin described a chunkey match at a Mandan village, and painted a game in progress.  Variations existed, mostly on the type of equipment used or the way points were scored.  The Cherokee reckoned points on how close the stone rested to certain carvings on a player's stick.  The Chickasaw gave extra points if the disk actually touched a thrown stick.  The Choctaw version awarded victory to the player who gained 12 points.