A-ne-jo-di, or Stickball, is a very rough game played by many Indian tribes -Native American Indian Tribes - Over 2,000 articles on native american indians, their culture & traditions.

Over 2,000 articles about native americans of the US and Canada First Nations.

Submit your own articles about american indians without knowing any HTML here
Are you ready?

Today's Top Story:

Cherokee Center Puts Documentation Services Online

Traffic Ranking

Privacy Policy

Any information collected on our site is used for internal purposes only and will not be shared or sold to third parties!

Your transactions in our store are secure

Videos of the Week

Native Genocide
Native american history song by Baby Gurl with photo collage 4:22 minutes

Healing Heart of Humanity
Humanity Healing Network invites you to embrace a revolutionary concept. 4:39 minutes

Native American Chicken Dance
A native american chicken dance performed at a pow wow. 3:37 minutes

Leonard Peltier ~ Americas Mandela
The story of the more than 60 men and women who died during the "reign of terror." How all that relates to the case of Leonard Peltier. 11:58 minutes.

Culture->Games: A-ne-jo-di, or Stickball, is a very rough game played by many Indian tribes

Posted on Saturday, December 11 @ 04:03:36 PST

A-ne-jo-di, or Stickball, is a very rough game played by many Indian tribes.. KEYWORDS anejodi stickball Indian games lacrosse muscogee games creek games seminole games southeaster woodland tribes yuchi games natchez games cherokee games stomp grounds stomp dance intertribal games

A-ne-jo-di, or Stickball, is a very rough game played by not only the Cherokee, but many other Southeastern Woodland tribes including the Muscogee (Creek), Seminole, and others.

The game resembles the modern European game of LaCrosse, using ball sticks which are handmade from hickory. A small ball, made of deer hair and hide, is tossed into the air by the medicine man. The male players use a pair of the sticks, and female players use the bare hands. In earlier times, only the men with the greatest athletic ability played the game.

Stumble It!

The game was oftentimes played to settle disputes, and the conjurer for each team often became as important to the team as the players themselves.

Seven points are scored when the ball strikes a wooden fish on the top of a pole approximately 25 feet in height, and two points are awarded when the ball strikes the pole.

In earlier days, there would be a dance before the ballgame. The ballplayers were the participants of the dance, along with seven women dancers. Each woman represented one of the clans.

Throughout the dance, the women would step on black beads which represented the players of the opposing team. The conjurer had placed these black beads on a large flat rock.

Today, stickball is an important part of the days activities at ceremonial Stomp Grounds, being necessary to play before the Stomp Dance can ever begin. It is also a recreational sport at other times between community teams. There are also intertribal teams made up of players from Cherokee, Muscogee (Creek), Yuchi, Natchez, and other area communities.