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Native North American

Ball play sticks, late 1800s - early 1900s

Description

Maker

  • Unknown

Culture

Native North American

Title

Ball play sticks

Year

late 1800s - early 1900s

Medium

rawhide

Materials/Techniques

Materials

  • rawhide

Dimensions

73.7 cm (29 inches) (length)

Type

  • Toys

Credit

Museum Works of Art Fund

Object Number

44.601B

Collection

From the Heye Foundation

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Form, Pattern, and Function

December 4, 1992 - January 24, 1993

The ball playing sticks were made in the nineteenth century by a member of the Choctaw people for a game that was often used to peacefully settle conflicts between different towns. Teams of twenty or more men would gather for festivities of several days' duration that included the playing of a stickball game called
"toli" in which players carried the ball down the field in their sticks and tried to throw it to hit the goal of the opposing team. Although the game involved elements of ritual and Choctaw doctors, rainmakers, and other religious and ritual people were much in evidence, these sticks are implements of superb functionality. The pair displayed here are shaped so that the player can catch the ball, a leather-wrapped projectile the size of a golf ball, tuck it into the netting of the larger stick, then keep it from falling out by placing the smaller racket on top. The rackets are beautifully crafted from bentwood, a craft that has revived with the recent renewal of interest in "toli " among the Choctaw.

Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in Copyright. This object is Ball play sticks with the accession number of 44.601B. To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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