Researcher seeks perspective on Blackfoot games

By Sean Feagan, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A researcher at the University of Lethbridge is studying Blackfoot games and is looking for local perspectives to help.

For her honour’s psychology research project at the University of the Lethbridge, Marley HeavyShield, a Blackfoot researcher from Kainai, is exploring various aspects of traditional Blackfoot games through an Indigenous lens, she explained. To inform her research, HeavyShield is collecting data from two sources: interviews with knowledge keepers and an online survey.

The research is being supervised by Jennifer Williams, a psychology professor, and Robert Williams, a health sciences professor who is also a research coordinator for the Alberta Gambling Research Institute.

HeavyShield is seeking to learn what games are played and their rules, and she is also studying whether they feature gambling and how they were affected by colonialism.

“The answers to the questions I’m asking can teach a lot of people about an aspect of Blackfoot culture that may not have been considered previously, for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people,” said HeavyShield.

Published literature on Blackfoot games is scarce. What exists focuses on modern forms of gambling, such as bingos and casinos, and is centred around issues like problem gambling.

“I’m hoping my research may play a part in keeping this knowledge of this aspect of Blackfoot culture alive,” she said.

Many of the traditional Blackfoot games known – some of which are still played today – fall into a category known as hand games or stick games. These have many variants and intricacies, but generally are typically played in teams where marked “bones” are hidden by one team and another team guesses their location.

“They’re actually very popular and are played in major tournaments throughout Canada and the United States,” said HeavyShield.

Another popular game still played today is the feather game, which has some similarities to the stick game, but often features songs.

The interviews HeavyShield is conducting with elders and knowledge keepers from the community will provide the traditional and cultural context for the games.

“So, what they are, how to play them and how colonization changed them,” she said.

She is also conducting a survey to provide information on what Blackfoot games look like today and how prevalent they are. Available online, it is open to anyone 18 years or older from Kainai, Piikani and Siksika. Participants can enter to win both a hand drum and beaded medallion made by Kalli Eagle Speaker, a Blackfoot artist Kainai.

“By taking the two halves together, the result will, hopefully, be a grander picture of the development and resilience of traditional Blackfoot games.”