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In Oklahoma, an Indigenous guessing game is passed down through the generations

AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:

Handgame is a guessing game played by many Native American tribes. Recently in Oklahoma, Apache and Kiowa people met for a friendly handgame competition. Reporter Sarah Liese was there and witnessed skills and knowledge that had been passed down for generations.

SARAH LIESE: As a little girl in the early 1970s, Lee Colorado learned how to play handgame in her grandmother's shed during winter.

LEE COLORADO: In Boone, Okla., with my Oppie Beulah - I always go back and say, yeah, that was the first time I remember handgame.

LIESE: Colorado is Apache and loves playing handgame.

COLORADO: It's been in - the game - in our history for as long as I can remember.

LIESE: I meet her at a handgame competition in a small town in Southwest Oklahoma for an Apache versus Kiowa tribal showdown. It's organized by the local Senior Center, where the activity is also a way to bring older people together.

PHIL JOE FISH DUPOINT: It's just a game. It's just a game.

LIESE: Phil Joe Fish Dupoint is Kiowa and the tribe's cultural director.

DUPOINT: There's going to be winners. There's going to be losers. And that's all it is.

LIESE: Handgame is a guessing game where the two teams sit across from each other. Then two people on each team take turns hiding the bones in their fists. Of the four bones, two are marked, and two are unmarked. Dupoint calls them buttons.

DUPOINT: Button, button - who's got the button? If you're able to hide, OK. If you're able to guess, OK.

LIESE: The guessing team's goal is to find the marked bones. To throw them off, the hiding team plays traditional songs.

(SOUNDBITE OF DRUMS BEATING)

UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: (Vocalizing).

LIESE: When unmarked bones are picked, the hiding team scores, and any point is cheered loudly.

(CHEERING)

LIESE: In many ways, the game is a social celebration, beginning back when the Kiowas became close with the Crows, says Dupoint.

DUPOINT: We were a nomadic people at one time, and we befriended the Crows. They shared their hunting grounds with us.

LIESE: But handgame is not just played by Crows, Kiowas and Apaches. Several of the 39 tribes in Oklahoma play it, too. The main objective is the same, trick the other team into guessing the wrong pair of bones.

DUPOINT: There's nothing more livelier than our style, the way we play. I mean, everybody's just hollering, and they're just jumping around.

LIESE: The people jumping and socializing here are all seniors. And that's just what Janelle Horse was hoping for. She coordinates senior activities for the Kiowa nation and wanted to bring elders out of isolation.

JANELLE HORSE: 'Cause a lot of them are at home. Some of them live by themselves.

LIESE: Once they get engaged with cultural activities, like handgame, the hope is that they will pass it on to the next generation. That's what Lee Colorado is doing with her 11-year-old granddaughter, who is young and learning the game.

COLORADO: After a while, she gets bored, but she doesn't really know the gist just yet. But she'll get it. She'll get it.

LIESE: But for today, Colorado is focused on winning.

UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: The first game goes to the Apaches AOA, ahoo (ph).

(SOUNDBITE OF DRUMS BEATING)

LIESE: Ultimately, the Apaches won two games out of three, but the biggest winner may have been the strength of tradition. For NPR News, I'm Sarah Liese in Carnegie, Okla.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Sarah Liese

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The independent journalism and non-commercial programming you rely on every day is in danger.

If you’re reading this, you believe in trusted journalism and in learning without paywalls. You value access to educational content kids love and enriching cultural programming.

Now all of that is at risk.

Federal funding for public media is under threat and if it goes, the impact to our communities will be devastating.

Together, we can defend it. It’s time to protect what matters.

Your voice has protected public media before. Now, it’s needed again. Learn how you can protect the news and programming you depend on.