The Southwestern Native American Activities and Recreation
Introduction
This research paper is about the activities and recreation of the southwestern Native American tribes. Some of those tribes were the Zuni, the Pima, the Apache, the Hopi, and the Navajo. This research paper will be covering the sports that children played, the toys that they played with, and family games. If you like short but interesting papers, this is the place for you.
The children’s favorite sports
The Children’s sports were a very important part of the life of the southwestern Native Americans. I found out quite a lot about them, even though it wasn’t the easiest thing, I still found out a lot of information. The children of the southwest loved team sports. Most of those sports were footraces, ball games, darts, and archery shooting through rolling hoops. You never kept score, so the fun was in the game, not the winning. The darts were made of corncobs and feathers. Some of those sports were thought to bring good luck, like rain to the stony terrain of the southwest. These were games like archery. The southwestern Native American children played many sports.
The children’s favorite toys
Toys had a very rich part of my research, even though I did not find many resources. You will see that in this paragraph, since it is only about two toys. Kachina dolls were one of the things I found a lot about. The kachina dolls looked like the way the Native Americans thought the gods looked like. They looked like animals in one way and people in another. They had human beards, animal noses, and animal feet, people hair, etc. The men of the villages would also dress up this same way to thank and ask the gods for rain. They thought this costume gave them power to do this. The other favorite doll of the southwest was a hide doll. Most of these dolls looked like a ten-year-old girl with the squash blossom hairstyle, large squashed twists. The clothing on this doll was made out of a hide of an animal. On her top there were beads for buttons. After European contact those buttons would be made out of glass. But since we are talking about prior to European contact, those beads were not made of glass.
Family games
Family games had very little research resources. I got an extremely low amount of information. I want you to know that these facts are not facts, just guesses. Families played lots of chance games, like cards today. Sometimes they would even bet on who would win the game! I’m guessing that the cards were made out of thin strips of wood. I am also guessing that the symbols were dyed onto the cards, which were very different than the symbols today.
Conclusion
The activities and recreation of the southwestern Native American people is a very important part of the culture. It was hard researching them because at first I could not find many researching resources, but then I got a bit of information, about few topics, though. Also I want to remind you again that the things I said about the cards were just guesses, not correct facts. I thought it was interesting that the Native Americans used corncobs for dart’s insides. I also thought it was interesting that children shot arrows through hoops. I also thought it was interesting kachinas were thought to bring rain power. I was curious about war and warfare, not recreation, even though I ended up studying it. Also do not forget that they still live today! Sorry this was a bit short, but treasure it!
