Community members of all ages gathered outside the Strongheart Center to play traditional Anishinaabeg winter games, including snow snake and spear throwing, at the Grand Traverse Band (GTB) of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians’ annual winter festival on Saturday.
With the sun shining all day and no clouds in sight, GTB Tribal Librarian Francis Carew was able to host the rescheduled winter games in Peshawbestown, which was cancelled due to extremely cold temperatures the weekend before. Attendees made use of and enjoyed Carew’s handmade 200 foot-long snow snake flat track in the Strongheart Center softball field, as well as spear throwing through a hoop and sledding opportunities outdoors. Three Sisters soup, hot dogs, and hot chocolate was also served at the event inside the Strongheart Center.
“We had a good turnout, and the significance of our festival is just to get people out in the winter time and to showcase some of our old Native American games that we used to do,” Carew said.
In addition to the festival serving as a way to educate the greater community about traditional Anishinaabeg winter games, Carew explained that the activities also shows people different ways to exercise in the winter while building camaraderie. Some youth members and families from Boy Scout Troop 34 of Traverse City were also present to participate in the winter games after helping to make some of the snow snakes with Carew several weeks before the event.
“The festival is for everyone, and this lets non-natives know and come out and see we’ve got some cool stuff going on here,” he said. “And the historical significance of our traditions… Snow Snakes is an 800-year-old game, it’s been around for a long time, and it’s played wherever there’s snow… So this helps to pass on the traditions to our people and then to nonnative people, too.”
