Stick Gambling

Stick Gambling was one of the events I managed to take in during the Canada Games. It's gambling game that is played by the Yukon First Nations. It's great to watch as they play to a specific drum beat. It's a game that has rhythm and you can't help but move to the beat. Again this is another blog where I wish I could blog sound.

There were about 20 drummers at one point and the beat was making passerby s come to see what was going on. My friend was in charge of drumming so I had my hand at for a while as well. Stick gambling drums have string across the top of them (as you can see if you look closely). This gives the drum a particular sound.

Each player has some kind of token or good luck charm in there hand and when it is there teams turn they hide there hands under blankets and come up dancing and waving there hands at their opponents. The opponents have to guess what hand the tokens are in and they win sticks from a pile in the center.



There is a lot of taunting in this game hear they are showing off there hands for the opponents caller to make her call. Meanwhile the opponent team makes dancing gestures and whopping calls to call the sticks back to them.

Hear the caller has made her call and is debating with a player as to what hand she had her token in. Looks rather intimidating. The North West Territories team ended up winning the championship.