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The poles used in the game, collectively known as "snow snakes", have different names depending on their length. The smallest poles used are the six-inch-long "snow darts". The next size up is the three-foot-long "short snake", also known as a "mud cat". Longer poles are known only as "snow snakes",
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According to the
Iroquois oral tradition, the game of snow snake dates back more than 500 years, to before the arrival of Europeans in North America. Originally a form of communication between villages, the throwing of "snow snakes" in a trough of snow developed into a competitive sport during long
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A game of snow snake is played by four teams, called "corners", who compete in trying to throw their wooden "snow snakes" the farthest along a long trough, or track, of snow. The game is divided into rounds, and in a round each team gets four throws. At the end of each round, two points are awarded
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There are two roles on a snow snake team: the Player, and the Goaler. The main role of a Goaler is to craft and maintain a team's wooden "snow snakes" in between games. The Goaler is also tasked with selecting which will be used for each throw during the game. A Player, meanwhile, is a player who
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and can be anywhere from six to ten feet in length. Snow snakes can be made from a variety of materials. In the Sioux tribe, they were traditionally made of bone, with feathers trailing behind for symbolic decoration, while other tribes traditionally used native North
American hardwoods, such as
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The trough, or track, that snow snakes are thrown down is typically five inches deep, rising up in a slope at the end where the players stand. In modern times, some groups will add obstacles like jumps or snow barriers to their tracks, for added interest.
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to the team of the person who made the farthest throw in the round, and one point is awarded for the second farthest throw. Play continues until one of the teams wins, by achieving a certain predetermined number of points (usually 7 or 11).
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winters when the long track was not used for communication. The name "snow snake" is said to have come from the serpentine wiggling motion of the poles as they slide down the icy track.
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203:"Snow snakes: Native game lives on in Minnesota's frozen winter"
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232:"Learning to Play Snow Snake Is a 'Sacred Rite of Passage'"
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340:at The Ojibwe Winter Games
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73:Snow snake
332:Snowsnake
154:juneberry
120:Equipment
93:Wyandotte
307:17 April
281:17 April
241:17 April
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103:people.
52:Presence
168:History
150:hickory
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389:Oneida
152:, and
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85:Ojibwe
158:ebony
146:apple
138:maple
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