By Corvo Rohwer, Puyallup Tribal News
The Puyallup Tribal Language Program welcomed in the members of the community for an instructional session of family style sləhal (bonegames) at Tribal Admin on Sept. 10.
The evening began with a story introduction of how the people received the game of sləhal by Multi-Media Manager Chris Duenas. The version of the story that Duenas told comes from Bruce Miller (subiyay), and explored the narrative of how early humans and animals decided who would eat who. Heritage Division Manager Connie McCloud (sɫupayqʷuʔ) highlighted the importance of the story and what it means to hear it told.
“This is where our creation story comes from,” McCloud said. “This is how we have shared our lessons in life of how to live. … Our people learned about the sləhal, the bonegames, because it set out for us a way for us to live our lives every day.”
Following the end of the story, Language Teacher Julyssa Coats then led a Lushootseed tutorial of how to play the game. There are two teams, each of which have a čatəla (team captain) and their own set of c’əlalq (tally sticks). Additionally, there are two sets of sləhal (the bones in bonegames) that players keep hidden in their hands.
At the beginning of the game, both teams will play for the kiktagʷil (kick stick) before scoring any c’əlalq. The objective is to find the sɫadayʔ (woman), also known as the unmarked bone, and avoid locating the stubš (man), also called the marked bone. Players will guess which hand contains the sɫadayʔ within the hidden pairs and gain c’əlalq from the opposing team by guessing correctly. The team who manages to collect all of the c’əlalq wins the game.
Duenas clarified this is just one way to play the game, and that the Language Program wanted to specifically focus on playing in a family style rather than a tournament style. Coats also explained that in some Tribal families, the game of sləhal is put away during winter, and can be played again in spring when you can hear the frogs.
“Sometimes the other families don’t put them away, but everyone is quite different,” Coats said. “This is just the way that we were taught.”
The Language Program also hosted a raffle during the event that featured six drums and 14 bonegames sets, allowing nearly every attending family to take the game home with them. Around 50 Tribal Members of all ages then teamed up to play bonegames throughout the evening with support and songs from Language Program staff.
