Pre-Contact Views on Wellness and Wellness-Related Activities of the Native Americans

Discuss Traditional Games for the Mississippi Band of Choctaws and Whether or Not Those Games Are Played Today.

Choctaw Stickball

Stickball has for over a hundred years been a part of life among the Choctaw, a Native American tribe that inhabited the Southeastern United States (Blanchard, 1981). Stickball (Kapucha) is a contest that involves as few as 20 or as many as 300 players, and each player has two handcrafted sticks (Kabocca) that they use to score against their opponents. The Mississippi band of Choctaw Indians is among Choctaw's four federally acknowledged tribes. Stickball has been played in Choctaw since 1830 after its introduction to southern Oklahoma and spread to the Mississippi band and other Choctaw tribes (Sonneborn, 2006). The sport revived in the 1970s and became Choctaw's national sport that it was even played annually at the Choctaw Indian affair. Stickball was a ceremony-perceived sport with strong cultural ties in Choctaw (Sonneborn, 2006). Although it is less violent in the modern day, traditionally, some forms of the game involved violent scramble for the ball in which they considered a vital training experience for future conflicts (Blanchard, 1981). Stickball also served the purpose of peacekeeping and unifying Choctaw tribes, for instance, it aided in settling tribal disputes over resources such as food and hunting fields where a stickball match would be organized to settle the feud.

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Choctaw Traditional Stickball

Traditionally among the Mississippi band of Choctaws, stickball games were popular events that lasted many days. The game was played in plains sandwiched between villages or tribes with the extreme boundaries being two goals that were about 500 yards up to several miles apart. For example, there was an instance of a match in the 18th century that was played in a 5miles long field. The match rules were mutually agreed upon before the game by the teams, and the game was started by tossing up the ball. The game mostly involved numerous players scrambling to score the ball to the opponents' goal. Women served refreshments to the players while medicine men coached the game (Blanchard, 1981). To score, the player had to advance the ball to the opponent team's goal using their playing sticks, all the players were restricted from touching the ball with their hands and spectators weren't at any time supposed to interfere with the match, and if they did, a penalty was awarded against their team. Stickball was played for recreational purposes, in ceremonies and festivals. Terms were set before the game, and both teams were to accept the outcome failure to which would lead to a battle.

Modern Stickball

Stickball has been continually played by the Mississippi band of Choctaw up to modern day and has spread becoming among the most popular street games in many parts of America. Modern Stickball has a few more advanced rules than traditionally. For example, the playing field should be in a diamond shape with the bases being 85 feet apart and the ball, a light, small-sized, orange/pink-colored handball (Blanchard, 1981). Playing sticks ought to be of a minimum length of 36 inches and be made of hardwood. The match is played in four quarters each being 15 minutes long, and scores are made by hitting a post fixed at the center of a football goal post. Unlike traditionally, where players wore hand-knit uniforms designed in community colors and diamond patterns, nowadays they wear similarly decorated headbands. In competitions, these rules are issued to all the participating players before the fair. Stickball is Choctaw's traditional game that has been played since its first historical reference. It has remained the most popular sport among the Mississippi band of Choctaws that served several roles such as entertainment and socialization. Although there has been a couple of changes in the game rules, Stickball has remained to be played up to date.

Discuss What the Mississippi Band of Choctaws Traditional Diet Consisted of and How That Compares to the Traditional Diet of Today.

The Mississippi band of Choctaws who are amongst the Native Americans in American history considered food a part of their gatherings (Teufel, 1996). Primarily, their traditional diet consisted of numerous cooking's from vegetables to animal products. Even though the Mississippi band of Choctaws grew vegetables, hunted, fished, and also raised livestock, they majorly prepared hominy and banaha (Laws, 2015). Hominy is made from corn dried in the husk as dried kernels are removed from the cob and pounded in a mortar made by burning a bowl-like indentation from a small tree trunk. Within this diet, the hominy was cooked along with some meat such as chicken and pork, or a combination of the two (Laws, 2015). Additionally, the Mississippi band of Choctaws diet also consisted of banaha. Similar to the hominy, the banaha is prepared by mixing cooked field peas with cornmeal. With this combination of cornmeal and peas, the diet produces a complete set of protein and can be served with fried salt pork. In an extensive collection of their recipes, the Mississippi Band of Choctaws prepared soups, cornbread, and other cooked stone hearths (Dressler, Bindon, & Gilliland, 1996). On the other hand, since the men did most of the hunting, small game, fish, deer's, and wild turkeys were also part of their diet. Most of the meat soups were prepared along with the hominy or banaha, which were the staple foods for the Mississippi band of Choctaws (Teufel, 1996).

Nonetheless, in comparison with the Mississippi band of Choctaws traditional diet to the conventional food of today, they still prepare hominy alongside other stews and soup. Although there is not much hunting, fish is among the traditional diet of today and other meat in their diet. Also, the traditional diet of today consists of certain foods such as the blue grape dumplings, cheddar and corn chowder, cornmeal griddle cakes, crackling bread, crisp salt pork, and the fresh pork as well. In as much as there are new diets to the banaha and hominy are still prepared.

Discuss the Overall Wellness of the Pre-contact Tribe Compared With Overall Wellness Among Native People Today.

The wellness of the pre-contact Native Americans surpasses the wellness of the modern native people who have been influenced by modern lifestyles and practices. However, in some aspects, the modern Native Americans have better welfare, resources, and interventions compared to the pre-contact era where they lacked modern medicine and supplements that modern technology can offer (Dressler et al., 1996). The wellness of the modern Choctaws has significantly declined due to the adoption of modern European lifestyles which has led to the decline of past practices which significantly enhanced their health and wellbeing (Dressler et al., 1996). The Choctaws, like most Native Americans before contact with Europeans, maintained a high percentage vegetarian diet, which was plant-based (Laws, 2015). The history of the Choctaws notes that they spent thousands of years cultivating beans, pumpkin, and corn and were not traditionally vegetarian on purpose. However, it is important to note that agriculture was important for the Choctaws during pre-contact time compared to the modern times where the diet is highly dominated by processed food products and meat which has led to the decline of the overall health and wellbeing of the Choctaws (Laws, 2015). The traditional plant-based food products were more beneficial by increasing their overall health and wellbeing compared to the modern diet where processed products dominate. The pre-contact Choctaws were less likely to be obese compared to modern Choctaws due to the plant diet (Jernigan, 2018).

The arrival of the Europeans was a turning point for the Choctaws who began to turn towards an animal-based diet and eventually forgot the traditional plants and herbs dominated diet which was instrumental for their good health and long life sustenance (Teufel, 1996). The Native Choctaws in the pre-contact times were able to access food from native trees such as; pawpaw, walnuts, mulberries, strawberries, hickory and wild plums which provided greater nutritional value compared to the restrictive European diet which was adopted by the Choctaws reducing the overall consumption of a variety of fruits (Laws, 2015). The Europeans colonization and agricultural activities on lands that were previously tribal lands led to the cutting down of traditional wild fruit trees, and they had to turn to domesticated animal and plant food products. It is believed that the reintroduction of traditional food products and shunning modern animal dominated diets can significantly help to reduce the overall rate of obesity and lifestyle-related diseases amongst the Native Americans (Jernigan, 2018). Therefore, the pre-contact Choctaws of the Native Americans had better health compared to the modern Choctaws mainly due to the plant-based food which involved medicinal herbs and vegetables which hold greater nutritional value compared to the post-contact diets which lack diversity, have high-fat content and animal-based (Laws, 2015).

References

Blanchard, K. (1979). Stickball and the American Southeast. Forms of Play of Native North Americans: St Paul, Minn: West. Retrieved from: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=stickball&btnG=#d=gs_qabs&u=%23%3DDj8f5c_FqT0J

Blanchard, K. (1981). The Mississippi Choctaws at Play: The Serious Side of Leisure. University of Illinois Press. Retrieved from: https://scholar.google.nl/scholar?hl=nl&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=Choctaw+stickball&btnG=Submit

Dressler, W. W., Bindon, J. R., & Gilliland, M. J. (1996). Sociocultural and behavioral influences on health status among the Mississippi Choctaw. Medical Anthropology, 17(2), 165-180. Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01459740.1996.9966134

Jernigan, K. A. (2018). Embodied Heritage: Obesity, Cultural Identity, and Food Distribution Programs in the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2/1356/

Laws, R. (2015). Native Americans and vegetarianism. International Vegetarian Union. Retrieved from https://warzonedistro.noblogs.org/files/2017/09/Native-Americans-and-Vegetarianism.pdf

Sonneborn, L. (2006). The Choctaws. Lerner publications. Retrieved from: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=choctaw+stickball&oq=Choctaw+stick#d=gs_qabs&u=%23%3D4B7uCFRy9sMJ

Teufel, N. I. (1996). Nutrient-health associations in the historic and contemporary diets of Southwest Native Americans. Journal of Nutritional & Environmental Medicine, 6(2), 179-189. Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/13590849609001044