‘Ojibweg (snake) Bibooni (Snow) Ataadiiwin (Game)’ is the Ojibwe language of the Anishinaabe. The Annual Snow Snake games were hosted by Ojibwe Charter School in the Bay Mills Indian Community. It was a freezing snowy winter day. Nonah and her brother Tyler participated. They are UNITY Alumni Josh and Sarah Homminga’s children. Nonah, beat her brother Tyler’s length in this friendly, but competitive match.
Snow Snake has been played in the Midwest and Great Lakes region for more than 500 years among the Ojibwe, Sioux, Wyandotte, Oneida, Menomonee and Iroquois Nations. The games equipment are poles or sticks measuring 10 inches’, up to 3 feet and some as long as 10 feet made from the forests hardwood trees. A trough or track is made of snow, a sunken trail for the snow snakes to glide. The goal is to throw snow snakes the furthest down the track. To learn more how to play, go to this link in Wikipedia to find rules.
Today, Snow Snake games are being played across Indian Country from Alaska, California, across the Midwest and Northeast. It is a new addition to other traditional winter games. Traditionally the game is played by banking snow to build a track. Some Snow Snake game tracks are now played on snow packed ground and frozen ice. For more information about Snow Snake games, read this article called Ojibweg Bibooni-Ataadiiwin.
