By Tosh Welch
Stickball is our game. It’s part of our cultural identity for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. It’s a social exercise, it’s a teaching tool, and it’s a method of preparing our young men for life.
The game is called “The little brother of war,” and was originally a way of preparing young men for the challenges they would face in battle.
Today, it prepares our young men for a different kind of fight. Our young men learn how to stand up for themselves. They learn how to stand up in our community. They learn how to stand up for what they believe in. They learn how to settle their differences peacefully, and they learn how to be men of character.
If I can walk out there and keep a larger stronger more aggressive man from killing me on the ball field, then when I step onto a college campus and I’m intimidated, I can step back and look at those lessons I learned on the field.
I’m going to face that day, and I’m going to deal with that fear, and I’m going to live. At the end of the day you realize that wasn’t so bad. It was only half the demon I created in my own mind.
Learning to face your fears is part of passing into adulthood for young men, and it is a way of earning the respect of the community. One of the lessons stickball has taught me is how to treat all people, even those who I dislike, with respect.
One of the most valuable things the Wolftown headman, or coach, has always said, is learn your language. When you learn your language, and you play stickball in our language, it has more meaning.
As the landscape for American Indian tribes continues to change, we have to look at the parts that we have to hold on to and carry with us into the next century. You have to grab that language and carry that with you. You have to grab that culture and carry that with you.
Stickball is one way we can continue to carry our identity as a sovereign Indian nation forward into the next century.
For more about stickball, watch The Stickball Player.