Speaker: Dr. Gabriel Yanicki
While an undergraduate at the University of Calgary in the 1990s, I came across Peter Fidler’s 1792–93 journal of his journey through Blackfoot territory to the Rocky Mountains. His description of a place at the headwaters of the Oldman River—in fact, the river’s namesake—where many nations would meet and “make peace by playing a certain game” set in motion my career-long interest in traditional Indigenous gambling games. For Napi’s (or Old Man’s) Playing Ground is an archetype of intergroup gathering and trade, through the practice of wagering on the outcome of games, that has very deep origins and is repeated continent-wide.
From the Eastern Woodlands to Mesoamerica, from ancient Cahokia to the Northern Plains, gambling games are uninterrupted, sovereign practices that continue to resonate deeply today. In this talk, I will review some of the major archaeological assemblages of gaming material across ancient North America, and what these, in effect the world’s oldest casinos, can tell us about who was gathering at these sites and why.