Home In The World In Canada In The North Ideas

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Stick Game
Igloo Game
Ashta-Chamma
Knot Talk
Ajagaak
Bag of Bones
Ball Pass
Akserk
Ball Toss 

Ajagaak

Players

1 - 2 (or more)

Equipment

String about 5-6 inches long

Bone from a bearded seal or any bone with one or more holes in it

Small bone tip about 2-3 inches long.

How to Play

Attach one end of the string to each of the bones as shown in the picture above.
The object of the game is to hold the bone tip in one hand and swing the bone into the air trying to spear the hole in the bone with the bone tip.
Sometimes this game is played to a story:
With two or more players each having their own ajagaak, the players continue to flip the bone until it is speared 5 times.
This represents the first five days of the hunt.
On the 6th spear, a caribou is killed.
Continue until 10 caribou are killed.
When the hunter gets 10 caribou, he must now bury (cache) them. This means that he spears the bone 10 more times, with each time representing a cache.
Once all the caribou are buried, they have to be dug up again (10 more times).
When all the caribou are dug up, the first player to get his all dug up can then begin to steal the other hunters' caribou who haven't got theirs yet.
The player with the most caribou is the winner.

Variation

Sometimes people would sit in a circle and the ajagaak is passed from person to person each trying to spear the bone. When a player failed to spear the bone, it was passed onto the next person. If the player was successful, however, he continued to do it until he missed. Whoever flipped the bone successfully to the count of all fingers and toes, was the winner.