Celebrations

During the early winter months, Athabaskans celebrated the close of the hunting and fishing seasons. Several local bands would unite at these celebrations to renew ties with family or friends. These meetings were an opportunity to trade, arrange marriages, honor the dead, and reward and punish individuals. Reward included group recognition. Punishment was usually criticism.

At these celebrations, the Athabaskans feasted, played games, danced, sang, and told stories.  Each Athabaskan band had traveling songs, love songs, war songs, mourning songs, and songs of happiness. They also had stories. Their stories related to their history and adventures and taught group values and moral lessons.

Most Athabaskan groups had ceremonies to honor the dead. The Koyukon Athabaskans called their ceremony the stick dance. The celebration lasted seven days, during which the Koyukon feasted, danced, and sang. The stick was a tall, decorated spruce pole. People danced and sang around it through one night. They took the stick down at the end of the dancing and danced through the village. Finally, they broke the stick into several pieces.

The Athabaskans had several games. They played tug-of-war and darts, wrestled, ran, and raced canoes. One of the games, shinny, resembled hockey. Four people played. They buried a square wood block in the middle of a field. Opponents raced to dig the block out of the hole and, using sticks, attempted to knock it to one or the other end of the playing field. In another game, one player tried to pull a moose skin to a designated point while others tried to stop the skin's movement by poking sticks into it. If the person pulling the skin got it to the end of the course, he or she was considered shrewd and clever.

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