Ohkotokiooyis Game

• Memory

• Focusing and listening

• Responsibility and management

• Finding one's voice

  • The game encourages shy children to become confident to speak in class and to peers, and this confidence leads to success and pride

• Tipi orientation

  • The tipi always faces east. The sun rises to greet the day. This is where we get our strength.

  • The south of the tipi is the highest peak and that is where all of our knowledge gathers, and knowledge leads to wisdom. The prayer plan comes from this.

  • The west of the tipi is the ending where we take all of our knowledge and reflect and learn from it. When the night time comes we thank the Creator for the day.

• Stories of moving encampments to different places in different seasons (e.g., seasonal rounds)

• Stories of what the ancestors encountered while moving (animals, etc.)

• Stories of tipi organization (when moving into a tipi everything is in a specific place with the entrance to the east)

• Seasonal camps

  • Our ancestors stayed in the same areas but at different times of the year following the buffalo

Verbs

• Opakii’sksstsii – "to break camp / strike camp"

• A’pisttotsi – "to move around looking for a place to camp"

Tipi-related words

• Niitóyis - "tipi"

• Aatoksípistaan - "tipi frame"

• Mánsstaamna - "tipi pole"

• Ksippotsíkamaan - "tipi door flap stick, inserted in a hem at the bottom of the door flap"

• Mámma’pisni - "tipi ring"

• Ipani’kahtaa "to line a tipi"

Directions (see also the discussion of directions in Learning from Land)

• • waami't - "west"

  • waamsskaap - "south"

  • waapatohs - "north"

  • innaap - "east"

• Naming and introductions (everyone has a Blackfoot name)

• Descriptive language: using Blackfoot language to describe what is on the rocks

• Names for sacred sites and ceremonial places

• Understanding how our words came from the land and that the language is descriptive and visual

• Tipi-building exercises (see Naato'ipiksi Ken Fox on teaching seasonal rounds - YouTube )

• Rock gathering activities

  • Outdoor activity to collect rocks along the river, allowing students to choose their own rocks for the game. Include an Elder to tell stories

• Drawing on rocks

  • Students could draw on their rocks with symbols based on winter counts

Division 1 -- Building confidence and creativity. Learning to share. Providing visuals of sacred places, symbols instead of words, using Blackfoot verbally. The young ones are very open to storytelling, and the teacher must ask a lot of questions to make sure the students understand the stories. This would allow them to expand their imagination, and they would feel like they were right there in the story. They are very accepting of creatures and events in stories.

Division 2 -- This is where more “thinking” would come in. They would start to understand where things go in the tipi (example men on the north). They are ready for more detail on traditional placements within the tipi. They would be ready to focus more on details at this level. “The why”

Division 3/4 -- Values and lessons are being understood within each story. The tipi tells the journey of your life. There is always a beginning and an end when setting up a tipi. The Blackfeet always use 4. Front and back door, and the spine. There is a specific way of putting it together and marking it.

• Once it's up the liners are put on. This was the woman’s job. Willows would be decorated with beading and used in the tipi as dividers and pillows.

• The design of the tipi came from the dreams of previous owners that transferred the design to someone else. There was always payment involved in this.

• Everyone had a place in the tipi. The owner slept at the front. There was a specific way to move through the tipi, and entering a teepee must be done only with permission. It was all about respect. The door always faces the east.

• The spiritual foundation stands on its own. We have faith, hope, and need to be a servant. Family of the sky (birds), family of the water, creatures that occupy the soil. They all have the responsibility of covenant. They are included in our bundles. We are the parents of all of the creatures. Those were our universal responsibilities. We made offerings to the creatures that occupy those families. Prayers relate to all of these families.