Little Brother of War

In April, Danielle Moore and I drove down to Mississippi for a Toli game between UGA’s Flying Rats (the only collegiate Toli team in the country) and the Choctaw Skunks. It was an eye-opening experience to watch a game rooted in history and to get a quick glimpse of life on the Choctaw reservations. The trip certainly reminded us of the great injustices done to Native Americans and inspired us to hopefully return someday soon to help record a beautiful culture that is slowly fading away. The Choctaw continue to speak their native Choctaw language and play Toli, or Stickball, a game that originally covered miles of ground, 100s of players, and more peacefully resolved arguments.

Danielle and I returned to write an article that centered on the relationship between the UGA team and the Choctaw team for the newspaper, as well as create an audio slideshow and video (one to accompany the Red&Black article and one as part of a class project,  A Day @ UGA). Click on the top link and scroll down towards the bottom for the video and slideshow–the name Hugh Lee in the slideshow should be Hugh King.

 

 

A Choctaw drummer takes after his father and beats to the rhythm of the Toli game.

Players from both sides jump in the air to control the ball after a point has been scored.

A UGA player repairs his stick during their pre-game practice.

 

Many more photos and video on the above links.