Also, today there are rules for safety reasons, no tackling below the waist of the ball carrier, in order to avoid leg and ankle injury. No cleats, they prefer to play bare-footed in the summertime and wear light running shoes at other times. We play 15 minute quarters with a break at half after 2 quarters. In the old days, the final score was predetermined or set prior to the game. For instance, if they decided the game would be won at 100 points, they would play for several days or until the team scored 100 points. Each striking of the goalpost with the ball equates to 1 point. Generally, most games were set at 20 points. Also, in Choctaw Stickball, the goalposts were at each end of the playing field and one team had to advance the ball to the opponent’s goal. The defense on the opposing team could tackle the player with the ball; therefore, it took more skill and maneuvering to score a point. The same strategy applies today.

Is your family still involved with Choctaw Stickball? I have been in charge of presenting a stickball exhibition game at theChoctaw Nation Labor Day Festival since 1976. I have not missed a year. Now, my two sons, Bryon Mahli Billy age 37, and Jimmy Chilita Billy age 31, have grown up playing

the game as well as making the kapucha or stickball sticks. They have involved their children in playing the Choctaw stickball game as well as instructing others to play and making stickball sticks and ball.

My oldest grandson, Brenner Billy, is 18 years old and a freshman at the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond, Oklahoma. He continues to perpetuate the stickball game by incorporating it as an on-campus activity. He has played in many stickball games in Oklahoma and Mississippi. The younger grandsons, Miko, age 9, Trayvian, age 10 and Logan Billy, age 5, currently play in age appropriate stickball games.

Curtis Billy grew up in Broken Bow, Oklahoma with six siblings and his parents, Ed and Cynthia Billy. Under his leadership, Choctaw youth have been playing Choctaw stickball at Broken Bow High School, Inter-tribal games, and in the Labor Day Festival, Tushkahoma, Oklahoma with an exhibition game on the Capitol Lawn since 1977. That same year, the Choctaws won the title in a Five Civilized Tribes Tournament. Curtis is currently employed with the Choctaw Nation Language Department. He teaches Choctaw Language and Culture, and Choctaw History at Southeastern Oklahoma State University.

161616

17

323232O KL AH O MA CASINOS + E N T E R T A I N M E N T

03 12

FREE

Anita Fields

LIVING CULTURES12

SEEKING BALANCE>by heather ahtone>

Native American ceramics conjures images of Puebloan pottery, maybe women walking in a plaza with large ollas

precariously balanced on their heads. But for Anita Fields, those stereotypes had nothing to do with her culture, her traditions, nor her vision for the future. Her interest in ceramics was driven by curiosity about the clay’s natural pliability and personality, and an inherent symbolism for attachment to place. Fields has a vision for using clay to connect to her tribal traditions while stepping into a future where there are no limits for defining American Indian art. >

Anita Fields (b. 1951; Osage/Muscogee (Creek) began her formal art training at the Institute of American Indian Arts and

completed her studies at Oklahoma State University. However, a formal education in ceramics does not match the informal education in Osage philosophy and ethos that continues to be an integral component of Fields conceptual basis. The knowledge shared in a ceremony or as a regular participant cannot be quantified like a degree. The evidence of this knowledge rests in the art directly. Interestingly, there are few examples of Osage ceramics. Not having a tribal tradition to uphold in regards the medium actually gives Fields liberty in pursuing the craft.>

In Oklahoma the ceramics and pottery traditions are most often associated with the Southeastern tribes, Cherokee, Chickasaw,

Caddo. The Osage people are part of the Plains tribal community, descendants of ancient Cahokia and linguistic relatives of the other Siouxan tribes. Traditions are more likely textile ribbonwork, carving, and there are many painters and writers from the community. Fields is adept working in her tribe’s ribbonwork traditions and is known to be a good cook, one of several appointed cooks for the Zon-Zoli, Hominy district during the annual In-Lon-Schka dance (a traditional Osage ceremonial). One might expect that her ceramics would overtly incorporate markers of her tribal traditions, to make sure that their influence was recognizable. As a Native ceramicist, she might be expected to build forms that fit in the Native pottery genre, wide bodied bowls with small mouths. But Fields does not comply so

Standing Up, 2013, 25x15x24in,Clay, Paint, Linen, Paper Collage

13

LIVING CULTURES14

easily with market demands that often govern Native American art. As an Osage woman and as a contemporary artist, Fields says, “My creative efforts are how I acknowledge what I know to be true. It is the language I employ to define my place within culture and the world.” Without specific traditions to follow, Fields has set her own path with the medium. The visual vernacular Fields has developed is vested in the broad use of black and white, anonymous male and female figures, and, more often than not, spare applications of gold. She has developed recurring stamps of spirals and roses, incorporates handprints–which is quite common in Osage works–and pays special attention to the balance of the overall composition.>

The piece Standing Up, two armless figures are conjoined at the hip and the shoulder, walking in synchronicity. The male figure on

the left, is all black covered in small white crosses placed without a controlling pattern and yet never overlapping or crowding in the liberal distribution. The female figure on the right, also all black, is covered in white polka dots with slightly more order in their placement, though also freely placed. The balance that these two figures strike while seemingly in motion expresses a tenet of Osage culture—that life is ordered in dichotomy. There are earth-sky, man-woman, inside-outside, black-white, etc. The ordering in oppositional but equal pairs is evident in nature as a critical system. Standing Up expresses that order in a manner that communicates joy, celebrates the partnership, and shares with the viewer the potential of following nature’s guidance. Both figures are wrapped across the midsections with collaged center bands. Enigmatic symbols, like handprints, more x-marks, abstract patterns of reds and grays cross the white swaths. The only areas of color, the red communicates both vibrancy and blood, though never clearly confirmed as either. Both heads have golden adornments in place of the ears. The metallic glow contrasts sharply with the black forms, and contrast in their shimmer against the bands. >

Dichotomy is also an over arching theme in the aptly titled Balance, composed of two black-bodied figures that hang

against the wall. The male is covered in white crosses, spirals, and clouds, all elements of the sky. The female body is colored similarly with white corn stalks and cobs, spirals, floral references, rain clouds, and rain drops that seem to move in every direction. They are each outlined in gold, with an x-mark. The primary difference is that the female figure

Movement Of The Sun #2, 2013, 20x45in, Clay, Slips, Gold Luster Glaze, Gold Enamel

Movement Of The Sun #2, 2013, 20x45in, Clay, Slips, Gold Luster Glaze, Gold Enamel

15

LIVING CULTURES16

holds portions of a page from an Osage dictionary in her hand. A small gesture, but the critical relationship between tribal ethos and language is undeniable. Placed in the woman’s hand, Fields creates a visual relationship between regeneration and linguistic continuity. A powerful message strengthened by the presence of the male figure, for the Osage are a patriarchal society. Through this pairing, Fields implicates the importance of traditional social structure, language, male and feminine primal forces into a black and white statement on the importance of all these in seeking a balanced identity for the continuity of the community.>

Seeking balance is as much for humanity as it is for the planet in Over the Earth. The curved surface of the free-standing square

form is covered with a whimsical landscape. The composition is equally divided into sky and earth, using the rolling hills of Oklahoma as a horizon line. The sky has intermittent gold appliquéed circles that could be the starry night. The landscape is formed of polka-dotted hills with a textured foreground, the texture a mix of Fields’s signature stamps layered across the field. A small river diagonally moves from the center of the horizon to the lower right corner. Balance is indicated as a necessity, not only for the health of the tribal community, but for the earth itself.>

It is perhaps in seeking balance through the clay that Fields’ message about her tribal community is best expressed. Rather than

using the expected visual markers, she is creating a new language to speak for the value of her ancient tribal traditions in a new century. Balancing between the roles of mother, wife, artist, and cook, Fields is using the clay to reference the shifting nature of culture. As the community uses Osage culture to guide them in making contemporary decisions, the art expresses the beauty of finding that balance.>

Fields was recently in a two-person exhibition with fellow Oklahoman Tony Tiger in Link the Past to the Present at the

Walton Art Center. See her work at Lovett’s Gallery in Tulsa and find out more at her website: http://www.nativefieldsart.com >Heather Ahtone (Choctaw/Chickasaw) is the James T. Bialac Assistant Curator of Native American and Non-Western Art at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma.

Earth And Sky, 2013, 30x8in, Clay, Slips, Gold Luster Glaze

17

info@dreamcatchermag.net

http://www.dreamcatchermag.net

http://www.facebook.com/dreamcatchermag