When one thinks about games played during the Winter months, thoughts turn to the outdoors and the Winter Olympics.
One might visualize an Olympic ski jumper such as the one pictured on the left. There are of course a number of races which involve skiing.
We are also aware of other Winter Olympic games such as Bobsleding, Curling, Luge, Tobogganing, and of course Ice Hockey and Ice Skating. There are many Ice Skating events that one might not think of as a game, but these are competitive games in which participants attempt to obtain winning scores by competing against one another as in any other game.
In Canada and elsewhere in northern climes, there are additional Winter Games that are not part of the Olympics, such as Dog Sled races as pictured on the left. Many of these other Winter Games have old historic roots related to the geographic areas and the ethnos of the peoples who settled in those areas.
Two objects in the Museum collection are representative of ethnic oriented Winter Games that are played in Canada, the United States, and elsewhere. One of these is CURLING and the other SNOWSNAKE. Curling's origins are in Scotland, while Snowsnake is a North American Indian game played in Canada and the United States.
Click on one of the left menu items to learn about these latter games and to view examples of the equipment used that are in the collection. In addition, the Webpage about Snowsnake features a full motion with sound video illustrating and explaining how that game is played. Because this is a "video", it will take slightly longer to download to your computer than it would if it were a single photograph.
Last update March 2, 2010