Pawnee Seed Preservation Project garden story

Marble Story
By Deb Echo-Hawk

Ever since we started having gardens at the Tribe around the old Boarding School site we have found marbles. John Michael Knifechief (formally the Tribal Historic and Preservation Officer) and I found a beautiful clear green one in the Elder Center garden. He kept it saying it was wonderful to reminisce on how the little ones at the Boarding School must have entertained themselves, so unlike today with all the handheld devices games for solitary young minds. John Michael wondered about how they played marbles …

Found another marble that was blue and brown and then a third white one in the TERO garden … After visiting with our Elders about Boarding School marble games Ann Collins suggested I talk to Tom Morgan who attended the Boarding School. Tom was open to talking about playing, especially downtown on the Pawnee Square in the summertime. There were frequent gatherings on the square where boys would play each other for hours on end. Jeanine Fischer as a little girl from the Bakery across the street always wanted to play, too. However, the little boys made it clear it was for the guys and one of the guys even took her marbles away! Tom Morgan said the one to ask about the game was Herb Rice the “Juice”.

Herb was open to talking about Boarding School marble games.

Herb reflected … after we got out of school we played. They had two games. Bull’s Eye had a round big ol’ circle drawn in the dirt and you put all your marbles in the center then you had to shoot from the outside circle. Then hit another marble so it went out of the circle.

Then they had what they called Cat’s Eye where the shape of the eye was drawn in the dirt. You would lag to a line away from the Cat’s Eye. The one who got closest to the line got to go first. The game would begin where you had to knock the marble out of the Cat’s Eye. If you knocked a marble out then you got to shoot again. If your shooter marble was stuck inside of the Cat’s Eye you would lose the marble game and the other guy would win all the marbles left in the Cat’s Eye.

Then they had another game that they called War. Your opponent would throw his marble out there and you would shoot at that marble. If you hit it you would win. But if you didn’t hit it then the opponent had the chance to shoot at you. Sometimes they would go all over the playground before someone would get hit. If you hit them you would win.

All these games were played between the Boy’s Dorm and the Chow Hall. There was no grass there just plain dirt. At any given time all the games were played … some playing the Bull’s Eye and some playing the Cat’s Eye and others chasing themselves at War. When they played Bull’s Eye the little guys drew a small circle and the older guys drew a big ol’ circle to play in. Everyone had a favorite marble to use as the shooter. If you used a Steely Ball it was bad because it would chip the marble. We had to outlaw the steely ball because not only would it chip the marble, but shoot two or three marbles out and it wasn’t fair. We would shoot until we knocked all the marbles out. We had different size marbles, can’t remember what they call the big marbles. The shooters were always the smaller marble. We all bought our marbles at Ermy Cheatham’s store downtown. A bag full was about a quarter. There might be about a hundred marbles in a bag.

We always played for keeps. But those bigger boys would take them away from the smaller guys. Matron Betty Howell who was married to Stacy “Old Club” Howell would get all the marbles from the bullies and throw them out there in the yard and then have all the young ones go out there and get all of the marbles that were out there.

We mainly played by the Boy’s Dorm, if you found marbles across from the TERO garden well that was where employees houses were and they all had little boys living there. They probably lost them out there.

Tom “Elmo” Morgan had the funniest way to shoot marbles. He wouldn’t shoot like the rest of us. He would hold his fist down and push the marble from the side making the marble spin. He was the only one that shot that way. Everybody played at the school. All of our pants were worn at the knees. I never considered myself a champion marble player. The one I liked to play against was Charlie Lonechief. I beat him all the time! He’d go home and get his dad to go get more marbles at Ermy’s. Everybody liked to play him … he wasn’t very good he would lose all the time. Oh, Buddy!
My grandkids have never played marbles. They would rather play miniature golf. I never did see them play marbles, just marbles in the Chinese Checkers game. They never did go out and shoot marbles like that. Danielle Wheatley said it would be interesting if Herb made a video of the Boarding School games as her kids plays a version of the Bull’s Eye game, but never called it that. They shoot at each other in the circle. Herb asked if they “Fudged” because you can lose the game if you fudge.

When you heard the bell ring at the Boarding School then it was a free-for-all! Grab all the marbles you can. I wasn’t fast enough. Boy, some of those guys would get in there and grab a handful at a time. Then you had to go downstairs and wash your hands when the time-to-eat bell rang. Some of us would just rub the dirt off. But Mrs. Howell would have us hold our hands out flat and she would see the dirt in the fingers creases and tell us to go wash your hands! We’d try to argue with her that we did, but she inspected close up and got us to the sink. That bell rang all day long.

The school bell rang for school, time to go inside, or go to chow. It was a little cow bell. I got to ring it most every day. I had to go around the whole Boy’s Dorm. The bell had a handle on it. I would go around like a camp crier. Every day we had free time morning, noon and night and we played marbles. If it rained we played inside, too. In the basement we would draw a chalk circle play on the cement floor of the boys’ building.

Even today you can find marbles around the Boy’s Dorm. Herb said so many just toss them aside … but when Herb finds them he keeps them!