The College of New Caledonia (CNC) in Burns Lake was ringing with the sound of drums and singing on March 13, as locals played the stick and bone game known as lahal. The workshop was part of the college’s Aboriginal History Week and meant to help connect people in the community with an ancestral tradition.
The game involves two teams that face each other in rows. Both are trying to gain possession of a complete set of sticks by correctly guessing where rival team members are hiding two distinctively marked “bones” (they can also be made out of carved antler or wood)— in their right or the left hand.
Players on the “hiding” side shout, sing and beat drums to distract the rival team, while their teammate clutches the bones behind their back. The effect is a boisterous and cheerful atmosphere. These games sometimes last for hours, said Bruce Allan, an instructor in First Nations Studies at CNC Prince George, who led the workshop.
For some of the locals in attendance, it was their first time playing lahal. “It was really fun,” said Christine John, a facilitator with a Carrier Sekani Family Services job training program, who attended the event with program participants. Her team won the first match after making a comeback from a tough early stage in the game.
Organizers of Aboriginal History Week had cancelled a series of drumming sessions following several deaths in the community — drummers normally refrain from playing during times of mourning. But they permitted Allan to drum because the game is often played at funerals to cheer people up. “It’s to lift the spirits of the people,” said Allan, a member of Stellat’en First Nation.
During the days when the federal Indian Act banned the potlatch, Indian agents also prevented the playing of lahal, due to its association with gambling — players often compete for high-stakes prizes, such as horses or power tools — but the game is also deeply linked with Indigenous spirituality and traditional songs. This makes the modern practice of lahal especially significant.
“It has a spiritual element to it, because this game has been passed on for generations,” said Allan, noting that lahal is probably at least 2,000-3,000 years old. “Our ancestors played this game, and we believe that they’re here when we drum and sing.”
He was accompanied by Maurice Alexander — an 81-year-old elder from Alexis Creek First Nation— who helped teach the game to participants, and previously taught it to Allan himself. A great-grandfather whose storied life has included time spent as a bull-rider and rancher in the Chilcotin region, Alexander observed the players at the CNC event, helping them to make their guesses. Later he playfully reproached some, saying they cheated by stealing sticks. “But they lost,” he laughed.
The workshop was a way of connecting with oral history by learning about ancestral traditions, said CNC Lakes District regional principal Corinne George. “Our elders are our teachers,” said George. “The elder was able to share many of his experiences connected to lahal and he was able to share that with the future generations.”
The game involves reading the facial expressions and body language of rival team members, a process that helps people to get to know each other. And it has an ancient diplomatic purpose, as First Nations would traditionally play lahal before one could cross the other’s territory, said Allan.
“You get to know people non-verbally.” said Allan, adding that people become very outgoing in the excitement of the game. “It breaks the ice,” he said, as an animated group of players hollered and cheered.
Lahal was also sometimes used as a way to settle disputes without bloodshed: some have likened the competition to a kind of Olympic Games, a form of non-military competition between nations. The game is played across North America. The workshop was part of a week-long series of events at the Burns Lake campus celebrating Indigenous history.