Scouting: Winter Games
Description
This article is from the Scouting FAQ, by Bill Nelson nelsonb@nospam.aztec.asu.edu, Soaring Golden Eagle eagle@rangernet.org and Alan Houser troop24@emf.net with numerous contributions by others.
Scouting: Winter Games
16.1 THE SNOW SNAKE GAME
Native American winter game, reached highest levels of sophistication
among the nations and tribes near the Great Lakes. Seneca tribe of the
Iroquois Nation called it Gawasa, I believe. (Also the name of the
oldest winter training program in the BSA I believe, now well over 50.
In the Land of the Oneidas council upstate New York)
On a long, 1/4 mile or more , level surface, build a long pile of
snow, 2 feet high, 2 feet wide. This will occupy a winter camporee of
about 100 scouts for an hour or so. Make a V shaped trough in the
pile, smooth and ice it thoroughly.
All contestants have previously carved a snow snake. It should be 5 to
7 feet long, about 1 1/2 inches high at the 2 to 4 inch long head. The
eyes of the snake are where it is weighted. The snake should never be
wider than 3/4 inch and is usually only a 1/2 inch high, behind the
head. The bottom is rounded, the top, behind the head is flat. The
underside of the head should curve up like a ski. Decorations and
carvings should be done on the non-sliding surfaces.
The snow snake is held in the throwing hand with the index finger at
the end of the snake, like a sling. The snake is supported with the
non throwing hand during a running head start. The arm movement is a
crass between a baseball side-arm pitch and a bowling delivery.
Using these directions, at the defunct Iroquois Council's 1973 Gawasa,
a 14 year old scout threw a snow snake more than 1/4 mile down the
trough. I have seen the Huron Nation build troughs on Lake Michigan
over 3 miles long, and one year saw a television report of a Huron
throwing a snow snake over 2 miles down a trough (about 1978).
The younger scouts get really impressed when they see what they are
capable of.
16.2 MORE WINTER GAMES
I have seen all sorts of things done at winter camps, and while I have
no specific suggestions as to games, there are variations you can use
on other sports/games, such as: Golf (use tennis balls coffee cans and
expect to lose a few balls), volleyball (careful, the ball gets quite
hard, but playing this game knee or waist deep in powder is not to be
missed.), campfire building and so on. As I type this I remember
building kitchen areas with tables and seats by digging into the snow.
Wide games are a lot of fun in the snow (see other thread) and I
imagine "stalker" would be trickier on snowshoes... One winter camp
here in BC (Rovent for you BC'ers who have seen a lot of this before)
also features a gateway contest and snow-sculpture contest.
In general I think that you can do a lot of things at a winter camp
that you can do in the summer, you just have to remember to stay dry.
One final note, Hot Chocolate tastes GREAT at -20 C!!! Enjoy!
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