Free Hybrid Lecture: Indigenous Traditions: Stickball in the 21st Century

Name: Free Hybrid Lecture: Indigenous Traditions: Stickball in the 21st Century
Start: 2025-11-13T18:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-11-13T19:00:00-05:00
Location: Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138

Schedule

Thu Nov 13 2025 at 06:00 pm to 07:00 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 | Cambridge, MA

Stickball is one of the oldest team sports in the world and has been played by Native American tribes for centuries. Historically, the game was used as a diplomatic tool. Instead of going to war, Native American tribes played stickball to settle large disputes. This earned the game the nickname The Little Brother of War. Once outlawed and threatened, stickball has persisted and is still played by many today at both local and World Series levels, and even by students and staff across Harvard. Join contemporary players and stick makers as they discuss reclamation of traditional stick making, game play, and community building.
Advance registration recommended for online and in-person attendance. https://tinyurl.com/StickballTraditions
Free admission. Free event parking at the 52 Oxford Street Garage starting at 5:00 pm.
About the Participants:
James Walkingstick serves as the academic engagement coordinator for the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology. James, born and raised in the Cherokee Nation Reservation, is the recipient of the Sally Falk Moore Prize in Public Service for his Harvard undergraduate research on the impact of mining pollution on his home in Grand Lake, Oklahoma. He began making sticks and playing stickball on campus in 2025.
Bailey Brown is a Cherokee/Choctaw stickball stick and ball maker from Grand Lake, Oklahoma. He takes pride in ensuring that this ancient ball game, stick-making traditions, and its related culture never go dormant. He plays stickball with the Oakhill Community, recently highlighted by Osiyo TV, and competed this summer with the team Tiak Hikiya in the Stickball World Series in Philadelphia, Mississippi. He is devoted to “passing it forward to the next 7 generations, like it’s been done for millennia by our ancestors.”
Iysiahs Manny York is a member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. He is an undergraduate at Harvard College concentrating in Applied Mathematics.
Audrey L. Jacob is an enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, raised on the reservation in Tribal District 8, Choctaw County, Oklahoma. She has played stickball since 2017, when the Nation organized its first women’s team to compete in the Annual World Series of Stickball tournament hosted by the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. As a defender, she helps her team protect the pole.
Presented by the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology and the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture in collaboration with Harvard University Native American Program.