Vigo County Historical Society

Historical Treasure Article

Historic Treasure of the Week - October 6, 1985
By Bill Zwerner
Vigo County Historical Society

Game of chance, the Indian way

Before European explorers entered this part of the continent, the American Indian had developed and practiced a game that involved skill and gambling.

As exploration spread throughout this area, the men reported watching the Indians rolling a small stone on a well-cleared piece of ground. This stone is called a discoidal.

Two Indians would slide an 8-foot pole along the ground trying to make the end of the pole stop closest to where the discoidal would stop. The Indiana whose pole stopped closest to the stone won.

Considerable gambling accompanied these games. The gamblers frequently lost everything they owned. Early reports suggest an Indian might gamble his freedom, and upon losing become enslaved to the winner.

Because the stones were used for this game from one generation to another, they are rarely found in excavated burials, but are often picked up as surface finds.

The discoidal on display in the Historical Museum of the Wabash Valley is identified as a Cahokia type stone, developed around A.D. 1050. Its construction was a time-consuming method of pecking, grinding and polishing a very hard material called quartzite.

This discoidal is concave on both sides , has a small perforation in the center and measures 3.75 inches in diameter with a thickness of 1.6 inches.

American Indian relic collectors regard these artifacts as a true art form of the pre historic American Indian. The relics present us with clues to their social behavior and patterns of living.

The Historical Museum of the Wabash Valley, 1411 S. Sixth St., is open form 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday through Friday.