Saving a tradition
Crowd plays Navajo Shoe Game at Coyote Canyon

While playing The Shoe Game, Nelson McCabe points to empty shoes on his teams own side, while consulting teammates on which shoe he should pick on the opposing team's line up of shoes. If the correct shoe with the yucca root is picked, the two opposing teams reverse their roles in the game play. One team hides a small piece of the yucca root while the other teams searches for it. [Photo by Daniel Zollinger/Independent]

By Karen Francis
Diné Bureau

Nelson McCabe makes trips between the opposing sides during the shoe game Saturday evening during the show game at Coyote Canyon Chapter House. While making the passes, McCabe passed by the bucket that held the bet money and the game's currency of yucca shoots. [Photo by Daniel Zollinger/Independent]

COYOTE CANYON — With time running out to play the Navajo Shoe Game, chapters around the Navajo Nation have been hosting the game before Feb. 2 when the winter game is no longer played.

On Saturday, the Coyote Canyon land use planning committee held its first community shoe game of the

At least 70 people showed up to participate in the traditional game.

Two sides are chosen to represent the day animals to the north and the night animals to the south.

Sally Begay told a brief story about how the shoe game started long ago before the playing began.

The story goes that the animals and birds played the shoe game to determine if it would always be day or always be night. Neither side won and that is why today there is both day and night.

Begay noted that in different parts of the reservation, the stories vary slightly.

Alice Nez brought her daughter and two granddaughters from Shiprock to see the game before winter ends.

“I wanted to show my grandkids what the shoe game is.

They don’t really know,” she said. “I want for them to learn something about tradition. They like to know.”

While Nez herself said she only went one time before, she didn’t hesitate to take her granddaughters to the Coyote Canyon Chapter House on Saturday evening, even though she was tired from work.

Her granddaughter Seanabah said she had played the shoe game in first grade but could not remember much about it.

As people began showing up, four pairs of boots were brought in — two for each side — to hide a ball made from yucca inside. Each side filled their boots up with dirt and half buried them in dirt piles.

After a toss to determine who will go first, the night side got the ball and hid it. The day side took turns guessing which boot the yucca balls was placed in.

During the game, each side sings animal songs as a way to distract the players.

Lorena Brown, a CLUP member, said that they were putting on the activity for the elderly.

“A lot of elderly were asking me how come we haven’t had one this year. They miss it,” she said.

It wasn’t only the elderly who were enjoying the game. A young girl sat by her grandfather on the night side singing songs and helping to play the game.

“This is barely my first one this winter,” Samantha Plummer said as the game was being set up for another round.

“I learned it in school,” she said. “When my grandpa goes, I sometimes go.”

Plummer won $1 when the first round ended with the night side winning.