Summer Activities (continued)

Finely made chunkey stones from the Cahokia site, Cahokia Mounds Museum

While crops grew, some family members may have also traveled to partake in activities required by the larger local or regional Mississippian communities. Perhaps like later Native Americans of the eastern woodlands, Mississippians travelled to nearby towns and mound centers to attend mid-summer activities and ceremonies associated with the green maize picking. Although summer work was hard, leisure and ritual activities probably included games, gambling, singing, and dancing. One game, the chunkey stone game, is known from ethnohistorical accounts. In this game, a round stone with concave sides was rolled down a field by one person while the player attempted to knock it over or alter its path by hitting it with a throwing stick.

Given the representation of chunkey stone players on shell gorgets adorned with chiefly icons, and the presence of finely crafted chunkey stones in elite burials, it seems likely that the chunkey stone game may have been an important part of some ceremonies.

Playing chunkey

Working for the chief.

Also, if a family was closely related to an elite person in a nearby village or town, wanted to demonstrate their loyalty, or needed to repay a debt to a person or highly ranked group, one or more members of the farmstead household may have traveled to this town to preform their "community service". Clearly, mound construction required some labor pooling, and it seems likely that many households had a labor surplus during the summer growing season.

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