Christine McHorse, Dreamcatcher 049
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Also, today there are rules for safety reasons, no tackling below the waist of the ball carrier, in order to avoid leg and ankle injury. No cleats, they prefer to play bare-footed in the summertime and wear light running shoes at other times. We play 15 minute quarters with a break at half after 2 quarters. In the old days, the final score was predetermined or set prior to the game. For instance, if they decided the game would be won at 100 points, they would play for several days or until the team scored 100 points. Each striking of the goalpost with the ball equates to 1 point. Generally, most games were set at 20 points. Also, in Choctaw Stickball, the goalposts were at each end of the playing field and one team had to advance the ball to the opponent’s goal. The defense on the opposing team could tackle the player with the ball; therefore, it took more skill and maneuvering to score a point. The same strategy applies today. Is your family still involved with Choctaw Stickball? I have been in charge of presenting a stickball exhibition game at the Choctaw Nation Labor Day Festival since 1976. I have not missed a year. Now, my two sons, Bryon Mahli Billy age 37, and Jimmy Chilita Billy age 31, have grown up playing the game as well as making the kapucha or stickball sticks. They have involved their children in playing the Choctaw stickball game as well as instructing others to play and making stickball sticks and ball. My oldest grandson, Brenner Billy, is 18 years old and a freshman at the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond, Oklahoma. He continues to perpetuate the stickball game by incorporating it as an on-campus activity. He has played in many stickball games in Oklahoma and Mississippi. The younger grandsons, Miko, age 9, Trayvian, age 10 and Logan Billy, age 5, currently play in age appropriate stickball games. Curtis Billy grew up in Broken Bow, Oklahoma with six siblings and his parents, Ed and Cynthia Billy. Under his leadership, Choctaw youth have been playing Choctaw stickball at Broken Bow High School, Inter-tribal games, and in the Labor Day Festival, Tushkahoma, Oklahoma with an exhibition game on the Capitol Lawn since 1977. That same year, the Choctaws won the title in a Five Civilized Tribes Tournament. Curtis is currently employed with the Choctaw Nation Language Department. He teaches Choctaw Language and Culture, and Choctaw History at Southeastern Oklahoma State University. 16 16 16 32 32 32 OKLAHOMA CASINOS + ENTERTAINMENT 03 12 FREE Sculptor Christine Nofchissey McHorse
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From the pages of Dreamcatcher Magazine: Sculptor Christine Nofchissey McHorse (Navajo).
Transcript of Christine McHorse, Dreamcatcher 049
Also, today there are rules for safety reasons, no tackling below the waist of the ball carrier, in order to avoid leg and ankle injury. No cleats, they prefer to play bare-footed in the summertime and wear light running shoes at other times. We play 15 minute quarters with a break at half after 2 quarters. In the old days, the final score was predetermined or set prior to the game. For instance, if they decided the game would be won at 100 points, they would play for several days or until the team scored 100 points. Each striking of the goalpost with the ball equates to 1 point. Generally, most games were set at 20 points. Also, in Choctaw Stickball, the goalposts were at each end of the playing field and one team had to advance the ball to the opponent’s goal. The defense on the opposing team could tackle the player with the ball; therefore, it took more skill and maneuvering to score a point. The same strategy applies today.
Is your family still involved with Choctaw Stickball? I have been in charge of presenting a stickball exhibition game at theChoctaw Nation Labor Day Festival since 1976. I have not missed a year. Now, my two sons, Bryon Mahli Billy age 37, and Jimmy Chilita Billy age 31, have grown up playing
the game as well as making the kapucha or stickball sticks. They have involved their children in playing the Choctaw stickball game as well as instructing others to play and making stickball sticks and ball.
My oldest grandson, Brenner Billy, is 18 years old and a freshman at the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond, Oklahoma. He continues to perpetuate the stickball game by incorporating it as an on-campus activity. He has played in many stickball games in Oklahoma and Mississippi. The younger grandsons, Miko, age 9, Trayvian, age 10 and Logan Billy, age 5, currently play in age appropriate stickball games.
Curtis Billy grew up in Broken Bow, Oklahoma with six siblings and his parents, Ed and Cynthia Billy. Under his leadership, Choctaw youth have been playing Choctaw stickball at Broken Bow High School, Inter-tribal games, and in the Labor Day Festival, Tushkahoma, Oklahoma with an exhibition game on the Capitol Lawn since 1977. That same year, the Choctaws won the title in a Five Civilized Tribes Tournament. Curtis is currently employed with the Choctaw Nation Language Department. He teaches Choctaw Language and Culture, and Choctaw History at Southeastern Oklahoma State University.
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Sculptor Christine Nofchissey McHorse
LIVING CULTURES12
Spatial Concerto2012, Micaceous Clay, 18 1⁄8 x 23 x 7 1⁄2 in. Photo: Addison Doty
>DARK LIGHT>>
S culptor Christine Nofchissey McHorse seems full of contradictions. The Navajo artist uses
traditional methods to create ceramics that challenge the notion of traditional Native American art. As a resident of New Mexico, her works are being scooped up by non-Southwest art aficionados across the nation. Her new series, Dark Light, utilizes blackened, mica-rich clay she harvests from riverbeds in northern New Mexico that fires to a sheen that actually sparkles. >
Rooted in timeless Puebloan traditions, McHorse uses the method she learned from her mother-in-
law, Lena Archuleta of Taos, harvesting the clay by and building her forms by hand. Taos potters, like those of the neighboring Picuris, Nambe and Teseque Pueblos (nestled in the foothills and passes of New Mexico’s Sangre de Cristo mountains), have been making micaceous pottery for more than 700 years. The clay of this region is naturally rich in mica particles (metamorphic rock subjected to high pressures and temperatures). When utilized in pottery making and after coiling, burnishing and firing, the mica flecks create a glittering surface upon which light dances back and forth. >
Many Native artists have shrugged off the limita- tions of historicized ‘tradition,’ and as they
actively practice their cultural traditions, they creatively respond to diverse contemporary influences,” said Heather Ahtone, the James T. Bialac Assistant Curator of Native American and Non-Western Art at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art.>
For McHorse, this creative response results in forms that are studies in sensuous shadows and
highlights, organic curves, smooth spirals and rounded folds. By creating vessel-based art that is undecorated and abstract, McHorse’s work relates more to modern sculpture than to Southwestern culture. As a result, she has been collected both by contemporary art and Native arts collectors.
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LIVING CULTURES
Nautilus2006, Micaceous Clay, 18 1⁄2 x 10 1⁄2 in. Photos: Addison Doty
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Moreover, McHorse creates objects that speak within a distinctively 21st-century
vernacular,” Ahtone said. “She challenges the potential of the clay’s structural limits and natural pliability to build forms that are organic, sculptural and architectonic.”>
Dark Light: the Micaceous Ceramics of Christine Nofchissey McHorse is on display
through Jan 12 2014 in the Cy and Lissa Wagner Gallery of the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma. Dark Light is the first traveling exhibition by McHorse and features works created since the series began in 1997. In addition to many of her full-bodied pieces, viewers can see original sketches and design plans on display.>
Interim museum director Mark White said McHorse’s Norman visit, which includes a week of
classroom time in September with OU art students and a gallery talk for the community, reflects the mission of the museum and the endowment’s namesake.>
We are very grateful for the generous patronage of Mrs. Westheimer and her
continued support of art and education at the University of Oklahoma,” he said. “Her endowment continues to combine art and education, and both the university and Norman communities will benefit from this unique opportunity. Christine McHorse is considered to be one of the most innovative forces in Native American pottery today. We are excited for this opportunity to share both the artist and her works with our visitors.”>Dark Light: the Micaceous Ceramics of Christine Nofchissey McHorse is organized by The Ceramic Arts Foundation, New York, N.Y., in association with Clark + Del Vecchio, Santa Fe, NM http://www.ou.edu/fjjma http://www.garthclark.com
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