Turnout great for shoe game at museum
BY ARLYSSA BECENTI
NAVAJO TIMES
WINDOW ROCK — Timothy Kay and his sisters rang in the New Year like they do every year: as Team Golizhii during the annual Navajo Nation Museum Késhjéé tournament.
Team Golizhii (Skunk), who are from Jeddito, Arizona, have taken part in the tournament every year since the beginning, and this year they came in second out of eight teams.
“We like to play every year,” said Kay. “We learned it from our dad and mother. They played this every year and they told us stories about this.”
Since Golizhii placed second, they won five truckloads of fi rewood donat- ed by Navajo Nation Forestry. The fi rst place winners, Weekend Warriors of Dilkon, Arizona, won 45 bales of alfal- fa hay donated by Navajo Agricultural Products Industry, and the third place winners, Lady Roadrunners from Red Mesa, Arizona, won $150.
“We sing loud, and we try to distract the other team as best as we can,” said Kay. The singing became competitive during one match. After Golizhii sang one song during their turn to hide the yucca ball, when it was the other team, Ball Ballerz’, turn to sing and hide the ball they sang the same song but loud- er in an attempt to “psyche (Golizhii) out.”
ADRON GARDNER | NAVAJO TIMES
A contestant from team Weekend Warriors tries to find a yucca ball in the shoes of team Same Colors during the New Years Eve Shoe Game at the Navajo Nation Museum Dec. 31 in Window Rock.
The teaching goes, the Keéshjéé is to be played only during the winter months and when it was fi rst played, it was in a cave in the Lukachukai Mountains. The purpose for the game was for the animals to decide if it would be night or day on earth forev- er. Each team had a turn to hide the yucca ball inside their lined up shoes for the other team to fi nd, using yucca counters to keep score. The team that hid the yucca ball would sing while the opposing team tried to guess where the yucca ball was placed. This went on until morning, when both teams realized neither would win, ultimately splitting Earth’s time between night and day.
Of course, this is just one of the many variations of the story that Kay and his siblings, along with the other seven teams, have heard before. And even before the museum held the an- nual Késhjéé, the teams have always played it with their families. That is where they learned the songs and the different ways to play the game.
“I learned to play from my dad,” Roy Randol of the Ball Ballerz team said. “We come out to have fun and cele- brate the New Year. This is keeping our traditions alive.”
Some songs are passed down, but Royia Cody, Lady Road Runners cap- tain, said she has played with others from different areas, and the songs she heard there she would adapt and make them her own by rewriting the lyrics.
“Some of the songs are passed down and some are from my sisters,” said Turnout great for shoe game at museum Stepping into the New Year
SEE SHOE GAME | C5
ADRON GARDNER | NAVAJO TIMES
A contestant picks up yucca stems during the New Years Eve Shoe Game at the Navajo Nation Museum Dec. 31 in Window Rock.
A contestant from team Same Colors hides their shoes from team Same Colors during the New Years Eve Shoe Game at the Navajo Nation Museum Dec. 31 in Window Rock.