“The Little Brother of War”

It’s Toli Time in Athens Again

originally published April 16, 2008

Toli, a Southeastern stickball game played for at least 500 years, is “Native American culture at its finest,” says Dee Fraker, a veteran player. He’s filling in an initiate on the upcoming Athens tournament between the Conehatta Skunks, who are 21-time world champions, and the UGA Team, the Flying Rats. Just that sentence requires background. The Skunks are Choctaw Indians from Mississippi, of a region left out of the miles of fast-food, cheap hotel infrastructure thrown up in the wake of the casinos. Yes, they work in the casinos, but inclination and geography have made them among the most tradition-bound of their tribe.

For 20 years, UGA’s ”Na Hollos” Flying Rats toli team has gotten to play the Skunks in various venues. An observer to these matches sees what appears to be wild lacrosse with double the sticks and five times the bruises, with a tree trunk goal as the locus of the action.

“Na Hollos” means “white people.” So how did Choctaw and Na Hollos come to play and experience each other’s cultures through games in Athens, Moundville, AL, and on the Skunks’ home turf - the Conehatta Community on the Choctaw reservation in Mississippi? And what is toli?

---

Every two years the teams meet in Athens to play “America’s oldest field sport,” a sport the Spanish discovered the Native Americans playing when they showed up in 1535. Toli, known as “the little brother of war,” was played as an alternative to war, as a means of settling disputes. That doesn’t mean it can’t get violent. There are only three rules in toli:

1. Pick up the ball only with your sticks.
2. Hit the goal with the ball to score.
3. Tackle just the person who has possession of the ball. Oh, and…
4. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. (If you give it, assume you are going to get it.)

UGA team captain Jeremy Tarver admits that the third rule is “a bit fast and loose, since ‘body checks’ are legal and the distinction between a body check and a tackle is pretty subtle.” Hence the fourth rule.

Each player has two sticks. The sticks are hickory, about an inch in diameter, planed thin and arched over at the top, then wrapped with lacing to form a pocket about the size of a man’s palm. The handle varies in length to meet the needs to the player’s playing style - from 18 inches long to three feet. These sticks are called kapuchas. The ball, towa, is the size of a golf ball, and made, in the traditional way, with a cotton-wrapped center and a basket-weave of leather lacing around it. The goal for the Athens tournament will be a post 12 feet high and four inches in diameter.

Players leap and reach and collide as they keep the ball in the air, sticks held roughly parallel. Players get hit. If someone goes out, then another steps in to replace him - or her. Until fairly recently, the games against the Choctaw were not co-ed. The Flying Rats have always had female players, and this was a point of contention early on. The number of players per side begins as roughly even, but enthusiasm can swell the ranks of one side or another. No whistle or delay of game - remember, only four rules.

As the game is played and planned, travel enriches both communities. Young men who have never left the reservation come to a town and campus and meet people whom they’d never otherwise encounter. UGA students’ eyes are opened to life on the reservation, where often they hear no English spoken, except in consideration to the Na Hollo guests. Fraker sees the game as building lasting community relations and, in some cases, gaining new family.

---

Fraker and Greg Keyes have been called “brothers” by some Conehatta Choctaw. It was Keyes, now a best-selling fantasy author, who started toli at UGA. While a graduate student in anthropology, he introduced the game to the students in Dr. Charles Hudson’s class, for which he was a teaching assistant. Keyes had lived near Conehatta Commmunity and started UGA’s first team, the Fabulous Seven. He approached Henry Williams, the commissioner for the Choctaw tribal stickball teams, and asked who he thought should teach them.

“The team you need to deal with is Conehatta,” Williams replied. Thus UGA became allied with not only the winningest toli players, but with a community that holds its traditions and language most strongly. This alliance gave the “Fabulous Seven” and their Flying Rat descendants the impetus to play with authenticity and respect. Williams introduced Keyes to a Choctaw named Hugh King, who taught the students how to play.

Toli is played by other Southeastern tribes, the “three brothers” who play being the Choctaw, the Creek and the Cherokee. Amongst the Creek, the game has evolved into a good-time ceremonial activity. For the Cherokee, the game more resembles rugby. The Choctaw regard toli as a sport, and their mastery is undisputed. Now-Elder King taught the Na Hollos traditional toli. Some, like Fraker, have gotten to spend more time with King. Fraker makes kapuchas the old way, from cutting down the hickory trees to using brain-tanned deer hide, which he tans himself. When Conehatta players see his kapucha and towa, they recognize the techniques of Fraker’s teacher, and are pleased.

This year’s 20th-anniversary meeting of the Conehatta Skunks and the UGA Na Hollos Flying Rats takes place Apr. 19 on UGA’s intramural field number 1. Elder Hugh King will speak before and after the tournament. From 1 to 2 p.m., the “old men and women,” alumni, will play. Keyes plans to join this group. At 2 p.m. comes what Fraker calls “the real game.” Admission is free, and the game lasts until 5 p.m.

This match won’t be the only toli game between the teams this year. Members of the Conehatta Community play the Flying Rats the first weekend of each October at the Moundville Archaeological Park in Moundville, AL. Other toli action includes the annual Choctaw fair, held the second week in July, where teams from all over the reservation meet for the World Series of Stickball in Choctaw, MS. The Conehatta Skunks have won 21 of the past 58 World Series. Having them here, in Athens, is a treat and an honor. Don’t miss it.

Deb Chasteen

WHAT: UGA Flying Rats vs. Conehatta Skunks
WHERE: UGA Intramural Fields
WHEN: Saturday, Apr. 19, 1-5 p.m.
HOW MUCH: FREE!