>> And what we're going to do is
we're gonna race all the way
around the cones.
But get the snow shoes on,
walk around a little bit.
Get the feel of 'em before we
race, you guys, okay?
>> I got it, boy!
I got it.
>> When you're a kid,
play can be serious business.
>> Ahh!
>> And on this winter day,
on a frozen lake in the
Lac du Flambeau Indian
reservation, Dallas Hart and
his buddies are hard at work.
>> I'm glad to do our
traditional sports.
>> They're here for the
Ojibwe Winter Games.
It's a competition with
traditional Native-American
tasks that date back centuries.
>> The snowshoe race--
>> Get set!
Go!
>> It's like a regular
race track.
>> Go, go!
>> You head out into the snow,
but once you run into the back,
you race along the edges and
whoever comes in first has first
place, second and third.
>> Third.
Good job, guys.
>> Next is the
spear throwing game.
>> Ooh, good job.
That's two.
>> We make kind of like
a bigger dream catcher
and hang it off a tripod.
>> Oh, there you go.
That's two.
>> Kids: Wow!
>> We've got a new first place!
>> That one's the addle-addle.
It's a piece of wood that's
about an inch-and-a-half thick.
And there's a horn that
comes off, a deer horn,
and you put the deer horn
inside the small hole
and you hold it with your
two fingers.
>> It's easier to put your hand
out and step forward,
and release it.
But you don't release
the handle.
>> Good throw, Dallas.
>> In generations past,
games like these meant
for more than fun.
>> We call them games now,
but they were their survival
and that's what I appreciate
though, is that they didn't
give up when they had to go out
and hunt for days
with these tools.
>> Take the story behind
the addle-addle.
>> When you'd use it to hunt,
you try to throw it straighter
at the target.
[cheering]
What that was meant for
was the spear,
you're using your arm power,
but with the addle-addle,
you'd be using the force from
the addle addle, your arm power
and the force from flinging it.
>> Oh!
>> As times changed, many of
these games were forgotten.
Only recently have teachers
in Dallas's community brought
them back.
>> Snow snake, he said,
hasn't been played in 170 years.
What we did is we'd go out on
the lake, we'd make a groove
all the way across the lake
if it was a mile,
and we'd take a long piece
of wood, we'd carve it to where
it's a pole but with
a snake head.
So you'd put your finger
in that notch
and the lower you go,
the better it'll be.
And when you fling it
it'll slide right across
the ice.
>> But they aren't just learning
how to hold onto a spear,
they're also learning to
hold onto their culture.
>> Osa Wabic, our elder,
Joe Chosa, he's the oldest
tribal member, he's 97 now.
He told me, he said, years ago,
when I was little, he said,
you know, the only thing the
Native people didn't use
when they killed a deer,
when they took a deer?
Do you know what it was?
Its holler, when it was shot.
>> Dallas says knowing the roots
of these games makes them
more than child's play.
>> The feeling that I get when
I play these games,
it's a really good feeling
knowing that it's me
playing traditional games,
what they used to do.
Knowing that, it's kind of--
kind of almost--
It's hard to describe.
It's like a really good feeling.
?