Video

 

Andrea
Cochran attempts to drop her marble into a two-inch diameter hole as her
mother, Nan Davis, watches during the elimination round of the Cherokee
National Holiday marble tournament Sept. 1 at the Cherokee Heritage Center in
Park Hill, Okla. PHOTO BY WILL CHAVEZ







By WILL CHAVEZ
Senior Reporter

PARK HILL, Okla. – An unexpected rain shower muddied the marble field at the Cherokee Heritage Center, but participants of the annual Cherokee National Holiday marble tournament came determined to play on Sept. 1, including a three-person team made up of women led by Andrea Cochran of Colcord. 

After teams moved to an alternate field, they gathered around the first marble hole and quickly began playing as the sun started to set. 

Cochran’s team, One Her, began strong moving up the L-shaped marble field about 100-feet long with five holes about 12 feet apart. Along the way they tried to skillfully place their marbles into a two-inch diameter holes and knock their opponents’ marbles out of play in hopes of going up and back down the field before their competition. 

Traditionally, the game, called di-ga-da-yo-s-di in Cherokee, was played with balls made of stone. But today teams use billiard balls.

Cochran said her father taught her and sister/teammate Jennifer Golden how to play when they were teenagers. Their other teammate for the tournament was their mother Nan Davis. 

“We used to play on top of the hill. That’s what they called it down at Cloud’s Creek, (in Delaware County) where they used to have the original tournament. This is our first time actually playing here,” Cochran said. 

Her team was playing in the losers’ bracket, trying to fight its way back into the finals. 
“It’s really competitive,” she said. “The toughest part is getting out first. You want to get close to the first hole and then make the second (hole) before your opponents do.”

Cochran said she acts as the team’s coach, telling her teammates where they need to be at certain times on the field so the team doesn’t get “strung up,” which she said happened to them at the end of the game when they were eliminated.

Cochran and her family made it to the third day of the four-day tournament before being eliminated. However, her team has won a tournament in years past – the All-Women United Keetoowah Band marble tournament. 

In years past, the Cherokee National Holiday marble tournament would begin at Cloud’s Creek near Jay with a double-elimination bracket. The advancing teams played for the marble championship on the Saturday of the holiday, which is held annually during Labor Day weekend. 

Tournament coordinator Daniel Faddis said the tournament began with seven teams this year and that mostly the same men and women compete every year. Teams from Jay, Cloud’s Creek and the Cherokee Marble Society in Tahlequah played this year. 

“For the most part it’s the same guys, the same group of people. These people play on a weekly basis, a lot of them two, maybe three times a week,” he said.

During the tournament, Faddis and a referee followed the teams from hole to hole. Faddis maintained a score sheet keeping track of players’ hits on their opponents’ marbles and when a player made a hole. 

“Every time you make a hole after the second hole, you have two hits on each one of your opponents. Once you hit your opponent twice, you can’t him them again until you make another hole,” he said.

Faddis said an average game, with the quality of players competing in the tournament, takes about one hour and 15 minutes to play. 

Winners of this year’s tournament won reclining lawn chairs. On the back of each chair is printed, “Cherokee National Holiday 2010 1st Place Marble Tournament.” 

will-chavez@cherokee.org • (918) 207-3961