ABSTRACT
Toli or stickball is a Native American sport with pre-Columbian roots that remains an important sport for many Native American groups, especially the Mississippi Choctaw.
In 1989 a toli team was created at the University of Georgia, which subsequently established regular matches with a Choctaw team. This paper offers an analysis of
matches staged in the late 1990s. Despite the ritualized violence, this study finds that the shared experience of playing toli acts as a catalyst for integration. It is suggested,
moreover, that the sport serves an integrative function on several levels: cross-gender, intra-group and cross-cultural. Exploring the nature of toli and ethnic identity, it makes suggestions for increased interaction between Native Americans and non-Native
Americans through sport.
