Zohn Ahl
A Kiowa women’s race game in which stick-dice are hurled against a stone at the center of a blanket, sending markers chasing each other in opposite directions around a ring of forty spaces.
Zohn Ahl is a roll-and-move race board game played by the Kiowa people of the North American Great Plains, in which two players or teams move a single marker around a circular track of forty spaces using stick-dice for movement.109 It is frequently cited as a typical representative of a large family of similar Native American race games, and is probably the best documented of them in the literature.89 The game was played by women and girls among the Kiowa, and its lack of resemblance to any imported Western game marks it out as a native invention, though its age is unknown.8 Related versions were played in different forms by a variety of Native American nations across the western Plains.1617
The name derives from two Kiowa words: zohn, meaning “creek,” a feature of the board, and ahl, meaning “wood,” the term for the stick-dice.911 Zohn Ahl is often equated with a related Kiowa game called Tsoñä, the “awl game,” whose name refers to the two awls used as playing pieces.9 Sources caution that “ahl” and “awl” merely coincide in sound — one a Kiowa word for stick-dice, the other the English name of the pointed tool — so that a rendering such as “Zohn Awl” would be incorrect.911 The game belongs to a broader group of “ahl” games, race games played on a circular board whose special cardinal spaces mark the start and finish and the hazards to be avoided.810
Equipment and board
The board is a circle of forty spaces, traditionally marked on a large cloth or blanket.89 Special spaces sit at the cardinal compass points: the north and south points are called “the creek,” while the east and west are the “dry branches,” each creek and dry branch running two spaces long.810 A flat “ahl stone” is placed at the center of the cloth.89
Movement is controlled by four casting sticks used in place of dice, each a half-cylinder split stick marked on its flat side with a groove.89 Three of the sticks bear red grooves, while the fourth — called sahe, “green” — is marked in a distinguishing color, variously described as blue, black, or green.98 The round sides of the two types of stick are usually also distinguished, though this is not necessary for play.9 The sticks were thrown hard against the ahl stone so that they bounced off it before falling on the cloth, ensuring the randomness of the throw.810 An even number of scoring sticks, usually eight, are used to keep score, and each side has a single distinctive counter, or awl, to mark its progress.9
Play
Each side begins with half the scoring sticks and its awl at its own starting space by the south creek.910 The two awls move around the board in opposite directions, one side clockwise and the other counterclockwise.89 A player throws the four stick-dice and moves her awl the number of spaces indicated by the eight possible configurations of grooves: one groove showing moves one space, two grooves two, and three grooves three; four grooves showing moves six spaces, and no grooves showing moves ten.811 Several throws — including one groove on the sahe stick, three grooves including the sahe, four grooves, or no grooves — grant the player another throw.811 One account notes that “throwing” is said to proceed around the circle counterclockwise, which would be meaningless in strictly alternating turns and may indicate that, in team play, all players on one side threw and moved before the other side took its turn.9
Landing on the far creek space “falls into” the creek: the awl returns to the starting space and the side pays one counter to its opponents.910 An opponent’s own creek space, being the far side of the crossing, is safe.9 Landing on an opponent’s awl “whips” that awl back to its start and costs the opponent one counter.910 The dry-branch spaces, in the fuller accounts, function as ordinary spaces, though some rule sets treat landing there as the loss of a turn.98 Completing a full circuit wins a counter from the opponents, after which play continues in the same direction.910 A throw that lands a player exactly on her own space 40, however, drops her back into the creek and returns her awl to the start with the loss of a counter.9 The game is won when one side holds all the counters; if play is stopped for any other reason, the side with the most counters is the winner.810
Because the outcome of every move is fixed by the fall of the sticks, the game involves no decisions on the part of the players.8 Commentators have observed that this lack of choice means it will not hold the attention of modern adults, but that its simple character suits young children and that, with its history, it can be treated as a cultural activity rather than a contest of skill.8
Documentation and modern editions
Zohn Ahl was recorded by the ethnographer Stewart Culin, who illustrated the game in 1898 and treated it in his surveys of American games, including Chess and Playing Cards and Games of the North American Indians.862 Many of the native board games Culin documented used a board of forty spaces laid out in a circle, and Zohn Ahl has been taken as the standard example of the type.8 The game and its variants have since been described in general histories of board games, among them R. C. Bell’s Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations, which renders the creek and dry branches as a “torrent” river and a “dry gully”.512 The subject has also been surveyed in A History of Board-Games Other than Chess and The Oxford History of Board Games, which treat traditional race games of this kind.31
Modern commercial and print-and-play editions of the game have been issued.1312 A boxed version marketed for two players aged eight and up has players race their pegs around the course collecting tokens, winning by completing four circuits or collecting all the tokens, and includes a rule book with the historical and cultural background of the game.13 Print-and-play adaptations have compressed the traditional forty-space circle onto a smaller square layout of twenty-eight spaces to fit the size of A4 paper, sometimes offering the variant option of allowing a piece landing in a dry gully to cross to the other side rather than lose a turn.12
Sources
Internet Archive listing for The Oxford History of Board Games.
archive.org · retrieved Jul 8, 2026Internet Archive listing for Games of the North American Indians.
archive.org · retrieved Jul 8, 2026Internet Archive listing for A History of Board-Games Other Than Chess.
archive.org · retrieved Jul 8, 2026Internet Archive listing for Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations.
archive.org · retrieved Jul 8, 2026Internet Archive listing for Chess and Playing Cards.
archive.org · retrieved Jul 8, 2026Detailed rules and history of Zohn Ahl, a traditional Kiowa race game played on a circular board.
cyningstan.com · retrieved Jul 8, 2026Game guide covering the rules, setup, and mechanics of the traditional Kiowa board game Zohn Ahl.
sites.google.com · retrieved Jul 8, 2026Interactive game platform featuring Zohn Ahl with setup instructions, play mechanics, and historical background.
bead.game · retrieved Jul 8, 2026Kids' encyclopedia article explaining Zohn Ahl, a traditional Kiowa roll-and-move board game for young learners.
kids.kiddle.co · retrieved Jul 8, 2026Printable PDF with Zohn Ahl rules and board layouts adapted for A4 paper format.
a4gamescompany.files.wordpress.com · retrieved Jul 8, 2026Commercial board game product listing for a manufactured version of the traditional Kiowa game Zohn Ahl.
newventuregames.com · retrieved Jul 8, 2026Blog post about Zohn Ahl, a racing game played by Native American nations on the western Plains.
lflank.wordpress.com · retrieved Jul 8, 2026Daily Kos article on Zohn Ahl, a traditional racing game played by various Native American Plains nations.
dailykos.com · retrieved Jul 8, 2026