Published on April 22, 2014 by Carol
The buzzer is an amusement as well as a game of skill for Native American children across North America. Usually made of a flat piece of wood, pottery, gourd or bone. A buzzer ranges in diameter from 2 to four inches, with a deerskin thong or twined sinew strand twenty inches long doubled over and threaded through the two holes in the disk to be twirled.
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Atsina Indians of Montana, Mono Indians of California, as well as the Oglala Dakota Indians use a knuckle or knee bone as a buzzer. Flat buzzers of wood are often engraved or painted with designs which create new patterns seen when they toy spins. The buzzer game is undoubtedly ancient in origin; prehistoric disks of stone or pottery with two perforations are not uncommon finds for archaeologists working in the Northeastern Woodlands. When properly spinning, the buzzers make a sound similar to the sound of the wind sighing.