Language is woven into nearly aspect of a particular culture — even in the ways  people play.

Experts with the Pokagon Band will demonstrate this link between games and language among the Potawatomi during the next event in the 2017 One Story program, which takes place at 2:30 p.m. Thursday at Southwestern Michigan College’s Dale A. Lyons Building theater. During a presentation, titled “Shishibé: History of Gaming and Importance of Language,” the Pokagon Band’s Jefferson Ballew and Rhonda Purcell will discuss the history of Potawatomi gaming practices before leading attendees through a game of Shishibé, using exclusively Potawatomi.

The rules of Shishibé are fairly simple, said Kristie Bussler, educational resource specialist with the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi and lead organizer of the One Story program.

Participants will be given a card with a variety of Potawatomi words and phrases listed on them. An announcer will read off from a list in Potawatomi, and people can match the words that person reads off with ones on their cards.

Those who complete an entire row on their card first will be declared the winner.

Prizes for Thursday’s game will consist of dreamcatchers and necklaces, crafted by Ballew and Southwestern Michigan College students prior to Thursday’s event. The handcrafted trinkets are meant to symbolize one of the ancient Potawatomi gaming traditions, where tribe members would bring items to share as prizes during gatherings, Bussler said.

“Games served as a way of sharing the wealth of the community,” Bussler said. “It was just as much about giving, about bringing your own things to the table, than it was about receiving.”

The event serves as the second activity hosted by members of the One Story program, an annual initiative organized by leaders with the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi, the Dowagiac Area History Museum, the Dowagiac District Library, Southwestern Michigan College and the Dogwood Fine Arts Festival. This year’s slate of activities are loosely tied with themes from two books people around the Dowagiac area are encouraged to read: Steve Arseneau’s and Ann Thompson’s “Images of America: Dowagiac” and Webb Miller’s “I Found No Peace.”

This year’s One Story kicked off last month with a presentation by Arseneau, the director of the  Dowagiac museum. In a talk titled “Photographs of Dowagiac,” Arseneau showed off some of his favorite photos from the museum’s extensive collection.

The event was well attended, with many in the audience sharing their own memories and details about the subjects depicted in many of the photographs the museum director displayed, Bussler said.

“A lot of people asked Steve afterwards if we would consider doing a ‘part two,’” she said. “It was a really great event.”

For the Shishibé event, the Pokagon Band is teaming up with Southwestern Michigan College, which has recently begun offering courses in Potawatomi language and culture, Bussler said. While open to the entire community, Bussler and others with the program have been pushing for strong participation among students and faculty.

“It serves as a good way for the student body to get some exposure to the tribe,” Bussler said. “A lot of our citizens have played Shishibé before, but this gives a new group of people exposure to it.”

Copies of “Images of America: Dowagiac” and “I Found No Peace” will be available during Thursday’s event.

For more information about this and other One Story events, people may visit the program’s website, at onestoryread.com.