TRAVERSE CITY — Traditional or theme-oriented games are one of the best ways to learn about a concrete era in history and culture.
Artist, writer, and avid gamer Anakin Chingwa is introducing more people to Native American culture and early history through games.
“So much history that is important to our social issues are often neglected. You can’t help people change the future without showing them their history,” he said.
His business, Spirit Bear Studio, started off through his artwork, like painting murals.
He later began to focus on tabletop games as an outlet to bring his love of games and visions to life, and to educate in a way people enjoy.
“Many people don’t like learning history, but making it an interactive experience helps people maintain what they learn,” said Chingwa.
Growing up, tabletop games were a staple with his family and friends, who would get together weekly with each other to play. Looking back at the closeness they brought to each other, he said “they were very positive experiences.”
Chingwa has been playing role-playing games (rpg) for 22 years and wanted a community of gamers to have a better experience with historical events. He said often rpg are based on fantasy, and rarely look at history from different perspectives.
So in 2022, he published “Colonies & Conquerors,” a 211-page player’s book, containing rules for playing the roleplaying game set during the colonization of America or miniatures game.
Players make a character with a backstory as either colonists or Indigenous, or something else to fit the setting.
“One person is the game master, the Tall-Taler, they run the game and tell the story the players go through,” Chingwa said.
Inside the game are skills, equipment, perks, and more to help the player against armies and creatures of Native American origin.
“I do include the history of the setting and what was happening that time period. However the players can influence the game and how history plays out,” said Chingwa.
The next game Chingwa is working on is a card game called “Skirmish,” a spinoff of “Colonies & Conquerors,” but a competitive card game.
“People will play cards, try to take their opponent out. The cards themselves will have notes to learn from,” he said.
Players of the card game will control a character and a deck of cards facing other players. The deck consists of creatures, spells, equipment, structures, and encounters to defeat others.
Decks will have creatures based on factions such as colonists, European powers, or Indigenous warbands. Players may even have creatures of some such as the Water Panthers from Anishinaabek origin to assist them in the fame.
Chingwa explained it is a trading card game with its own style. The starter decks are all common cards, while boosters will have more rare cards and historical figures for players to use. For the game, each player will start with their character in front of them. Some people may have historical figures such as Odawa leader and historian, Andrew Blackbird, or may have generic beginning characters.
Spirit Bear Studio published “Colonies & Conquerors” in January 2022, with four titles for it currently. Chingwa said he is excited he has officially sold his first 100 physical and digital copies of the book.
“More and more players are trying it out every week,” Chingwa said.
Chingwa said historical events are often skewed, or only given the perspective of one side, but games can expand those mindsets.
“People have been taught lies and to hate each other. Games teach us to work together, or even face our opponents and learn from them.”