1. Sáhkku is played on a 3-by-15 rectangular board.

2. Sáhkku is played with 3 dice.

3. Each player starts with 15 BEADs the colour of their choice.

4. BEADs are placed on the row of 15 spaces closest to the player.

5. An additional BEAD of a different colour is placed on the middle space of the board – this is the King.

6. Players decide who begins the game by rolling a die.

1. All BEADs are inactive and cannot be moved until a six is rolled and that BEAD is activated. An active BEAD immediately moves one space to the player’s right. A player can activate any BEAD.

2. Once active, BEADs are moved the number indicated on the dice, except a 6, which can only be used to activate BEADs.

3. Each of the dice rolled can be used on a different activated BEAD.

4. The play direction is from left to right on the player’s row, across the middle row in the opposite direction and then towards the right again on their opponent’s row. BEADs can move backwards.

5. The King is recruited when a player’s BEAD lands on the King, and once recruited, moves the same way as regular BEADs.

6. Player’s capture BEADs by landing on the same space as an opponent’s BEAD. If more than one of the opponent’s BEADs are on the same space, they are all captured.

7. Captured BEADs are removed from the board.

To win the game, a player must capture all their opponent’s BEADs.

1. It is unknown how long Sáhkku has been played among the Sámi people. The earliest known mention in writing of what could be sáhkku was made by Johannes Schefferus in his book Lapponia (1673), where he states that the Sámi use dice that he describes as having the shape and markings of contemporary sáhkku dice.

2. After this, it is not until 1841 when a written source speaks of a game called sáhkku being played, then in the Lule Sámi area.

3. Sáhkku was considered a sinful game by Christian missionaries and Laestadian evangelists, since it was suspected of containing elements of pre-Christian worship. As a result of this religious pressure, official Norwegianization policy’s pressure to abandon all aspects of Sámi culture and identity, the destruction of Coast Sámi material culture during World War II, and the increasing availability of new forms of entertainment, sáhkku fell out of use in Sámi communities after the 1950s.

4. In some localities the game was still played regularly during the 1960s, but it has not been played widely since then.