Paden uses machinist experience to craft stickball sticks 

The history of stickball through oral documentation was to settle disputes between tribes and villages over land and hunting grounds. Today, stickball is played traditionally at ceremonial grounds or competitively in tournament-style games between tribes.
Making the equipment for stickball, such as ball sticks, is known to be artistry in itself with the creators taking the time to gather the necessary materials to make a pair of sticks. Ball sticks are typically used to pick up a golf ball-sized ball, usually made of leather, to throw at a goal and score points.
Sticks are made of wood such as hickory, white oak or bois d’arc, also called Osage Orange. Once a stickball maker finds the appropriate wood, they take the wood through a process to create the sticks.
Cherokee Nation citizen Stan Paden has been making sticks for about 12 years, learning from another stick maker and putting his own spin into the creation.