Crown Dancers at an Apache Sunrise Dance

Mountain spirits dance together with Apache girls, all dressed in buckskin clothes, beside a big bonfire at night during a Sunrise Dance on the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation in Arizona, USA. The clown, in white hood, swings a bull-roarer in the air. The Sunrise Dance, a first menstruation rite, is held during the summer, within one year after the girl has had her first menstruation, and lasts for four days. The ceremony is an enactment of the Apache creation myth and during the rites the girl ’becomes‘ Changing Woman, a mythical female figure, and comes into possession of her healing powers. The rites are supposed to prepare the girl for adulthood and to give her a long and healthy life without material wants.

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Copyright: Copyright © 2004 Anders Ryman. All rights reserved.
Image Size: 5595x3699 / 12.4MB; America American Indian American Indians American Southwest Apache Arizona Horizontal Native Americans Native North Americans North America Religion Rite of Passage San Carlos Indian Reservation Sunrise Dance US USA United States of America bonfire buck-skin buckskin bull-roarer ceremony crown dancers cultural and ethnic dress dark ethnic ethnic clothing ethnic group ethnic minority first menstruation gaan gaans girl indigenous people life cycle ceremony maturity minority mountain spirits mystic native-americans night puberty rite religious woman
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Mountain spirits dance together with Apache girls, all dressed in buckskin clothes, beside a big bonfire at night during a Sunrise Dance on the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation in Arizona, USA. The clown, in white hood, swings a bull-roarer in the air. The Sunrise Dance, a first menstruation rite, is held during the summer, within one year after the girl has had her first menstruation, and lasts for four days. The ceremony is an enactment of the Apache creation myth and during the rites the girl ’becomes‘ Changing Woman, a mythical female figure, and comes into possession of her healing powers. The rites are supposed to prepare the girl for adulthood and to give her a long and healthy life without material wants.