Dancing at an Apache Sunrise Dance

An Apache girl dances with her godmother and godfather at her Sunrise Dance, a first menstruation rite, on the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation in Arizona, USA. The three are covered with sacred yellow pollen from the cattail plant, which has been applied as a blessing by the medicine man and the relatives. The Sunrise Dance 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 also 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: 3700x5588 / 13.6MB; American Indian American Indians American Southwest Apache Arizona Changing Woman Dancing Native Americans Native North Americans North America Religion Rite of Passage San Carlos Indian Reservation Sunrise Dance USA United States of America Vertical adulthood animal hide buck-skin buckskin camp dress cane cattail ceremony cultural and ethnic dress daybreak decorated decorations drums eagle feathers ethnic clothing ethnic group ethnic minority first menstruation fringed fringes girl indigenous people jeans life cycle ceremony longevity maturity medicine man medicine-man minority music music instrument musical instrument musical instruments musician native-americans ornament pollen puberty rite quilt religious sacred shirts skin skirts small group of people sun up sunrise sunrises sunshine teenage girl woman yellow
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An Apache girl dances with her godmother and godfather at her Sunrise Dance, a first menstruation rite, on the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation in Arizona, USA. The three are covered with sacred yellow pollen from the cattail plant, which has been applied as a blessing by the medicine man and the relatives. The Sunrise Dance 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 also supposed to prepare the girl for adulthood and to give her a long and healthy life without material wants.