Apache dance at a Sunrise Dance, an Apache girl's coming-of-age ritual

A Group of Apache Indians dance at a Sunrise Dance, the first menstruation ceremony of an Apache girl, on the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation in Arizona, USA. Behind the girl, who is dressed in buckskin clothes, the medicine man and his helpers sing and beat their drums. The Sunrise Dance 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 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: 5595x3711 / 13.5MB; American Indian American Indians American Southwest Apache Arizona Changing Woman Dancing Horizontal Native Americans Native North Americans North America Religion Rite of Passage San Carlos Indian Reservation Sunrise Dance USA United States of America adulthood buck-skin buckskin cane ceremony cultural and ethnic dress dawn daybreak drum drums eagle feathers ethnic clothing ethnic minority first menstruation indigenous people life cycle ceremony longevity maturity medicine man medicine-man morning music music instrument musical instrument musical instruments musician native-americans puberty rite religious small group of people sun up sunrise sunrises sunshine teenage girl
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A Group of Apache Indians dance at a Sunrise Dance, the first menstruation ceremony of an Apache girl, on the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation in Arizona, USA. Behind the girl, who is dressed in buckskin clothes, the medicine man and his helpers sing and beat their drums. The Sunrise Dance 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 also supposed to prepare the girl for adulthood and to give her a long and healthy life without material wants.