An Apache girl's Sunrise Dance

An Apache girl and her godfather, who sprinkles sacred white clay around him as a blessing, dance with mountain spirits (gaan) or crown dancers during a Sunrise Dance on the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation in Arizona, USA. The Sunrise Dance, the first menstruation rite of an Apache girl, 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: 5565x3668 / 13.9MB; America American Indian American Indians American Southwest Apache Arizona Blessing Changing Woman Clay Horizontal Native Americans Native North Americans North America Outdoors Religion Rite of Passage San Carlos Indian Reservation Sunrise Dance US USA United States of America adulthood animal hide basket buck-skin buckskin cane ceremony crown dancers cultural and ethnic dress ethnic ethnic group ethnic minority first menstruation fringed fringes gaan gaans indigenous people life cycle ceremony mask maturity minority mountain spirits native-americans outside puberty rite religious sacred teenage girl woman
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An Apache girl and her godfather, who sprinkles sacred white clay around him as a blessing, dance with mountain spirits (gaan) or crown dancers during a Sunrise Dance on the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation in Arizona, USA. The Sunrise Dance, the first menstruation rite of an Apache girl, 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.