Apache girl blessed with sacred clay at her Sunrise Dance

An Apache girl is painted white with sacred clay and corn meal during her Sunrise Dance, a first menstruation rite, on the San Carlos Apache Reservation, Arizona, USA. She is painted by a Mountain Spirit (Gaan) or Crown Dancer, and the staff in her hand symbolises longevity. Other Crown Dancers dance around her, and beside her dances her godfather. The painting of the girl is both a blessing and an enactment of certain parts of the Apache creation myth. 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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Filename: 4537.jpg
Copyright: Copyright © 2004 Anders Ryman. All rights reserved.
Image Size: 5553x3710 / 14.8MB; American Southwest Apache Arizona Blessing Body Decoration Body Paint Changing Woman Coming of Age Costume clothing and fashion Dancing Headgear Horizontal Indian Life Cycle Ritual Native Americans Native North Americans North America Outdoors Religion Rite de Passage Rite of Passage San Carlos Indian Reservation Sunrise Dance USA United States of America White accessory adulthood animal hide apparel blue sky body art buck-skin dress buckskin cane ceremony crown dancers cultural and ethnic dress ethnic clothing ethnic group ethnic minority female feminine first menstruation footwear gaan gaans girl headdress holy indigenous people life cycle ceremony longevity mask maturity minority moccasin mountain spirits native-americans ornament outside puberty rite religious sacred small group of people teenage girl woman youth
Contained in galleries: Apache sunrise dance, USA

An Apache girl is painted white with sacred clay and corn meal during her Sunrise Dance, a first menstruation rite, on the San Carlos Apache Reservation, Arizona, USA. She is painted by a Mountain Spirit (Gaan) or Crown Dancer, and the staff in her hand symbolises longevity. Other Crown Dancers dance around her, and beside her dances her godfather. The painting of the girl is both a blessing and an enactment of certain parts of the Apache creation myth. 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.