Apache girl covered in clay drinks water at her Sunrise Dance

An Apache girl uses a straw to drink water from a dipper during her Sunrise Dance, a first menstruation rite, on the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation in Arizona, USA. The girl is covered in sacred white clay and corn meal that has been applied both as a blessing and as 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 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: 5580x3684 / 13.1MB; 15000000 15014000 15014018 America American Indian American Indians American Southwest Apache Arizona Changing Woman Clay Horizontal Native North Americans North America Religion Rite of Passage San Carlos Indian Reservation Sunrise Dance USA United States of America White abalone shell adulthood animal hide buck-skin buckskin cane ceremony cultural and ethnic dress drinking eagle feathers ethnic ethnic group ethnic minority first menstruation fringed fringes girl indigenous people life cycle ceremony maturity minority native-americans ornament puberty rite religious teenage girl water
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An Apache girl uses a straw to drink water from a dipper during her Sunrise Dance, a first menstruation rite, on the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation in Arizona, USA. The girl is covered in sacred white clay and corn meal that has been applied both as a blessing and as 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 also supposed to prepare the girl for adulthood and to give her a long and healthy life without material wants.