Making buckskin dress for Apache girl's Sunrise Dance

An Apache woman makes the buckskin dress that her niece will wear during her Sunrise Dance, a first menstruation rite, on the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation in Arizona, USA. On the wall hangs a painting of an Apache Crown Dancer or Mountain Spirit. The Sunrise Dance is the most important ceremony of the Apache. It 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: 5469x3601 / 12.7MB; America American Indian American Indians American Southwest Apache Arizona Changing Woman Horizontal Native American Native North Americans Native-American North America North American Indian Religion Rite of Passage San Carlos Indian Reservation Sunrise Dance Traditional Clothing Traditional and Ethnic Costume Traditional and Ethnic Dress USA United States of America adulthood animal hide buck-skin buckskin crown dancers ethnic group ethnic minority first menstruation fringed fringes gaan gaans handicraft indigenous people indoors inside lamps life cycle ceremony longevity maturity minority mountain spirits native-american one person only puberty rite religious teenage girl woman
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An Apache woman makes the buckskin dress that her niece will wear during her Sunrise Dance, a first menstruation rite, on the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation in Arizona, USA. On the wall hangs a painting of an Apache Crown Dancer or Mountain Spirit. The Sunrise Dance is the most important ceremony of the Apache. It 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.