An Apache girl's 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 Indian Reservation in Arizona, USA. 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: 4620.jpg
Copyright: Copyright © 2004 Anders Ryman. All rights reserved.
Image Size: 3695x5563 / 13.8MB; American Indian American Indians American Southwest Apache Arizona Changing Woman Clay Native Americans Native North Americans North America Outdoors Religion Rite of Passage San Carlos Indian Reservation Sunrise Dance USA United States of America Vertical White adulthood animal hide buck-skin buckskin cane ceremony crown dancers ethnic group ethnic minority first menstruation gaan gaans girl half length portraits half-length portraits indigenous people life cycle ceremony longevity maturity minority mountain spirits native-americans one person ornament outside religious sacred sprinkle teenage girl woman
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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 Indian Reservation in Arizona, USA. 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.