Girl’s Rite of Passage | National Geographic

beneath White Mountain in New Mexico the
Mescalero Apache reservation prepares
for a coming-of-age ritual over the span
of four days 13 year old – inna Cochise
will pass through ancient tests of
strength endurance and character that
will make her a woman the Mescalero
Apache hold the ritual every fourth of
July it’s a grueling ordeal intended to
prepare girls for the trials of
womanhood when she was a little girl I
knew this is what I wanted to have for
her
– Sheena’s mother Lillet has spent more
than a year preparing for this week of
ceremony family members and friends will
help her feed and care for more than 50
guests the family’s most important task
is selecting – Tina’s Medicine Woman
Zelda yaza will instruct – Tina in the
ways of traditional Apache woman the
four-day ceremony encapsulate the Apache
creation story
– inna will move through the stages of
life infant child adolescent woman
culminating in an all-night dance that
will test her endurance the ritual
begins with the rising of the morning
star the ceremony requires – ena to live
by strict rules
these four days mean little sleep scat
food and the need to set aside emotion
throughout the ordeal she must wear a
face of stoic results to show it in some
way before – inna joins the other girls
she is blessed dusted with pollen the
symbol of fertility the girls start
their journey in a sacred teepee built
by their male role
the basket is filled with pollen and
other ceremonial objects as their
ancestors did the girls run toward the
Rising Sun circling the basket four
times to mark the four stages of life
the fourth and final day brings – inna
to the cusp of womanhood she ascends the
hill to pray to the mountain spirits for
a long and successful life with darkness
near it’s time to dance beside the
ceremonial fire – inna and the other
girls will dance all night long much of
the time hidden in the big tepee more
than 10 hours later – inna is still
dancing the medicine man greet the Sun a
signal at the final test is near the
girls faces are painted with white clay
symbolizing the goddess on their last
circuit around the sacred basket the
girls wipe away the symbolic clay with
the falling of the teepee their rite of
passage is complete
– inna receives her apache woman’s –
morning star feather – Marnie star
feather yeah everything went well she’s
just from being a strong woman her
community gathers acknowledging that
this girl has earned the right to live
as a woman of the tribe as an Apache
woman
– inna serves as a symbol of her culture
renewing and protecting a way of life
that’s in danger of vanishing