Inside an Apache Rite of Passage Into Womanhood

the ceremony tells the story just like in the Christian book of Genesis from the beginning of time tells about how the universe was created how the world was created that we came about and our culture and tradition is extremely important because it helps guide us my granddaughter that's heaven and ceremony she really into our tribe always keep her strong the rest of her life and not only that but to keep the tribe strong [Music] when I hit puberty we have this ceremony for the girls that are becoming into womanhood to become young ladies after the

ceremony will give me a lot of respect as you know maybe makes me very proud that I'm representing my tribe there's four days we do everything in four for the four sacred mountains you go through a baby to a child to a teenager and then to a woman she's tested kind of through hardships four days of hard work it tried to keep as traditional as you can and you live in a tepee for the 12 days the four days before the for many days and the four days after every night you dance and the fourth

night you dance all night and then while they're dancing outside you dance in your big Tippi in your home your medicine man after he's done eating with you he gives you an Apache name mine was Esau and 70 and it's the lady who you first see this tradition they amazed me a lot like I learned new things from my grandpa and the ladies around here they like it when the old women have their feast it took me about three years to prepare for the ceremony and I'm still preparing you think you have all of it

but you know it's a lot to do get into Indian food buying gifts to pay the people that held the material so if I spent like $10,000 but I would do it again to keep the tradition going [Music] now that I've had my feast I feel like I can become stronger now you just felt different while you were doing it like it felt like you were living a long time ago and you didn't have to worry about all this stuff that's happening in the world when you run on the first day they bring it in

and showing that you're like come like the kids coming in and on the last day you run out and you try to run as far as you can lot more families are going through the rites of passage and then before there's a renewed interest in it and they finally get to know that is a strength of our people and lies with that they're able to do things that before they were not able to the US government prohibited a lot of this stuff the families just to have a dinner and buy a new dress or something

and then don't take part in these ceremonies [Music] they're taught to hate themselves and the schools they would not allow you to speak an Apache and deal with these things in the pantry and the churches - they turn us against one another our own tribal members they say that our ways are wicked and it's worship in the devil and they don't realize what's happening to them [Music] my granddaughter that's heaven her ceremony no matter what she'll never set aside her call for a tradition or lounge for anybody she's a direct descendant of my grandpa Geronimo

some spiritual powers and he was able to deal with on hardships not only is he an icon for the entire native tribes but also for us Apache I rely on these traditional healing practices from my grandma she's been teaching me a lot about these she's been teaching me how to use the plants where they come from how they were all the woman's are known as this healers because the men they used to go off to war and once they come back someone won't be sick so the woman would have to gather these buttons for them

to help feel them so they'll be ready for the next one and then the dancers danced around me and they blessed me Julie's my great-granddaughter I'm showing her things like traditional foods and traditional ways how to grow up and be a good lady later on an apache woman should know how to care for her family and just pass things down that their grandmother's taught them and their mothers [Music] a lot of people don't understand some of the things that we do like when our tribe gets together to eat the man folks eat first because they

have to be prepared at all times they have to protect the tribe so they eat first and then some people don't understand that then they think that the woman has a lower status and lower position now what could not be further from the truth most sacred ones in our tribe are the woman so we have to protect them take care of them we have a few hardships within our tribe with the nuclear waste issues before they try to dump the nuclear waste on our land have we fought against it and we fought against the mining

of some of the rare minerals on our land and now we're facing that the refining companies that want to come in and pollute and destroy the atmosphere so we face challenges every day but with this rite of passage that my granddaughter's going through it gives us the strength when we sing and pray it revives us in renews our strength you can face any challenges and they don't feel threatened [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] some girls have breaks in the middle of the night they sleep for an hour and they get back up and keep doing it but

I kind of don't want to break like I want to keep doing it because the longer you do it the stronger you get there's no words to describe how I feel to see who's going through it and I see the whole family pitching in and they're working hard there's no way to repay them for everything that they do except to take part continue to take part and all the things that was given to me throughout the years the only way I can paid back just pass it on down to my people [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

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