-
>>[narration] 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 Dashena 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 is a grueling ordeal intended
to prepare girls for the trials of womanhood.
-
>>[Millette] When she was a little girl,
-
I knew this was what
I wanted to have for her.
-
>>[narration] Dashena's mother,
Millette, 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 Dashena's Medicine Woman.
-
Zelda Yazza will instruct Dashena in the
ways of traditional Apache womanhood.
-
The four day ceremony encapsulates
the Apache creation story.
-
Dashena 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 that
Dashena live by strict rules.
-
These four days mean little sleep, scant food,
and the need to set aside emotion.
-
Throughout the ordeal, she must
wear a face of stoic resolve.
-
>>[Dashena] I'm very excited and
happy, even though I can't smile.
-
I try to show it in some way.
-
>>[narration] Before Dashena 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 relatives.
-
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
Dashena 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.
-
Dashena and the other girls
will dance all night long,
-
much of the time
hidden in big tepee.
-
More than ten hours later,
Dashena is still dancing.
-
The medicine men greet the sun, a
signal that 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 tepee,
their rite of passage is complete.
-
Dashena receives her Apache
woman's name, Morning Star Feather.
-
>>[Dashena] Morning Star Feather.
>>[Zelda Yazza] Morning Star Feather.
-
Everything went well,
she's a strong woman.
-
>>[narration] Her community gathers
acknowledging that this girl has
-
earned the right to live
as a woman in the tribe.
-
As an Apache woman, Dashena
serves as a symbol of her culture,
-
renewing and protecting a way of
life that's in danger of vanishing.
