00:00:00beneath White Mountain in New Mexico the
00:00:04Mescalero Apache reservation prepares
00:00:06for a coming-of-age ritual over the span
00:00:12of four days 13 year old – inna Cochise
00:00:15will pass through ancient tests of
00:00:18strength endurance and character that
00:00:21will make her a woman the Mescalero
00:00:26Apache hold the ritual every fourth of
00:00:29July it’s a grueling ordeal intended to
00:00:33prepare girls for the trials of
00:00:35womanhood when she was a little girl I
00:00:38knew this is what I wanted to have for
00:00:40her
00:00:42– Sheena’s mother Lillet has spent more
00:00:45than a year preparing for this week of
00:00:47ceremony family members and friends will
00:00:50help her feed and care for more than 50
00:00:53guests the family’s most important task
00:00:58is selecting – Tina’s Medicine Woman
00:01:02Zelda yaza will instruct – Tina in the
00:01:05ways of traditional Apache woman the
00:01:10four-day ceremony encapsulate the Apache
00:01:13creation story
00:01:15– inna will move through the stages of
00:01:18life infant child adolescent woman
00:01:27culminating in an all-night dance that
00:01:30will test her endurance the ritual
00:01:35begins with the rising of the morning
00:01:37star the ceremony requires – ena to live
00:01:42by strict rules
00:01:45these four days mean little sleep scat
00:01:48food and the need to set aside emotion
00:01:52throughout the ordeal she must wear a
00:01:55face of stoic results to show it in some
00:02:06way before – inna joins the other girls
00:02:10she is blessed dusted with pollen the
00:02:13symbol of fertility the girls start
00:02:24their journey in a sacred teepee built
00:02:27by their male role
00:02:34the basket is filled with pollen and
00:02:37other ceremonial objects as their
00:02:41ancestors did the girls run toward the
00:02:44Rising Sun circling the basket four
00:02:47times to mark the four stages of life
00:02:54the fourth and final day brings – inna
00:02:57to the cusp of womanhood she ascends the
00:03:00hill to pray to the mountain spirits for
00:03:02a long and successful life with darkness
00:03:10near it’s time to dance beside the
00:03:12ceremonial fire – inna and the other
00:03:18girls will dance all night long much of
00:03:21the time hidden in the big tepee more
00:03:30than 10 hours later – inna is still
00:03:32dancing the medicine man greet the Sun a
00:03:37signal at the final test is near the
00:03:43girls faces are painted with white clay
00:03:45symbolizing the goddess on their last
00:03:50circuit around the sacred basket the
00:03:53girls wipe away the symbolic clay with
00:03:56the falling of the teepee their rite of
00:03:59passage is complete
00:04:00– inna receives her apache woman’s –
00:04:04morning star feather – Marnie star
00:04:09feather yeah everything went well she’s
00:04:13just from being a strong woman her
00:04:16community gathers acknowledging that
00:04:19this girl has earned the right to live
00:04:21as a woman of the tribe as an Apache
00:04:24woman
00:04:25– inna serves as a symbol of her culture
00:04:28renewing and protecting a way of life
00:04:31that’s in danger of vanishing