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Girl’s Rite of Passage | National Geographic


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