Written by
Corinne Platt

Photographs by
Joanna B. Pinneo

Puberty ceremonies once played a vital role in traditional Apache culture.

Puberty rites date back to the beginning of time and are part of the Apache origin stories. The sacred rituals performed in Na ii ees, or the Sunrise Ceremony, celebrate the transition into womanhood and honor this time in a girl’s life as holy.

Na ii ees represents an ideal state of happiness, which the Apaches believe existed in mythological times, and is a ritual enactment of the Apache origin myth of Changing Woman. The myth of Changing Woman and her personification by a young girl celebrates past traditions and helps to keep them alive today. The Apache like to say, "Changing Woman never died and she will always live."

Today, not all Western Apache girls feel that a Sunrise Ceremony will help them as they enter womanhood, nor can all families afford the ceremony, but many girls, like 13-year old Tara Kitcheyan, believe that the Sunrise Ceremony will help guide them as they enter womanhood. Na ii ees is a ritual enactment of the Apache origin myth known as Changing Woman. According to Kathy Kitcheyan, Tara’s mother, Changing Woman comes from a legend about a little girl and her brother who were lost in the forest and cared for by the Crown Dancers. The Crown Dancers healed the sick girl by dancing and praying for four days and four nights and taught she and her brother the songs to take back to their people. The Crown Dancers told them that this was how their people should take care of themselves and cleanse themselves spiritually. And this is how the Sunrise Ceremony or Na ii ees /Changing Woman came about.

To celebrate her emerging puberty and to bless her fertility, the tribe honors 13-year old Tara Kitcheyan, instructs her, and dances her into womanhood.

Changing Woman’s power is transferred to Tara through songs performed by medicine men and eight specific ritualized actions that she partakes in. During the long Sunrise Ceremony Tara reenacts the journey of the first Apache woman. In turn, her own life's passage is acted out to prepare her for her future. As Tara becomes Changing Woman, she dances with a special feather-topped cane that absorbs the power of the ritual. She will keep this cane throughout her life and may use it as a walking stick when she is an old woman.

Na ii ees continues to play a vital social role in Apache culture. It helps to strengthen relationships between clan relatives and reinforces the four life objectives of physical strength, good disposition, prosperity, and a healthy old age. Besides its importance to individual girls, Na ii ees is a time of extraordinary healing for the entire tribe.

The ceremony is a highly charged and festive time, and it is also physically, emotionally and spiritually strenuous for Tara. She prepared for the ceremony by running two miles every day and building a hut, or a wikki-up, out of saplings, that she stays in during and after the ceremony. For four days after the puberty ceremony Tara is believed to possess special curative abilities and treats the sick with her exceptional healing powers.

Tara's mother, Kathy, "The sunrise ceremony is one of the most important ceremonies that we have in our Apache culture. A long time ago, the significance was that so she would have an abundance of everything in her life, not necessarily material wealth but mostly in terms of family and values and morals and that’s why when a godmother is chosen you look for someone that has integrity, character, strong spiritual values, and as an Apache woman and mother this is the optimum that you can give to a daughter."

"It provides an insurance for your daughter that she will grow up and have strong morals, values, and sense of identity of who she is and where she’s coming from. Ever since she was a young girl, you know much younger, I’ve taught her about her clan. I’ve taught her about the four directions, I’ve taught her about the different mountains we have on the reservation and I’ve taught her about how she should conduct herself as a young lady. When I was her age it seemed like I had no focus, no direction in my life. I had very good parents. I think for Tara, she wants to be an attorney, she wants to go to Harvard, and you know that’s so much unlike me when I was her age, and as a mom that just delights me."

Tara, "I didn’t feel embarrassed or funny dancing in front of a lot of people because I knew most of them. I felt good because I know that they care about me. Friday night there’s a big bonfire and the girl and her partner dance side by side in one place. On Saturday morning probably around 5:00 a.m., the medicine man comes and gets you and then they put the blankets down and food and candy in front of you so you can dance. On Saturday morning I think you dance to 32 songs. Some of the songs are about Changing Woman and some of the songs are a blessing to the girl that’s having the ceremony. Also on Saturday morning the godmother massages you. When she’s massaging your head and your mouth pointing to the sun means that you won’t talk back or you won’t say dirty stuff. When she pulls your hair your, it’s like you hair will get longer. The ceremony is for hoping that you will have a good and long life preparing you for what lays before you in your life. The reason the food is in front of the girl is because hoping she will be generous in the future."

Kathy continues, "Corn is very very important to the Apache people and to other Native American people as well. If you remember we introduced that to the foreigners. Corn does a lot for our people. My parents used to say that of all food that you don’t have the one that you should have is corn because you can grow it just about anywhere. And then for our ceremony corn provides life. It gives life. It grows tall it’s strong it’s beautiful. We grind the corn and we mix it with cat tail pollen and that’s what’s used for Saturday. For Sunday it’s a little bit different. A plant that comes from the mountains and they mix that with water and that’s what they paint her with."

"One of the most beautiful things that we believe in as Apache people during this time is that the young lady that’s having the sunrise dance possesses powers and so anyone that feel that they need blessing or they want their babies to be blessed they seek the young lady out."

"People that don’t feel well will approach her and she may massage their head and if they want she can massage their whole bodies. The way she was painted is the way she massages a person and then they turn around, they complete a circle so that whatever direction they take they will go with her prayers. In the case of babies, she throws them up in the air in the four directions and she turns while holding the child."