What is an Apache Sunrise Dance?
The Apache Sunrise Dance is a four-day female coming-of-age ceremony, in which a girl temporarily becomes Changing Woman, the first lady and mother of her people. It is a significant and highly spiritual event for both the girl and the entire Apache community.
What dances did the Apache tribe do?
Crown Dancing is a very old and sacred dance tradition of the Apache, as old as the Apache themselves. According to Apache belief, the dance was taught to the Apaches by the mountain spirits as a means of healing. The Crown Dancers are the Ga’an, or mountain spirits.
What happens during the Sunrise ceremony?
At the sunrise ceremony, people come together to share in offering prayers and in giving thanks for all of creation and Mino Baamodziwin (The Good life). It is a time when Mishoomis Giizis (Grandfather Sun) starts to look over us and provide us with light and warmth for the daytime.
What are some Apache traditions?
Some Apache Ceremonies
- Girls’ Puberty Ceremony:
- Cradle Ceremony:
- First Moccasin Ceremony:
- Holiness Rite:
- Hoop Dance:
- Lightning Ceremony:
What makes the Apache tribe unique?
The Apache tribe was a nomadic group, and their lives revolved around the buffalo. They wore buffalo skins, slept in buffalo-hide tents, and ate buffalo for their sustenance. They were one of the first Indian tribes to learn to ride horses, and they quickly began using horses in order to hunt the buffalo.
What age is the sunrise ceremony?
The Sunrise Ceremony, or Na’ii’ees, was handed down by ancients. It takes place in the summer of a girl’s first menstrual period. Over four days, a child morphs into adulthood through rituals and blessings.
Who made the Apache dance?
Max Dearly (in the left-side photo) was a Parisian entertainer – an actor and dancer. Maurice Mouvet (in the right-side photo) was an American dancer, born in New York City but working in Paris in 1908. These two men both claimed to have invented the Apache dance in 1908.
Why is it called an Apache dance?
In 1908, dancers Maurice Mouvet and Max Dearly began to visit the low bars frequented by Apaches in a search for inspiration for new dances. They formulated the new dance from moves seen there and gave to it the name Apache.
How long does the sunrise ceremony last?
The Apache Sunrise Ceremony or na’ii’ees is a four-day ceremony where girls take the first step in their womanhood after their first menstruation. Friends and family follow Cathleen Bowman, a 12-year-old during the Sunrise Ceremony at Jurassic Park in Apache Reservation.
How long is the sunrise ceremony?
four days
The actual ceremony consists of eight stages that take place over a four-day period. Throughout the four days, the girl dances for many hours in Apache clothing to demonstrate her womanly strength. Relatives and friends sing dozens of traditional songs and special dancers accompany her at appropriate times.
What did the Apache wear?
Most of the Apache clothing was made from leather or buckskin. The women wore buckskin dresses while the men wore shirts and breechcloths. Sometimes they would decorate their clothing with fringes, beads, feathers, and shells. They wore soft leather shoes called moccasins.
Are Apaches Mexican?
They’re known as Apaches, and they don’t just live in the United States. They have homes and communities in the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Sonora, northern Durango, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas. They’re alive, here and now, in the 21st Century, but officially they do not exist in Mexico.