Pollen Blessing

BY CLARA LEE TANNER Photography by Tad Nichols

The day dawned in beauty. Slowly the black cliffs in the distance turned to red. Equally slowly the valley growth took on a lush green. This was the setting for an Apache puberty rite. This was east central Arizona, the White Mountain country. We were standing on the edge of a large circle of Apache Indians. Occasionally we caught a glimpse of a young girl and an older woman standing with bowed heads. On their shiny black hair, hanging abundantly over shoulders and down their backs, was a veritable crown of golden yellow. This crown grew in size and intensity of color as we watched, for each member of the tribe was filing past, adding a pinch of sacred yellow pollen to the bowed heads.

This "pollen blessing" is very real to the Indians of the Southwest. In this rite, it insures all good things to the young girl initiate. It brings prosperity and fertility to all tribal members. Yes, if you, a white person, should receive a stint of it, you too will be blessed by the gods. Cattails are the source of this pollen for the Apaches. Inasmuch as Arizona is in a semi-arid belt, it follows that cattails are not plentiful. A few areas of higher altitude receive more rain, creating marshy spots where the plant might grow. One day we came upon a minute patch of cattails in high aspen country where a small amount of water ran its sluggish course. There are larger patches, too. Near McNary is a lumber mill. Here man-made dams allow waters to accumulate for floating logs in connection with milling. On the stagnant edges of this pond grow cattails in abundance. One summer when on the Apache Reservation in eastern Arizona, we made a trip to this pond at McNary, carrying with us several of our Apache friends. Pollen gathering among these Indians, like so many other things, is a family affair even the babies are taken along on their cradle boards. As is true of so many Indians today, the Apaches have quickly adapted themselves to changing conditions. So when we went pollen gathering, our Apache friends outfitted themselves in high fishing boots. Slight wonder, too, for one sinks to his knees when he goes into these tall reeds. The Indians wade out into the swamp-like waters and break off the cattail heads. Those who are more particular wrap each stem in a newspaper or old rag as he or she gathers it. This avoids the waste of the slightest bit of the sacred pollen. After wading out and back, all members of the family bring their collections of cattails together. They are carefully rewrapped in newspapers to be carried back to camp where one or two persons take charge of the further treatment of the cattails. Now they are carefully spread out on old rags or newspapers to dry in the sun. The drier

In the sun in front of the Apache wickiup are spread the cloths and papers on which the cattails are distributed to dry.

In the Apache puberty ceremony, the sacred pollen is sprinkled on the heads of the girl initiate and her godmother.

The they are, the more pollen is derived, so it has been found.

Holding the yellow reed ends over the edge of a container. the Indian shakes out the pollen. One by one the cattails are gently tapped with a stick. The golden pollen falls luxuriantly into a native basket or dishpan or other convenient dish. The collection of pollen is carefully sifted so that all foreign particles will be removed. A delicate powdery mass remains.

The Apache himself uses a great deal of pollen in ritual matters. However, he never misses an opportunity to sell some of the yellow substance to the Navajo who uses it often. To the Navajo the Apache sells one teaspoon of pollen for twenty-five cents, on tablespoon for a dollar. Good business, any way you look at it.

Pollen is a rare material; therefore it is carefully stored, to be brought out and used only upon the most special occasions. Perhaps because of the association of pollen and the fertilizing of plants, the yellow product of the cattail has become connected with the same thought in many ritual usages. However, it has significance other than of fertility. For example, it is often symbolic of the gods, or it may be used as a prayer to the deities.

In addition to its use in the girls' puberty rite, pollen is sprinkled or smeared on other individuals or groups at various points in this Apache four day ritual. At one point in particular, pollen (now mixed with corn meal so that it will go farther!) is sprinkled over the entire crowd. This is to bring prosperity and good fortune to the tribe, a blessing of fertility individually and collectively.

Other tribes of the Southwest use pollen extensively, including, among others, the Pueblo folk, and in particular, the language brothers of the Apaches, the Navajos.

Here are a few of the many uses of the sacred yellow pollen. Pollen crosses are made by the Navajo to bless

a bowl of water in one ritual. In another rite, a ceremonial bath must be taken in yucca suds on which pollen lines or crosses have been formed. Or footprints are marked out in the yellow powder as part of a sandpainting to beckon the gods into the ritual hogan, the "house of beauty." Pollen is tossed in pinches to east, south, west, and north by Navajo priests so that all good things will come to the sick individual, or the whole tribe, for that matter, in a healing rite.

Among the Navajos, the head of the house may sprinkle the posts of the hogan at the four cardinal points with pollen. The same is true of the medicine lodge. The Navajo chanter carries pollen in his buckskin bag along with other ritual items. These Indians also follow an interesting practice in killing a deer. the hide of which is to be used for ceremonial tasks. The animal is run down and lassoed, pollen is placed on its tongue, and it is strangled. Pollen is also used to mark off the places where the incisions are to be made for skinning the deer.

In Pueblo life a father of a family tosses a pinch of pollen to the east to greet the rising sun, saying a prayer as he does it. At sacred shrines and springs pollen is commonly sprinkled as an offering to the gods by these village dwellers. Chants, myth, and ritual employ pollen in word or deed to make sure that the blessings of the powers of the universe fall upon the Pueblo folk.

Pollen is by no means always of cattail origin. Because of its greater abundance and because of the scarcity of real pollen, cornmeal often serves in this capacity. Other plants also supply the "sacred pollen," including piñon. sumac, and larkspur.From cattails or corn. piñon or larkspur, the sacredness of pollen is well-established among Southwest Indians.