THE CEREMONY OF THE BIG WICKIUP

In the beginning it was White Painted Woman who gave the ceremony to the People. By then Child of the Water had done his big jobs and some called him Killer of Enemies. He had destroyed many evil things including the monster Giant whom he had felled finally by shooting an arrow into his heel, and the People were now coming out and finding each other. It was then that White Painted Woman saw that the first girl child of the People was turning into a woman and she gave them the ceremony. "Get all the People together," White Painted Woman commanded. "Let them eat and dance and have a good time. The masked dancers will come forth at night and then the People will dance with each other, side by side and face to face."

That was a while ago before the flood filled the land and left the line on the mountain walls, but since then the ceremony of the Big Wickiup has remained unchanged for Apache maidens when they become women. It is done as it was first outlined by White Painted Woman and her son, Child of the Water, who was conceived immaculately after she was struck by Lightning and rained on while the cloud birds threw rocks at each other. It is a way to keep White Painted Woman always alive because the maiden, during the rite, is the Goddess herself, alive, to be seen and touched and to heal, and none of that can be changed. The People who have not seen each other for a long time come together from the distant places and find each other again, as the first People found each other in the light that followed the first darkness, and they have a good time. The masked dancers drive away the evil things as Child of the Water drove them away and the girl who is White Painted Woman during the ceremony is revered because it means now that one day she will add children to the tribe and in that way the People will be immortal. The preparation starts as soon as an Apache maid becomes a woman. Her father sends out the word and tells everyone about the rite. The People from far away make plans to come. The girl is given over to an attendant, an older woman who knows the ceremony, and she is left in her care until the ceremony is over and during that time the attendant is closer to the girl than her own mother. The attendant tells the girl many things she must know as a woman. The attendant makes little noises of happiness now and then, echoing the sounds made when the women first OPPOSITE PAGE-"DANCE OF THE MOUNTAIN SPIRITS" BY PETE BALESTRERO. These Apaches take part in the Coming Out Ceremony honoring Indian maidens who have reached womanhood. The Apaches revere these dancers who symbolize the good spirits of the mountains. The dancers themselves go through the weirdest movements to perform the ritual.

The Apache Coming Out Ceremony is a rite of strange beauty and solemnity. The origin of this festival goes back for generations. Above, Apache maidens are being sprinkled with pollen. Below, the Devil Dancers.

Heard how Child of the Water killed the enemies. The girl must listen to everything. It is the most important time in her life. Before the ceremony she is still a child. After it she is a woman and ready to marry. During it she is in the holiest hours of her life, addressed as White Painted Woman.

The father gets together a great deal of food, beef, beans, fruits, sweets, plenty of cigarettes and, for the children, plenty of candy and favors. If the father is poor his friends help him. One will contribute a deerskin for the girl's costume. Another will send a quarter of beef. The success of the rite belongs not to the family alone but to all the tribe. If there is food for everyone and the People are happy it symbolizes prosperity for the tribe and shows that the Spirits favor them.

A special costume is made for the girl. The costume must be made with precision and it has never changed for this is the exact costume White Painted Woman wore when she was on the earth and seen by the People. The costume consists of a deerskin blouse, skirt and moccasins. The sacred designs are inscribed: the morning star, the crescent moon, the sun and its beneficent rays, the rainbow. When the designs are finished the dress has to be dyed yellow, the color of pollen, symbolizing fertility. Little bells are attached to the fringes of the costume so that the girl is music when she moves.

Meanwhile the People are gathering around the campsite and setting up tents and wickiups and visiting with each other. It is a happy time, the way it was in the beginning when the People first found they were not alone in the world but had brothers and sisters like themselves everywhere.

On the morning of the ceremony the attendant washes the girl's hair in yucca root and then she gives her the final advice. "You must be happy during the ceremony so that your People may be happy. They can be happy only through you," the attendant says. "You must not talk too much because then you will be a talker all your life. Whatever you do or think or say now will show how you will be in your life. You must not laugh too much because then your face will get wrinkled soon. You must not be cross because then your face will be a nag all your life. You must not allow water to touch your lips-when you drink it must be through a straw-because if your lips touch water or if you weep the skies will weep too and your friends will not be able to have a good time. You must not think bad thoughts because then your mind will be filled with evil to the end of your days."

She tells her other things, too, and the girl must listen and not make fun and she must believe. The success of the ceremony and the future happiness of the girl depends directly upon her believing. When the attendant has finished THESE STRIKING COLOR STUDIES of the Apache Puberty or Coming Out Ceremony are by Pete Balestrero. Above, the maiden and her attendant are being sprinkled with the sacred pollen. ". to her good fortune I have come ." Below, a night scene at the Dance of the Mountain Spirits, deep in the heart of Apacheland.

she puts pollen on the girl's face and the ceremony is ready to start.

Outside on the campsite the food has been brought together under a ramada and just north of this cook-place the ceremonial structure is being raised. The structure is called the "home of White Painted Woman" and it is a duplicate of the Big Wickiup the Goddess lived in when she was with the People in the beginning. Male relatives of the girl have cut down four young spruce trees and have sheared all the limbs save for a few on the top. These are raised into a conical frame and laced together at the apex after each limb has been sprinkled with pollen. Affixed to the tip are two eagle feathers which insures the stability of the structure during the ceremony. While the structure is being raised and tied, a religious Singer sings the words of the "Dwelling Song": This is the way White Painted Lady and Killer of Enemies Have made it. They have made the Dwelling so.

The song has many verses and tells of stallions of different colors. The stallion stands for long life. While these songs are being sung the attendant, waiting nearby with the girl, sings reverent applause, and as soon as the structure is finished, the frame covered, the women come forth with the food and bring it to the cook house. The men sprinkle the floor of the structure they have erected with pine needles and the attendant brings the girl herself forth for the first time and leads her to her holy home.

The girl, marked with pollen, kneels on a deerskin rug placed before the entrance to the dwelling and the attendant marks her again with pollen and the girl in turn, indicating the largesse of the Goddess, sprinkles her attendant with pollen. The girl then faces the People gathered and is ready to assume her time of supernatural power.

Before her the visitors have formed a long line. Mothers have with them children, particularly sickly children. The lame and the ailing and the weak await. Those injured in accidents or who have had ill luck are present. They all begin to slowly file past the girl, and each adult dips into a basket of pollen and sprinkles the girl, and the girl sprinkles them.

As the ailing and the ill-fortuned pass they bow their heads and the girl touches them in blessing. Babies are held forth for her to bless. The cripples are touched where they are misshapen. The old pause for beneficence. Anyone who needs help of any kind may come forth at this time and ask it of the Goddess.

When the last of the supplicants has finished the girl lies down with her face to the east and the attendant, who has remained at her side during all the time, begins to massage her, following a prescribed routine, going from the head to the right foot and then from the head again down to the left foot, kneading her powerfully. This is so that the girl will have good health and be supple always.

When the attendant is finished molding the girl, a sacred basket containing ritual objects, an eagle feather, pollen, a rattle made from the hoof of an elk or deer, is set up about 150 feet from the ceremonial structure, directly to the east. The attendant lifts the girl from the ground and pushes her violently toward the basket. The girl runs to the basket, fol-lowed by men and boys who pray to White Painted Woman while they run. When the circuit is completed the basket is moved a few feet nearer the structure and the run is repeated. This is done in the sacred number of four times and at the last run the girl lifts up the basket and shakes it to the four directions to send away all the bad things that might otherwise come to her in her life.

Now the girl rests and the People start eating, and in putting the food into their mouths they symbolize the full cycle, from the pollen which was sprinkled at the start, to the food before them. When the guests have dined they dance and sing and gossip. The girl now is back in her dwelling and women who have newly born babies visit her and she blesses the babies and promises them health and success in their lives.

Meanwhile in the nearby hills as the day is working its way to a close the masked dancers are preparing themselves for their part in the ceremony. The dancers, more popularly known as "Devil Dancers," which is an erroneous appellation, represent the incarnation of supernaturals who live in the mountains. It is their function to exorcise the evil things and also, since the Apaches are people with a highly developed sense of humor, to give the people an entertaining time by dancing as violently as possible and by assuming stances and postures so grotesque and exaggerated that the limitations of human muscles and the dictates of the law of gravity both seem successfully defied.

evil things and also, since the Apaches are people with a highly developed sense of humor, to give the people an entertaining time by dancing as violently as possible and by assuming stances and postures so grotesque and exaggerated that the limitations of human muscles and the dictates of the law of gravity both seem successfully defied.

The making of the weird masks is very serious business and is closely supervised by the shaman, or Apache priest. Before undertaking the careful assemblage of slats and the application of the brilliant colors in the prescribed patterns, the dancers go through the ritual of a sweat bath, which is not unlike the Finnish version of the same, and which is considered to have a spiritually purifying effect. The sweat bath has always been a necessary prelude to any important event and in the old days before the warriors went on the warpath they sweated for hours in bathhouses readying themselves. So important is this ceremony in the Apache religion that the man who heats the stones and then pours water on them to make the steam is himself a religious figure and is required to make traditional incantations while he works.By sundown of the first evening of the girl's rite the masks have already been prepared. These consist of skintight cloth helmets which cover the entire face of the dancers. Affixed to the top of the helmets are the wooden slats, arranged in many different ways, painted with symbols Papa supplies plenty of food and tidbits for daughter's coming out party.of Lightning, the Sun, the Moon, rain and the stars. As their time of appearance approaches, the dancers eat a hearty meal sent up by the parents of the girl, and then paint their bodies under the supervision of the shaman who chants steadily while they work. Accompanying himself with a small skin drum, his words go something like this: Here is our small home Here high in the silence of the Sacred Hill

Here is the Spirit of the Sacred Hill

Here the cloud birds make their noise

Here the Lightning strikes

This is my song to enfold the dancers

The clash of the headdress is heard

Here in this Sacred Hill.

When the men are fully dressed in buckskin shirts, high moccasins, their bare arms and the exposed parts of their bellies vividly daubed, the cloth helmet drawn on their heads and pulled tight with strings around their necks, their wands in their hands, they file down from their home in the Sacred Hill, led by the shaman, followed by the clown. The clown, who is usually covered with white painted polka dots, is the relief motif for the seriousness of the dancing rite. His job is one of very great subtlety: during the dance he carries some of the serious dancing postures just over the line of burlesque. The presence of the clown indicates the very healthy attitude the Apaches have in their relations with supernatural beings in whom they implicitly believe.

Their appearance is dramatic. It is night now and the only light comes from the great fire which is fed until its flames seem to lick the low-lying stars. It is quiet, save for the crackling flames, and then the dancers burst into the open uttering piercing calls, posturing fantastically, thrusting their elbows, their legs, the heads into the most violent gestures. They move slowly at the start, creating a bizarre tableau and holding it. Their cries are answered by the women and the devout utter their prayers. In the darkness a group of singers accompanied by drums of different pitches, contribute an incessant and hypnotic foundation for highpitched calls.

The dancers themselves are now greater than humans. They cannot be recognized by their friends. No one can indicate in any way that he knows the identity of a dancer. No one may speak to them or touch them. The dancers are not regarded as supernatural, but it is felt that they are possessed of strength greater than that of men. It is not believed that the dancers have in themselves the power to punish violators but that the true Mountain Spirits who are observing the ceremony could bring great harm to transgressors.

While the masked dancers are going through their convolutions, the shaman enters the ceremonial structure where the girl is waiting. There he gives her an eagle feather.

Guests take part in social dances.

Young and old attend festive event.

This is the core of her temporary deification. The presentation of the eagle feather symbolizes the entrance of the true White Painted Woman and the identification of the Goddess with the girl. The girl leaves the structure and seats herself on an untanned hide, her legs doubled under her, her body rigid and tense. Near her, tied to the south pole of the structure, is a length of wood called the “age stick” and indicates that the girl will live long enough to require a cane.

Smoking ceremonial cigarettes, the shaman recites a long chant which takes the girl symbolically through a fruitful and full life. His words may go as follows: To White Painted Woman i have come, To her blessing I have come, To her good fortune I have come, To her long life and the grace of her days I have come.

This is the song of her long life, This is the song of her life in the sun, With this holy truth 1 have come to her.

When the shaman has finished with his many invocations the girl rises and holds her arms outthrust, her elbows pressed against her sides, her palms outward. Holding her feet together, she turns from left to right and back again, alternating her weight on her heels and toes. The songs may last for hours. When the shaman has finished the girl files slowly around the fire, followed by her attendant, and then leaves for her own dwelling. The masked dancers disappear in a final burst of crying and the guests start their own social dancing. This is a particularly happy time for the e young people, and it is during the dancing that follows in the night that many romances are started.

The ritual continues through the second and third day, and each object, each fetish, is hallowed with immemorial tradition. The service is long, complicated and changeless, having been passed by one shaman to another through the years. The final events take place at sunrise of the fourth day. It is necessary to wait until the sun's light actually is seen and if the appearance of the sun is delayed the ceremony will be held off until the sun does arrive.

The girl stands in front of her dwelling and faces east. The shaman faces her and using the eagle feather he gave to her the first night, paints her face with a white clay, making the designation of White Painted Woman a literal one. The girl is freshly daubed with pollen, and then the basket with the ritual objects again is placed 150 feet from the structure and the four runs are made, the girl followed by her devout retinue. As she returns to her dwelling for the last time, the conical structure is violently pushed over toward the east. The limbs used in the structure must never be used for anything else again, not even for firewood. At that moment favors are thrown into the air for the waiting children and the rite is ended and the girl is nubile and her parents may listen henceforth to proposals from any Apache youth who may see her and love her and wish to make her his wife.

This puberty rite was presented in part by the Apaches who live on the White River Reservation in the motion picture “Broken Arrow” which was adapted from my book, “Blood Brother.” In appreciation for the cooperation of the 300-odd Indians who were employed in the film, the studio, 20th Century-Fox Film Corp., sent one of the first prints of the completed film to the reservation to be shown to the Indians. At the same time they sent the puberty rite costume used by Debra Paget in the film to be given to whatever Apache maiden who was next to have the rite herself. I brought the film and the costume to the reservation.

A very pretty young girl was about to have the ceremony. We were somewhat disconcerted to discover that she was named Yvonne Marie Riley, which was hardly an Apache name, but fortunately she had an Indian name as well, Little Fawn, which seemed much more appropriate. The large number of non-Indian names possessed by Apaches harkens back to the days when the Apaches first were registered on reservation rolls. Their names were beyond the powers of the clerks to copy so any nametaken from a telephone book or from the rolls of the soldiers themselves were given to the Indians and have been retained through the generations.

The girl, Yvonne, had somewhat ambivalent feelings toward the ceremony. A modern young lady, familiar with many of the things her white sisters elsewhere in the country know-the radio, movies, saddle-shoes and bobby-sox-she suspected that the rite was somewhat silly, old-fashioned, rather primitive and a little embarrassing.

When the costume was presented to her she was quite thrilled-but only because she had seen it in the film and because it had been touched by Jimmy Stewart, which gave it a splendor of its own. However, despite the beauty of the costume, it could not be accepted until the shaman who was going to perform the rite inspected it and gave his approval. The shaman was not impressed with its Hollywood origins, but he allowed it to be used.

It was interesting to watch the changes in Yvonne as the songs, dances, chanting, ceremonies followed, one after the other. Gradually she appeared to lose her skepticism as the moving and hypnotic words and music filled the air.

The profound belief expressed in the faces of the friends who had come to wish her well gave the rite an additional validity: despite herself, Yvonne, who has swooned with the best of them when Sinatra sings, began to be absorbed into the vital and still-living culture of her people. Before one's eyes she slipped back through the years and her face took on authority and her little disbelieving mouth firmed with dignity.

As her friends put pollen on her face it became radiant; when she reached out to touch the babies held before her she did it with the grace of a woman who truly believed herself holy. The Apaches themselves underwent a subtle change. They are not awesome people these days. Reservation life has removed from them all the seething fierceness that once made them the terrors of the Southwest. Now they are friendly men in levis and checkered shirts and they talk of the cattle they breed so well and of their new pickups. Their women look as they must have looked 100 years ago: nothing of their mother hubbards and calico dresses has changed, time has stopped dead stylistically for them, but they are nevertheless beset with problems not much different from those of a housewife in Kansas or Vermont. They have sons in the services, prices are too high. But under the marvelous influence of the alchemy of the ceremony, the men and the women seemed to shed themselves of the years and to return to the ancestors of whom they are so proud, who were stronger than the strongest the white men could bring against them, who remained, in the end, undefeated. The repetitive, unchanging beating of the drums filled their veins with a blazing atavism, and we, the white onlookers, knew we were in the presence of a dynamic ritual.

At night the women locked arms and shuffled back and forth, commanding men to dance with them. No man dared resist. It is traditional that the women select their partners and we all obeyed the dictate when ordered to, rising, folding our arms, facing the women, and then with them shuffled back and forth around the fire, as was done half a century ago, a century ago, and how many centuries before? When the masked dancers appeared time made its final surrender. Now the parked cars and the trucks and the age itself vanished from mind and now the dancers were in command and the things they sang were in command, and the remorseless beating of the drums sounded in a new night untouched by the present.

Now there was a new look in the eyes of the men who a short while before were discussing the prices of cattle: now they were Apaches and the searing pride of their blood flooded their faces and lifted their chins and tensed their bodies. The word Apache was not now a dead word in a book, but a living thing on a man's countenance.

When I left at last with a kind of exhaustion that had nothing to do with physical weariness, the sight of the masked dancers before the fire, the red flames steeping them in a kind of fluid radiance, the sounds of the singers and the drummers and the look in the faces of the men remained. It is still with me.