Coming of Age in Apache Land

What kachinas are to Hopi Indians and yeis are to Navajos, the gahns are to Apaches masked men temporarily personifying the tribe's deities.

When kachinas, yeis and gahns participate in ceremonies, it is a traditional belief of their tribes that the masked dancers are temporarily endowed with supernatural power or medicine.

One ceremony the Apache gahns (sometimes called mountain spirits) participated in with great regularity until about a half-century ago was the puberty ceremony for Apache girls. In those days it was de rigueur for the family of every girl in her early teens to provide such a ceremony for her - always an event composed of elements both sacred and social.

Today, such ceremonies have become rarities, partly because they have become extremely costly feeding 1,500 spectators, for instance, plus fees for medicine men and singers and partly because some Apache families now consider the ceremony old-fashioned, wrought with folk superstition and no longer viable.

But, like debutante coming-out-balls in the Anglo society, a certain traditional segment of Apachean society stillperceives a puberty ceremony "the thing to do" and a small price to pay for a daughter's well-being. But the ceremony is a beautiful and religious event threatened by today's values.

The Apache phrase for the ceremony is "nah-ih-es" literally "preparing her" or "getting her ready." To Apaches, the ceremony is to insure the girl of all the things Apaches have customarily held good and dear: strength, durability, long life, prosperity, generosity, and a good disposition "so she will have many friends to the end of her days."

Pattern and model for perfection is a mythological female deity known variously as First Woman, Changing Woman, Shell Woman or White Paint Woman. It is part of the tradition that the girl, quite literally, becomes First Woman during the ceremony and that for four days (four is a sacred Apache number) following the ceremony, she herself has all the power and good medicine of the deity.

Accordingly, she is asked to bless babies, heal the sick, bring good luck to Apache cowboys, and rain to the thirsty land.

Before the ceremony, she is referred to as a girl; after, she is called woman -forever more.

To accomplish this, the ceremony follows a pattern said to be handed down from First Woman a pattern precise in protocol, steeped in symbolism, rich in the recitation of cultural creation stories.

Some of the ceremonial trappings include such all-important items as eagle feathers, turquoise, cattail pollen, an oriole feather, an abalone shell disc, white clay, buckskins and burden baskets. And such participants as medicine men, drummers and singers, the ceremonial godparents, a young girl to assist the recipient by dancing alongside her during the four days of almostnonstop treading in place on buckskins and blankets and the presence of the gahns themselves, the mountain spirits who come to protect the gathering from evil incidents and unholy thoughts.

The ceremonial site is usually a remote area near a spring, shaded by cottonwoods and pines but including an open space large enough to serve as an outdoor ballroom for the traditional social dancing and feasting that are the secular parts of the ceremony.

(Left) The girl becoming a woman, at left, is assisted through the puberty ceremony by another girl, right, who will have her own ceremony the following year.

(Left, below) One of the ceremonial taboos is that the ceremony's recipient may never touch herself - hence the drinking reed. (Another such device is a "scratching stick" should she get heat rash from the buckskin clothing.) (Below) Spectators, such as this woman, bless the Gahns (Mountain Spirits, dancers) by sprinkling cornmeal and pollen on their shoulders.

(Right) The curved staff carried during the ceremony is embellished with feathers and bells and is carefully preserved afterward to be used as a walking stick during old age. Gill Kenny (Right, below) The medicine men and singers purify themselves in a traditional sweat lodge. Hot rocks and water produce the steam that produces the "sweat."

Though the ceremony lasts for four days, the first two are spent in exotic preparations by the medicine men, a counseling session between the girl and her blood grandmother, sweat lodge purification and meditation for medicine men and singers, and ritualistic exchanges of food, gifts, prayers and songs between the camp of the girl's family and the set-apart camp of her ceremonial godmother. On the third night, a huge central bonfire is lit, and as the girl and her entourage participate in ceremonial dancing, a hush falls over the specSpectators. Finally, one hears the whir of a bullroarer, carried by the "clown" gahn who leads the four directional gahns into the arena as the metal cones on their buckskins jingle an accompaniment to the drums.

Though the gahns make menacing gestures to the four directions (which casual spectators sometimes misconstrue), the poses are meant to be menacing only to "all things not good." It is the Apachean form of protection and benediction. Following many rounds of chants and dances (always done in groups of four), the young girls retire and spectators become participants in traditional social dancing four shuffle steps forward and four backward done by long rows of dancers who have linked arms.

Meanwhile, the cooking ramadas at both camps have become non-stop affairs. Especially the fry bread cauldrons, tortilla griddles and coffee kettles. Huge vats of acorn soup, beans, corn on the cob, stews and tossed salads are readied for the following day, or are depleted by the overnight guests who have come to camp nearby. (At one ceremony two years ago, for Medicine Man Phillip Cassadore's own daughter, 11 steers and a ton each of cornmeal and flour were consumed in the girl's camp alone!) The focal point of the ceremony begins at sunrise on the fourth morning when the girl and her entourage again appear, this time before a symbolic tepee made of four tall cottonwood logs with streamers of eagle feathers attached. After prayer chants, the girl assumes a kneeling position on the buckskins. With arms upraised, she sways sideways while staring directly into the sun, as First Woman had done. Then, lying prone, she is "massaged" by her ceremonial godmother (always a woman chosen for her impeccable character and community good works) who molds her into the ideal Apache woman, as the gahns again protect the gathering. There are other symbolic acts: the girl runs four times around her

streamered staff which is set further away from her each time. She runs as fast as she can to assure herself vigorous old age. She shakes her blankets and tosses them to the four directions, symbolizing a clean household. She and her entourage toss gifts - coins, candy, fruit, cookies and, nowadays, cans of soda pop to the spectators, symbolic of her generosity. She herself is showered with a burden basket of food and treats from her godmother's camp to assure her freedom from hunger.

Of all these qualities, old age is the most highly-prized achievement of Apache women. One who lives “until her hair is as white as the downy eagle feather she wore in her hair during nah-ih-es” is said to be especially blessed by the gods.

Following those acts, the girl is lead A toddler in traditional Apache camp dress and her father add their own “good thoughts” to the prayers of the Gahns and medicine men. Though puberty ceremonies are rarities now, there is a resurgence of feeling among Apache parents that the ceremony is “a good way of preparing her.” Perhaps this youngster will be given her own preparation ceremony when the time comes. through each directional opening of the tepee, followed first by her entourage and then by all of the spectators, as her ceremonial godfather drenches her and anoints the crowd with white clay and pollen flicked from a coiled basket with a yucca cactus whiskbroom.

There are closing prayers. Then the girl, “goh zhon” (blessed with peace and harmony), and the medicine men and singer then tip the teepee to the ground, making sure its tip falls to the east at the point the sun has risen.

The ceremony itself is over at that point, and the socializing amenities begin. Singers sing, drummers drum, dancers dance, young people from farflung areas of the reservation begin courtships and the whole crowd chows down.

The girl has become a woman.

Though nah-ih-es has become rare (the combined number of the ceremonies each year on the Ft. Apache and San Carlos reservations of eastern Arizona can be counted on your fingers), there are hopes that the Apache customs of yesterday may survive, or even be reemphasized.

The so-called “Indian Renaissance” and its attendant pride in being Indian and identification with tribal cultural values is cited as the basic reason.

Apache fathers five years ago were saying, “Nah-ih-es”? It's not as problem-solving as 'preparing her' with a college education.” Now, the same fathers are saying, “My daughter is an Apache, after all, and those good old days of her grandmother had some good old ways of preparing her.” Apache pride may live forever.